|
A Short History of Peace & Happiness Ministry
|
|
|
The Name Peace & Happiness
On a summer day of 1992, the Westminster (Now is Orange County) Vietnamese Board and Pastor Isaiah Duong had a meeting to plan an evangelistic campaign for the Vietnamese in the area. Everyone was apprehensive since our group was so few in number. We barely filled the first few rows of folding chairs for Sabbath worship. All of us were new in the Adventist faith, coming from families with Buddhist, Catholic, and Protestant backgrounds. We were not experienced in organizing such an outreach effort. The people were either working full-time supporting families or students fully engrossed in school. Finding time and energy to do God’s work was incomprehensible, but we reluctanly supported our pastor and went ahead with the evangelistic plan to preach God’s Messages to the public.
We all agreed on the name “Peace and Happiness” for the campaign, but most of the burden of work fell upon the shoulders of our pastor. Our pastor was in charge of renting the video projector, designing the flyers, preparing all hand-out documents, renting the meeting hall, chairs, furniture, fans, and on top of this, preparing the sermons.
As for us, we were happy to assist our Pastor and did other jobs such as arranging the seats, cleaning up the meeting room, video recording, setting up signs, passing out flyers, inviting our friends to the evangelistic meeting and welcoming the guests who attended the meeting.
We were motivated by doing God’s work, and dedicated all our free time away from home towards this effort. The pastor was the busiest of all, waking up before dawn and working late into the evening six days a week. Although it was very tiring, we were all inspired with the result of 13 people who accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and were baptized. If heaven rejoices when one soul is saved, imagine the joy we all felt with having these new brothers and sisters in Christ. As a group, we felt our calling for the ministry, and worshipped each Sabbath with such excitement and joy, thinking that was all there was to it.
|
|
|
Peace and Happiness Television Program
In March of 1993, Elder Lynn Mallery, President of Southeastern California Conference, asked our church to begin a "major outreach effort" to share God’s Word with the Vietnamese community of Orange County which is the largest population of Vietnamese refugees in the United States. Pastor Isaiah met with the church board to discuss the possibility of a television program. We all looked at one another in shock and awe. None of us had any experience in television production. This is America where television is one of the most complex technologies requiring modern equipment, skills and monetary needs that are beyond our comprehension. In hearing the news of our new direction, everyone was silent. We did not know what to say because this is a field that we knew nothing about, but we did not want to displease God by denying our responsibility to share His truth. This was an effort involving both the Westminster and Loma Linda Vietnamese congregations, but what difference did it make if you had a few dozen or a few hundred people who did not have any knowledge about television production? After much discussion, we were still in shock, but Pastor Isaiah pressed forward without fear. No matter what we discussed, all the responsibilities again went to Pastor Isaiah Duong. If our pastor was not afraid to go ahead with the plan, why were we? Finally, we all voted to go ahead with the television broadcast plan.
We shared our plan with the mother church, Westminster Seventh-day Adventist Church. At that time, our Vietnamese congregation was a small group within the English-speaking Westminster Church, a well-established church with a sanctuary that could seat nearly a thousand worshippers. The senior pastor of the church, Dave Mauch, and the Board donated $24,000 towards our effort. We immediately contacted a number of TV producers to learn what was required to produce a half hour television program. All of the producers, even the ones from the Adventist churches, quoted that the cost for producing a 30 minute teleacst would cost between $3000 and $6000. This was only production cost, not to mention airtime fees.
Unable to afford such expenses for professional television production, we contacted a few other producers hoping that they would help us do the production ourselves. This was a great step into the unknown but we were completely walking by faith. One producer was willing to help us film our program in his garage. Another audio engineer agreed to help us, but pulled out six weeks before our first broadcast. We were faced with the dilemma of having video guidance, but no audio expertise. God opened the doors and allowed us to meet a music composer from Hollywood who was also a sound engineer by trade. He agreed to teach us what we needed to produce our show. One church member volunteered and spent a week apprenticing and returned home to convert his garage into a recording studio. The church member’s first DAT master tape surprisingly pleased the sound engineer, God had allow one person to accumulate five years of technical audio knowledge in one week. During this time another church member took out a second mortgage on his house to purchase the audio equipment.
