Pray for Vietnam

Covid & Christian persecution 

For many persecuted Christians, the COVID-19 pandemic has further compounded their plight. Already suffering crippling discrimination, many Christians have reported being denied access to oxygen and health care, simply because they are despised and rejected Christians. In some cases, hostile regimes have exploited the pandemic to apply extra pressure on churches, without any health justification. For example, in some Chinese cities even online worship was banned.

Covid & Vietnam 

In Vietnam, the Communist government views Christians as potential subversives; especially if they belong to unregistered house churches or are ethnic minorities. In 2020 when Vietnam was managing the pandemic well, the government took the credit. In May 2021, after the Delta variant arrived and started spreading wildly, the regime looked for a scapegoat; preferably a small and powerless scapegoat, one it could blame and punish without risk of backlash. 

REM church, Ho Chi Minh city 

The Reverend Vo Xuan Loan and her husband the Reverend Phuong Van Tan from REM church were recently interrogated about the incident.

In May 2021, just as Vietnam's devastating fourth wave of COVID-19 was taking hold, a couple who attended a meeting of the Revival Ekklesia Mission (REM) in Ho Chi Minh City, tested positive for COVID-19. 

Though the meeting comprised a mere 11 believers (everyone else was participating on-line) and the church had been meticulous in its adherence to health orders, the government seized the opportunity to attack Protestant Christianity: the REM church was blamed for the outbreak and criminally charged with the crime of 'spreading dangerous infectious diseases in humans’ (under penal code Article 240). REM's leaders have been publicly blamed and shamed on state-run media and social media. 

Christians in Vietnam are concerned that this could set a precedent for further discrimination by the government. 

PLEASE PRAY THAT GOD WILL:

  • Continue to build his Church in Vietnam; as repression intensifies and the darkness deepens, may many Vietnamese awaken to the moral depravity of atheism, the deadness and insufficiency of false religion, and the sufficiency of the living Christ to transform and renew.

To continue reading see

http://rlprayerbulletin.blogspot.com/2021/11/rlpb-626-vietnam-great-suffering-amidst.html