Vietnamese pastor Daniel Pham testified that God can use every situation to bring people to Him, as the number of Christians has increased ten times in the past decades.
In the first afternoon workshop of the Everyone Asia 2024 conference entitled “Revival Movements in Asia” on July 4, Daniel Pham Dinh Nhan, founding pastor of United Gospel Outreach Church, member of the Regional Cabinet of Empowered21 Asia, and one of the founders of the House Church Movement in Vietnam, gave a lecture about the growth of Christianity in Vietnam.
Pastor Daniel Pham first introduced the modern history of Vietnam: before 1975, Vietnam was divided into two. The north and the south were similar to today’s North Korea and South Korea. “In 1975, the North conquered the South, and the nation united under Communism.”
He recalled that his father, a pastor from the south, thought everything ended due to persecution, but “the Lord has a better plan for our life, nation, and church.”
There used to be 17 churches in the north and 530 churches in the south, which owned around 185,000 church members in total. Now the country has a Christian population of about two million.
After the unification, people in the North could freely travel to the South to listen to the gospel. “The Lord says, ‘My ways are better than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’”
Moreover, thousands of people in the south who have moved to other countries such as Malaysia, South Korea, and Australia for work, have come to Christ and many churches have been planted in those areas.
“We were so amazed at so many churches planted in that area. Not by our way, not by our strategy, but by God’s plan, because he always wants everyone to get to know Him,” Pastor Pham said.
“In Vietnam, we can’t preach publicly, but now the situation is getting better,” he added.
“Twenty or thirty years ago, it was impossible to share the gospel among the public. But by His way, He used the government to bring preachers to my country.” The pastor showed a picture of the tickets of Nick Vujicic, who shared his testimony at the My Dinah National Stadium in Hanoi in 2013.
The pastor gave another example, a picture of a man praying on a football field in a newspaper, which resulted in something. Then it was discovered that he was a good Christian.
Citing Leviticus 25, Pastor Pham stated that every 50 years, Israel had the year of Jubilee. For Vietnam, which has been united since 1975, people will embrace freedom, not political freedom, but the freedom to accept Jesus, he announced.
“We will receive a lot of blessings from God.” He said, “In His Spirit, Vietnam will be the revival next to Indonesia.”
“If you look in the long term, you will praise Him. I myself praise Him because He allows our nation, our country, to go to the best situations because what the Lord wants is for everyone to get to know Jesus. He can use every situation, every circumstance, to bring people to Him.”