In July of 1993, the first broadcast of Peace and Happiness Television Ministry was aired on channel 18 in southern California, and was also broadcast in the United States and Canada on the International Channel. The initial $24,000 was planned to cover the expense for six months. Even with the help and volunteering of church members, we thought the total cost for broadcasting would be about $1,000 per program each week. In reality, we had to spend about $1750 for each program, not counting other miscellaneous expenses which donated by church members. Our low-budget production was quickly eating away at our funds. Our 30 minutes long weekly programs were the results of so many hours of voluntary work from church members.
We must first remember our choir. The choir was singing and working non-stop through all the activities of our church. The choir sang at all programs, ranging from weekly worships, Easter, Christmas, and appearances on the television broadcasts. Pastor Isaiah was the main pianist for the choir, the composer and arranger of music, and director of the choir. From the first formation of our church group, the pastor encouraged everyone, young and old, ranging between the age of 15 to 65 to participate. Many members said, “We have never sung in our lives, how can we sing hymnals?” To which, pastor Isaiah would reply, “Do not worry, I will teach each and every one of you how to sing.” Those early days when Pastor Isaiah was directing the choirs were long and required hard work. We would practice over and over again hundreds of time. We had to learn how to open up our vocal chords and make round ‘O’ shape with our mouths as we sang. We had to stand tall singing from deep within our lungs. Our legs were tired from standing, and our mouths were worn from singing. We were reprimanded for talking during practices, being late, and missing a rehearsal. While the rest of the church went home to rest after worship, choir members remained until midnight rehearsing. We cannot express all the hardship that the Westminster and Loma Linda choirs had to go through since the day of their formation until now.
Taping one five minute song with the choir was a momentous task. There was not enough space for all of us in the studio and the equipment at the church was inadequate for recording. For this reason, smaller singing ensembles, Sao Mai and Suoi Thieng, were formed to ease the process of rehearsing and singing for the television program. The volunteers in charge of decorations were the earliest to arrive for each filming session. They were responsible for the background, foreground, and layout of the scenes for filming. We were careful not to break or tear anything as it was expensive to replace. These volunteers were the same ones responsible for making sure the choir robes looked pressed and the faces of the choir members looked fresh and awake, regardless of how late it was into the night. Those in front of the camera lens could not look down at their notes or look up at their cue cards too often. Even though it was supposed to be memorized, the camera and the spotlights prevented them from recalling some lines. They were tired but had to speak with a clear and gentle voice, appearing refreshed and at peace. Even filming the introduction lines and directions to our church took hours. Whenever a choir member missed a few words or opened their mouth at the wrong moment, the whole choir had to start over again and re-tape until the producer was pleased with the production. Both those behind and in front of the camera lens were exhausted by the time we finished.
From Monday to Friday, our members lived their daily lives, getting to work or going to school. On Saturday, we worshipped and did church activities. At sundown, we practiced singing into the night. Sunday at 8 o’clock in the morning, we went to the recording studio and even stayed there until midnight at times. Let’s mention our video editors, they were the persons who remained at the studio to edit the video program for broadcast until 3, 4 o’clock in the morning. When they got home, it was 5 o’clock in the morning; they could only take a short nap to be up in time for work on Monday. We did it continuously for a period of almost two years.
We went through this period thanks to God’s hands entirely. Looking back, we still feel a chilling sensation running down our spine, and we would thank God for guiding us during the difficult moment without being too exhausted or sick. However, there was one person in the TV team who did become very sick. That person was none other than our pastor. He was the person who pastored both, Loma Linda and the Westminster Vietnamese Congregations (presently Orange County). He was also in charge of the entire Peace & Happiness television production. He did not have enough time to eat or to sleep. When we saw him at the recording studio every Sunday, we did not know when he may collapse. Although it was a sermon made for TV, our pastor did not want to speak to the camera alone. He wanted to speak in front of an audience and have the atmosphere of a church worship. We put together several benches in the studio and took our seat. We sang the church hymnals and set the mood for worship. Pastor Isaiah prayed and delivered the sermon in front of the camera while we were listening to God’s word. The video recording went straight from the beginning to the end in one take. As each week went by, we noticed that our pastor got thinner and pale. Before he delivered the sermon, he could hardly stand and his voice was weak. But when he started to preach God’s Word, he regained his energy and spoke with authority and power. We were hoping that his health situation was not that bad. Furthermore, who could convince Pastor Isaiah to stop until God let it happen. Pastor Isaiah Duong tried to survive in his sick bed. He realized that God did not allow him to spend all his energy to fulfill what God wanted him to do, but to entrust God with everything on his way serving the Lord. God then sprung Pastor Isaiah up from his sick bed so that he could continue to serve Him.
