March 18, 2002
Former prisoner preaches freedom
as he helps settle Vietnamese refugees
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___DALLAS--Pastor Hue Van Nguyen knows what it's like to be a prisoner. That's why he is so adamant about spreading the liberating message of Jesus Christ.
___Nguyen once was a pastor in Vietnam. One Easter Sunday morning, he preached that while some look to the tomb of Lenin in Moscow and speak of him as a savior of humanity and others look to the tomb of Ho Chi Minh and call him a champion of freedom and independence, neither man pointed the way to true salvation and independence.
___"I told them, 'There is an empty tomb--the tomb of the real Savior of humanity and the only way to real freedom and independence," Nguyen recalled. That tomb, he said, is where Jesus Christ was buried and rose from the dead.
___Within a matter of days after preaching this message, Nguyen was arrested and jailed. He was sent to a "re-education" camp, where he was held for five years, seven months and 15 days.
___Conditions there were hard, Nguyen said. "What they gave you to eat was not enough, but just enough to survive. You are always hungry, hungry, hungry."
___Survival was possible only because his wife brought him food during her monthly visits.
___Despair set in about midway through his time in prison, he said. He began to question how his obedience to God had brought him to such a place. He began to ask God for some answer as to why he was there.
___His answer came in a Scripture verse. A Catholic priest who also was imprisoned somehow managed to acquire a portion of the Gospel of John. He and Nguyen shared the Scriptures. One day when he was in the depths of despair, he read John 13:7--"You don't know what I am doing now, but later you will understand."
___Nguyen was released in 1991 and went to work as a translator for Campus Crusade Ministries in Vietnam. A few years after that, the pastor of Vietnamese Faith Baptist Church in Dallas became ill and needed to move to California for health considerations. The church was without a pastor for a number of months until some members who had known Nguyen in Vietnam asked him to become their pastor. He began serving the Dallas church in August 1994.
___Since then, the church has grown from about 70 members to more than 250. The church also became the first Vietnamese congregation in Dallas to construct its own building.
___Those things are all good, but Nguyen said he still aches for the many Vietnamese who don't know Jesus Christ as Savior. While his church is growing, the percentage of Christian Vietnamese in Dallas is small, and only about 1 percent of people still living in Vietnam are evangelical Christians.
___To try to change those numbers, Nguyen has written Vietnamese evangelism booklets, writes a column in the local Vietnamese newspaper and does a half-hour radio broadcast on local radio. He also sends his sermons to a friend in Australia, who beams his message via radio to people in Vietnam.
___"These books are used all over the world, because it meets the needs of the church in reaching out to the Vietnamese people," he said.
___The pastor adamantly believes more "Jesus" videos and New Testaments should be distributed in the Vietnamese language.
___The cost is sometimes daunting, however. "My heart is for missions and evangelism," Nguyen explained. "We try our best, but our abilities are limited."
___Nguyen and his congregation focus much of their effort on reaching Vietnamese new to the United States. Nguyen and sometimes a church member meet immigrant families at the airport and take them to partially furnished apartments prepared for them. Another believer greets them, having prepared a meal for the weary travelers.
___The Christians help immigrants get to the Social Security office to register and to medical facilities for vaccinations. Many test positive for tuberculosis, Nguyen said, and have to begin a six-month treatment.
___Children are registered in school, and then the task moves to finding a job for the adults.
___Nguyen serves as an interpreter for written exams and as an instructor for the driving portion of the Texas drivers' license exam.
___"This is what really establishes their lives," he said. "Now they can get to work, get to the market, get to church."
___Not all the families Nguyen and his church assist come to the church or become Christians.
___"After awhile, they establish their lives," he said. "Some stay at our church; some go their own way. But in every case, they show their gratitude."
___Along the way, though, Nguyen has proclaimed the message of freedom that once sent him to prison.
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