Government approves printing Bibles in Vietnam
6/7/07 Vietnam (Mission Network News) — Vietnam has been a country that has been very dangerous for Christians. For years it has been on the Open Doors World Watch list of nations who persecute Christians. Until last year, Vietnam was on the United States list of countries of particular concern as it relates to religious freedom violations.
President of World Serve Ministries Dr. David Hunt says that may be changing. “In spite of the difficulties over the years and the challenges in Vietnam still today, to some extent, we are seeing some of the greatest opportunities and openings in the history of the nation.”
The reason for this is that the government has given approval to do something unprecedented. “Our friends in Vietnam have written permission from religious affairs to print 100,000 Bibles that will be released to the unregistered church in Vietnam . That is stunning.”
The Bibles are needed because of incredible growth. Hunt says, “The church has grown so explosively since 1975 from about 55,000 baptized believers to well over [nobody knows for sure] 1 million believers today, and maybe as close to 1.5 million believers. And the church is growing by leaps and bounds.”
The need for training church leaders is vital. According to Hunt, World Serve already has plans to help build a training center. “The land has already been purchased with the long term goal of having a training center whereby hundreds and hundreds of pastors would be equipped….”