Our Pastor recovered from his sickness and we, the members, also got the time to recouperate. Our church members’ mental and physical energy were at the lowest, their own family was troubled because the head of household was absent for so long. Sweat and tears were shed because of the pressure from our day-to-day living, from our employment and from our responsibility with the Peace & Happiness television show. We certainly learned many lessons while serving the Lord through this experience.
|
| First lesson: God does not always choose talented people or people with a high degree to serve Him. He only selected those who are willing to serve, to endure, to sacrifice themselves and to be humble.
Second lesson: God allows ordeals to happen so we can experience His Power and His Wonder. While each of us, church members, keep a close and wonderful relationship with God, He gives us knowledge and wisdom. We thank God for caring and protecting each one of us.
Peace & Happiness Television ceased to broadcast after 21 months of operation. It began in July 1993 and ended in April 1995. After spending the initial $24,000 fund, our television operation did not have a stable source of income. The financial help from private parties came on a weekly basis, our own church organization only gave emotional support. We had to turn to our American friends. They were the donors who loved God and wanted to see the message of salvation reach the Vietnamese people. We ran our television broadcast on a weekly basis. We did not know if we could continue broadcasting the following week. Our fund reserve was empty, how can we get $7,500 to pay for the expenses each month? But we all believed that if God wanted the TV broadcast to continue, He would supply all needs. Each one of us kept carring on his or her responsibility voluntarily without ever getting paid; even donated our own money when there was a need to do so. We were always ready to work at the recording studio, no matter what time it would be.
From only a 6-month project, God allowed us to keep the television broadcast to last 21 months. That was a total of 82 weeks. It seems easy but in reality it was not. That period of time seemed to pass quickly but also appeared to last a thousand years.
Our Vietnamese group of Seventh-day Adventist was the first Vietnamese church organization to broadcast Christian program on television. Letters and telephone calls from our audience from various parts of the US kept pouring in to lend their support, to ask questions and to order the sermons on tapes. We created a team to handle the public relations and to produce tape duplication. The team handled questions and answers as well as shippping audio and videotapes that were ordered by the audience. This team is still operating today, long after the end of our television broadcast. Today, besides offering audio and videotapes, we also supply CD and DVD.
|
| Peace & Happiness Radio
How long would it take to recover from a very serious illness? In May 1995, Pastor Isaiah Duong called a meeting with the church board to discuss the launch of Peace & Happiness Radio. We looked at each other and burst into laughter. Knowing that God saved us and that we owed Him the salvation, we realize that we could not selfishly enjoy the blessing of salvation. We all agreed to go ahead with the radio program. The difference now was, unlike the television program which started with an initial fund, the radio program started with no fund, but we had accumulated a wealth of audio knowledge. All the expenses came from the humble church funds of the Loma Linda and Westminster Vietnamese Congregations and from fund raising for Peace & Happiness.
It is very interesting to learn how the members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church finance their operation. They believe that the whole Bible, the Old and the New Testament, is the Word of God, which serve as the standard of their life. Returning one tenth of their income to the Church is something that they practice.
Although The World Church has over twelve million of members, they undertake more community, humanitarian, and evangelistic programs than other church organization in the world (whose membership is much larger). Besides sending their tithe to support the World Church in administration, evangelism and humanitarian activities throughout the world, the SDA members are willing to give more money to support local church activities.
Furthermore, when needs arise our church members also help fund special programs. These are the people that we contact. The United States of America is a rich country, but that does not mean that everybody has money lying around. Those who make more money also have more expenses. If only we could comprehend the problems which these donors face, then we would understand the difficulty of those who went out raising fund. And above all we can see the miraculous power of God when He taught His Children how to get rid of the chain that holds their hearts from giving and to free their hearts from the material bondage of the world.
In the beginning, we thought that it was easy to make a radio program, but contrary to our belief it was not as simple as we wanted it to be. God trained His people so He could give them more difficult tasks. In our radio broadcast program, besides the sermon, which was the main part of the program and gospel songs. We offer children story, Bible essay, talks about marriage and family life, and health related issues. All of them were designed to impact the spiritual life, the mind, and the physical body of the listeners.
Each team of the radio program performed their task according to the schedule that was planned ahead for them. The ‘Children Story” team, performed very faithfully. They would incorporate in their story different voices that impersonated the voice of an old person, of a small child, a male or a female. The stories either were composed or translated from the treasure of children stories in English. Our radio announcers knew what to do by themselves; they came to the recording studio, operated the recording machine and recorded the announcement by reading the text given to them ahead of time. The singing group had to practice, record and re-record their songs several times until they are acceptable. Summers in California are over 100 degree Farenheit hot. We could not use the air conditioner due to its noise. Our recording studio was small and surrounded by 4 closed walls. It was suffocating and too hot to be in. Those who happened to be at our recording session in the summertime during the first few years of Peace & Happiness radio should still remember the hot temperature they had to endure until the recording session was completed.
Pastor Isaiah Duong was pastoring two congregations. Loma Linda congregation met in Sabbath morning and the Westminster congregation in Sabbath afternoon. After several years, the Westminster congregation gradually discovered that the afternoon worship hindered church growth. The Westminster Good Samaritan Church offered us the use of the Edinger facility so we can worship in the morning and reach out to the Vietnamese community. If we did not take this offer, they would give another church the same opportunity. Pastor Isaiah, at this time, needed to reserve his health for long term ministry.
|
| One day he had a chance to attend a video conferencing workshop. He told the boards and members of both churches the possibility of having church worship service at the same time for both churches through the use of video conferencing. The boards and the members adopted the idea and a fund raising campaign within the church was started to finance the equipments. We then trained volunteers so that they could operate video conferencing equipments during the church service.
Pastor Isaiah no longer had to commute every Sabbath between his two churches. He preached live at one church every other week, while the other church would watch the simulcast on TV. From his pulpit, Pastor Isaiah could see the congregation of the other church from a small TV monitor and see their response when he talked to them. Although there was some resistance to video conferencing, the majority of church members were very enthusiastic with the new video conferencing system. There were numerous technical problems in the beginning. At times the Pastor's sermon was interrupted because transmission could not continue. But despite all this, we have lived with video conferencing for 4 years.
Implementing the video conferencing system led to a very important achievement of Peace & Happiness Ministry. The sermon of each Sabbath worship was recorded on videotape which would be edited for future television broadcast (if God permits). It would also be used by the underground church in Vietnam to train workers and to assist them in worship service. On top of this, God blessed Pastor Isaiah Duong with a larger house, in which he established his recording studio, office, books and publication depot.
September 1995, Peace & Happiness Radio planned to broadcast in Southern California only. But Peace & Happiness Radio went on to broadcast in the East, the Midwest and the Northwest regions of the US.
In October 1997, Peace & Happiness Radio started its regular weekly radio broadcast in Washington DC, Virginia and Maryland.
In January 1998, Peace & Happiness Radio established its presence in Atlanta, Georgia and New Orleans in Louisiana.
In February 1998 Peace & Happiness Radio broadcasted on the Internet, the World Wide Web.
In January 1999 Peace & Happiness Radio spread to Austin, Texas and Tampa, Florida.
In 2001, Peace Happiness started broadcasting to states in the Midwest of the United States.
In 2002, Peace & Happiness Radio wave went to San Diego and in 2003 it appeared in Sacramento, California.
Peace & Happiness in Vietnam.
Wherever God’s Name is upheld and glory is returned to Him, God will bless it and use it to proclaim His message of salvation. The repercussions of Peace & Happiness Television pioneered by a small group of people reached the high-ranking officials of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
In 1994, Elder Akinori Kaibe, Communication Director of Far Eastern Division visited Pastor Isaiah to see the potential of Peace & Happiness for a Vietnam Broadcast.
In 1995, Elder R.D. Riches, former president of the Southeast Asia Union toured the United States and came by to visit the office and production center of Peace & Happiness. After meeting with Pastor Isaiah Duong for 2 hours, Elder Riches requested that Peace & Happiness Radio be broadcasted to Vietnam as soon as possible. In August 1995, Peace & Happiness Radio began its broadcast to Vietnam on short wave radio 2 hours per day.
After the first 3 weeks, letters from our radio listeners in Vietnam started to reach us. Afterwards we received letters from Vietnamese living in China, Hong Kong, Thailand, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Middle East, Africa, Australia, Russia, Cambodia, etc. These were letters from people who were looking for a certain hope in their life and who revealed their inner need. The letters originated from large cities to small remote villages in the countryside of Vietnam, from high school to university students, from highly professional people to normal people, from young to old people, males and females, and also from leaders of different religions. Hearts withering away were transformed into happy individuals by the Words of God.
The letters kept on arriving. When we read, we could not help but cry. Our correspondence team was continously busy working to pack and ship Peace & Happiness publications to radio listeners who requested them. Trying to find money to buy postage stamps and the time to answer every letter was a big task. Knowing they were waiting for a reply, we did manage to respond to our listeners' letters the best we could. No matter how much we did, we never could do enough in return for the sacrifice the listeners took in sending these letters to us. Many tears were shed. We felt compassionate toward our brothers and sisters in Vietnam who were having the same beliefs as ours, and yet they were left so alone in that part of world.
Along the rapid growth of Peace & Happiness in Viet Nam, there came a disturbance caused by a group of opposition. They started to gossip, to accuse and to downplay Peace and Happiness operation. They spread false information to cause division within our people, sent emails and anonymous letters to insult and defame our Peace & Happiness founder and his collaborators. They tried to influence church leaders to withdraw support from Peace & Happiness. Their repeated subversive activities were designed to exhaust our spirit, to wear out our manpower, to distract our goal, to cause division among us and to stop our source of financial assistance. In Vietnam, opponents of Peace & Happiness cooperated with the government and started to show their subversive activities against Peace & Happiness’ listeners who wanted to contact the church. They asked either to let them control the operation of Peace & Happiness in Vietnam or to close its operation all together. Realizing the severity of the situation, we formed a directing board for Peace & Happiness, separate from the local church board to prevent infiltration from the opposition and to protect the operation. This directing board was composed of church members who were committed to our goal - the everlasting gospel to the Vietnamese people.
In April 1995, we unanimously adopted a motto for our work in Vietnam. We called it “Viet Nam for Christ”. Being ourselves refugees who came to America, we learned that the pioneers who founded this great country also left their homeland to come to America to look for the freedom to worship God and to glorify His Name. As a result, God blessed those who were faithful to Him and made this land the most powerful country in the world. With the same inspiration, we also wanted the Vietnamese people to have the opportunity to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, that the country of Vietnam could also be blessed and become prosperous spiritually and physically after so many years of ravaging by war and poverty.
Peace & Happiness officially became a ministry devoted solely for the spreading of the Everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ. In this end time, it would be preached to the Vietnamese all over the world and particularly in Viet Nam.
However the problems caused by some of our brothers and sisters who share the same beliefs during this period of time affected Peace & Happiness tremendously. We were sad, worried, confused and troubled. How could people of the same faith set out to destroy, instead of supporting God's Work? It may have been alright if Peace & Happiness was killed, we still could serve our God in many different ways. But what about the souls hungering for God’s Words in Viet Nam? Radio broadcast was the only way to bring God’s messages to where they were.
We continued to pray and asked God for mercy toward the Vietnamese people who, for so many years, were kept away from knowing the true message of salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. They had long been impregnated with the tradition and wrong teachings of man. We pray to God that we could keep on using Peace & Happiness to broadcast the message of truth to Vietnam.
Since January 1997, besides the regular 2-hour daily broadcast, Peace & Happiness Radio in Vietnam added two special broadcasts, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. Each program lasts one hour and is the edited recording of the Sabbath worship of our churches in the US, which includes all the features of a regular Sabbath church service. It is designed to help the homechurches of Vietnamese on Sabbath day, wherever they are, to be able to get together around a small radio and conduct a full worship service just like any other SDA congregation in different parts of the world. Starting in 1998, the radio broadcast in Vietnam increased to 4 hours a day.
Peace & Happiness officially setup a network of radio churches in Vietnam by the request of Elder R.D. Riches, President of the Southeast Asia Union and Elder Don Jacobsen, President of the Adventist World Radio (AWR for short).
Letters from our radio listeners kept on arriving to us and revealed the magnitude of people who listened to our program and accepted Jesus Christ and His Words in the Bible. They gradually showed up publicly from the North to the South. They came by individuals, by families and by small groups. There were instances where a whole church congregation returned to our Church. There were groups of a few hundred people, and groups of thousands of people returning. Volunteered Bible workers setup worship groups in their own homes. They even went out to invite people to listen to Peace & Happiness radio. Thanks to God blessing, the success of Peace & Happiness Radio in Vietnam went beyond our imagination. But before we could rejoice, disaster was approaching.
|
| In the middle of 1998, the attack against us climaxed. In Vietnam, members of Peace & Happiness were persecuted by the local Government; they were deceived by fake organizations claiming they were Peace & Happiness representatives. Our members were also mistreated by local church leaders of other denominations and even of our own. In the US, some influential people who have been involved with Vietnam divided and disputed with each other to support or to oppose the operation of Peace & Happiness. The purpose of the oppositiong is to disband PH Ministry.
At the Vietnamese Loma Linda and Westminster churches, elements from outside managed to infiltrate into our churches with their propaganda criticizing the cause of the ministry and causing confusion among our church members. Their activities were set to exhaust the manpower, the mind, the energy and the talent of people within Peace & Happiness.
There were important meetings of different groups trying to find a viable solution, but no bona fide resolution was found. Nobody seemed to care about the lack of manpower situation or the financial need of Peace & Happiness, but they were quick to criticize, to attack and wanted to control the operation. The plan they came up for Peace & Happiness would not assure the safety of the home churches in Vietnam. We did send letter to protest several times but we hardly saw any result.
April 1999, Peace & Happiness ceased all its Home Church Network operation in Vietnam.
The staff members of Peace & Happiness always wanted to continue with their radio broadcast, but they wanted to stay with the direction already set in the beginning. We then started to think what we should do in case we were pushed against the wall. It could be possible that if there was no way out, our pastor would resign to avoid pressure from above. He would by himself lead his Peace & Happiness collaborators to continue broadcasting radio programs to Vietnam and to operate the Home Church Network by whatever means that God provides. But above all, we came to God in prayer and we asked Him to resolve our problems.
|
| Our Other Activities.
We then temporary returned to focus on the activities of our local churches in Loma Linda and Westminster. We prayed a lot to ask God for guidance, for teaching and healing our wound and the bitterness we felt toward our opposing brothers and sisters. We learned from there a lesson, that in the house of God, there was also the man of lawlessness. Among the field of wheat that God planted, there were weeds planted by Satan. Well let us do what we were given to do and let God to be in charge of pulling the weeds and to judge. It is not our job. During this period of time, Peace & Happiness concentrated their effort to do evangelism for the Vietnamese community in Orange County.
Our church members learned computer graphics to design the Peace & Happiness internet webpage. From now on, computer users could go to our webpage and listen to sermons, download Bible lessons and special Bible publications of Peace & Happiness. Because our manpower had to take care of many tasks. Our webpage was not updated as often as we wanted to do. However, it did provide basic Bible materials. The address of our webpage is .
A group of church members rented a table for evangelism purpose at the Phuoc Loc Tho, a major shopping mall and meeting place of the Vietnamese in Little Saigon. Every Sunday, our church members came with their children and took turns to man the stand. They passed out free Bible literatures, audiotapes and invited the shoppers to worship with us at our church and to listen to our radio broadcast. Despite many patrons who passed by our stand without paying any attention to go to nearby Food Court, our brothers and sisters persisted in telling the people about the truth of the Bible. They gave up their break time at home on Sundays, and sacrificed their family business in order to come here to work for the Lord. Silently and persistently, they looked for a soul that had heard God’s calling.
Although the primary task of Peace & Happiness was evangelism, the program also trained Bible workers to do social and rescue work while they were on their way to teach Bible lessons to the people in Vietnam. We helped the poor village people with farming equipments, do cultivation. We supplied funds to buy medicine for the poor people, to form schools for children of under priviledged families, and most important of all, we supplied Bibles and short wave radio sets for worship and listening to Peace & Happiness Radio.
The most important work next to evangelism of Peace & Happiness was publishing books, Bible lessons, study guides, magazines, and flyers necessary for studying the Bible. They include:
1995 The New Life, Part 1
1996 Truth about the Sabbath
1997 Faith Building Handbook
1998 Fundamental Beliefs, Level 1
1998 Truth of the Sabbath, 2nd Edition (additional chapters)
1998 The New Life, Part 2
1999 The Sacred Spring, book 3 (Faith & Truth)
1999 Steps to Christ
2002 35 Bible Lesson “In Search of Peace & Happiness” Set
2002 Outreach CD #1
2003 Summary of the 27 Fundamental Beliefs
2003 Secret to Health Living
2003 Who Changed The Lord’s Day From Saturday to Sunday?
2003 Outreach CD #2 & Sacred Music CD #1
Future publication soon released:
The Life of Jesus Christ (Desire of Ages)
New Church Hymnal
Daniel and Revelation Commentary
The Life of Happiness
God's Providence
Let’s get back to Peace & Happiness in Vietnam. It was true that in His own way and His own time, God would resolve all problems.
We can never forget the effort of Mrs. Judy Aitken, and the Board of Adventist Southeast Asia Project. Sister Judy is a passionate servant of God, her encouragement, her prayer, and fund raising effort of ASAP to support the home church network, has contributed very powerfully to this ministry. There were times we were so lonely in our effort, we thought we could not take the pressure anymore, her encouragement, support, and prayer came in just at the right time to help us to move forward. Since 1999, she has committed her heart for the homechurch movement in Vietnam.
Another individual has really influenced the work in Vietnam. We can call him the father of Peace & Happiness in Vietnam. The one who had to endure much pressure, criticism, and sometime stand alone to support Peace & Happiness in Vietnam is Elder Robin D. Riches, former president of Southeast Asia Union. There were times he had to risk his reputation, his career, his life, and even the sake of the whole church organization under his leadership to support and protect Peace & Happiness' work in Vietnam. We give thank to the Lord for Elder Riches’ leadership during the whole ordeal of Peace & Happiness the last 8 years in Vietnam.
There are many other individuals and organizations who have sacrificed so much to support this ministry but must remain anonymous for the sake of security and protection of our relationship. We want to spend time to produce materials to save souls rather than to clarify any charge from the opposition. (Peace & Happiness is still under attack)
In July 2000, during the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Quintenial Session, a group of church leaders who were concerned about the work of God in Vietnam formed an independent committee to operate the evangelism in Vietnam. Thus Peace & Happiness officially came back to lead the home church network in Vietnam.
Generally, we might say that the difficulties of Peace & Happiness were temporarily subdued in our hearts. We do not fear any attack any more, because our future is in God’s hand. Peace & Happiness want to pursue one goal which is the Everlasting Gospel for Vietnam.
In October 2002, the number of members who worship regularly on Sabbath, which Peace & Happiness could contact and accounted for, was approximately 33,000 members. They formed the home church network in Vietnam. Hundred of Pastors and Bible workers from Sunday denominations returned to accept the true teaching of the Bible and worshipped God on the Saturday. That number increased day by day. We have not mentioned individuals and groups of people throughout the country whom we have not been able to contact.
Training Evangelists & Pastors
In September 1998, Peace & Happiness started a training program to train the Bible workers in Vietnam. That was a very dangerous involvement for the training teacher and the students. From the North to the South, our group was pursued by the police. Bible training sessions were conducted secretly at different locations and out of sight, trying to avoid the scrutinizing eyes of the enemies. The students were taught the subject of the Bible, The Love of Jesus Christ and The Law of God, and the Events Leading to the End of the World. Our students also learned the method on how to share the Truth in the Bible. We only taught people to do good deeds and yet we had to do it in secret as if we were criminals. Among our group of students, there were listeners who became Christian for the first time and there were leaders of Sunday churches who accepted the true teaching in the Bible. Now they worshipped God on the Sabbath with Peace & Happiness members. We thank God for His blessing and protection of our training school which enabled the training to go well.
Peace & Happiness had an American friend. He was a service man fighting in Vietnam during the war. Our friend later returned to civilian life and dedicated all his properties, all his time and the remaining of his life to help the evangelism effort of the church. He produced videotapes showing what Peace & Happiness did for God in Vietnam in order to raise fund among the American community. During one of the training sessions, he played an important role by encouraging the students and praying for the whole group. When the training session took place, he would silently kneel down and pray near by. He prayed continuously without stopping, believing that his prayer would direct all dangers and problems to God and let God deal with. Our friend, we can not call you by name here, but we always remember you. We believe that there are many others like our friend above who are praying and sacrificing to support our brothers and sisters of the same faith in Vietnam.
During the following years, God allowed Peace & Happiness to conduct 3 more training sessions to continue training and updating our Bible workers, pastors and underground church leaders with more knowledge. In free countries, a Christian can get all the books and Bible lessons he or she may need to study the Bible. But in our country, our Bible workers have to rely on Peace & Happiness as a source of Bible materials. On the 2nd training session, Peace & Happiness trained 20 Pastors, Missionaries and Bible Workers. On the 3rd training school, there were 30 people. And on the 4th training, 45 students attended the training. Our training sessions always had the participation of church leaders from various parts of the world and even with the participation of professors from Andrews University.
Each training school lasted 30 days. Ten hours of lecture per day, 6 days a week. The education level was that of University and post graduate. Beside many physical problems the students were each facing, they had to endure the shortcoming of the training facility. On the top of that, they had to do their best to study and cram many concepts in a short period of time. That explained why their mind were bogged. Whether they were up or sleeping, they were always busy with their homework. After each exam, the students became exhausted; they felt dizzy and could not walk right.
The instructor was not any better than his students. He taught until his jaws became numb, his brain could no longer produce anything and he lost his voice. His clothes were wet from sweat and his legs cramped from standing. The classroom was small and very hot, but everybody’s spirit was unusually high. The student stayed late at night and got up early in the morning, trying to memorize everything in order to share with their church members what they had learned.
With that said, we have not mentioned the extremely dangerous time the students traveled to the training school. Because they wanted to study the Bible, they had to pass the scrutinizing eyes of the police informants from everywhere to finally made their way to the training location. In some training sessions, teacher and students had to be constantly on high alert. A suspicious knock at the door could cause a general panic. Someone would rush to the restroom to hide, a few students would pretend to be sleeping, another student would crawl underneath the bed, some students would jump out of the windows and hide behind the tree, while a couple of students would pretend talking each other just like nothing had happened. All the Bibles and books were to be dispersed and hidden in a blink of an eye. A one-month training was a month of self-imprisonment. The students were not allowed to wander on the street but were confined inside as much as possible. We also had to change the training location and schedule continuously to avoid any suspicion.
Once home, it was not the end of the danger. The neighbor may report our long absence to the local police. If any of our brother or sister reported to the police our activities, we would be taken to the police station for heavy interrogation and we had to write a long report telling everything that we had been doing including every move in our life. This process could take many years to finish. We could be slapped with what was called an “administrative fine” that would leave our family in misery. We could be house arrested, our properties and mopeds could be confiscated, and our house could be burnt. Or we could be asked to leave the community and lose our residency. We then could not establish another legal residence. As a result, we would not be able to procure any kind of personal paper such as an ID card or driver license anywhere.
Oh how noble were the steps of these evangelists. They were people who were defiant and not afraid of danger. Capable and diligent. If they wanted fame and material in the world, they would not have much problems to reach it. But they sacrificed everything to offer their time and their lives to God.
What did they do in order to be chased and persecuted? They only learned the Words of God to have hope in this life and in the future life. They learned about the blindness and ignorance of man as the end of time approaches. They learned about the Final Judgment and the grand and majestic return of Jesus Christ, Who will come to bring them to heaven.
Oh how noble was the feeling of these evangelists. They were surrounded and isolated but they were not discouraged. God was holding their hands and walked with them, giving them peace and happiness that they could not find in the world. How could we describe fully your lofty sacrifice without jeopardizing your work and safety in Vietnam? May God take care of you and help you to continually have faith fully in Him.
Around September 2002, the Vietnamese Government contacted the headquarter of the Southeast Asia Union to request that Peace & Happiness Radio be stopped... Do not forget the Word of Jesus, “These are the words of Him Who is holy and true, Who holds the key of David. What He opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open. I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name”. (Rev. 3: 7, 8)
We, collaborators and friends of Peace & Happiness, are setting an appointment with you and the Peace & Happiness Radio listeners in Heaven. Indeed, we will all meet in heaven! At that moment, we will meet each other for the first time, we will be glad to greet each other and we will talk with each other for a long time to satisfy the wish that we could not realize for so long.
From all of us, we want to return all glory to our God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We thank You for giving us the opportunity to serve You. You have given us all needs so we could glorify Your Name. You have taught us to be always humble and to trust in You. You have transformed our heart so we will always commit ourselves to serve you. You have given us the needed authority so we can serve other people.
May God Bless You.
Nguyen Si Tuyet Hoa
Editorial Staff
Peace & Happiness
|
|
