A former prisoner of the Communists returns to feed orphans, heal the sick

America is a great country, one that people around the world dream of coming to. Some of them dream of being born in America. Unfortunately, human beings cannot choose who they are born to or where they are born. But they can choose where they are when they grow up. 

Pastor H of a church in Texas provides medical and food aide besides spiritual ministry on trips back to his home village in Southeast Asia. Here, volunteers distribute medicine.I am a pastor of a church in Texas. Never did I dream I would come to America, but God himself has a plan for my life. He freed me from a brainwashing camp in Southeast Asia, where I was imprisoned for five and a half years after the Communists invaded the country. I never thought I would survive imprisonment, because every day, I was forced to work harder and harder for less and less food. I went to bed hungry every night. When I got sick, there was no medicine. Many of our group died with no medical treatment. I had no hope and really wanted to die to escape from hardship of life. 

Pastor H has seen 23,000 people make professions of faith in Christ during his 15 years of mission trips to Southeast Asia. He thanks Texas Baptists for making it possible.God brought me from the brainwashing camp to the United States in 1983 with empty hands. He sent me to Oklahoma Baptist University to learn the way to serve him effectively. Because of the language barrier, I spent 10 years earning my bachelor’s degree, and after graduating, the Lord brought me to Dallas in 1993, to be a pastor and continue training at Criswell College, so I may learn more about what must be done. I realized my time in this country years was to train me, so I would be able to carry out the mission the Lord gave me in Southeast Asia. 

Sixteen years later, the Lord sent me back to my hometown—the place I escaped from and never wanted to go back at all. He sent me to minister to those people in need for the very first time, sponsored by the Baptist General Convention of Texas. From beginning until the present day, I would not have had an opportunity to minister to them without the BGCT.

Distributing food to schoolchildren is part of the mission effort. Pastor H hopes to distribute 13,680 kilos of rice on his trip in 2016.God gave me two missions there—ones I would surely accomplish because of my personal experiences. The first mission is food for the orphans, because I never forget how hungry I was in the brainwashing camp. The second mission is a Christian medical clinic, because when I was sick in the brainwashing camp, there was no medicine. These two missions I carried for the last 15 years and brought more than 23,000 souls to Christ. Most of them attend their local churches and also were baptized by those churches.

At the beginning, I never thought I would go back to my home country, because of the danger to my life, because I had escaped from the brainwashing camp. If the officers recognized me, they would capture or kill me. Every trip I took to Southeast Asia, I lived with fear in every moment—every step I walked, every place I went. But because God sent me, I am sure he will protect me from any harm. I have survived the past 15 years because he is with me. 

I am really thankful to the Lord for the BGCT, the main resource for the last 15 years. The BGCT provided a large amount of dollars for these particular ministries, which have seen 23,000 people convert to Christianity and serve the Lord gladly. Several thousand orphans have been fed by the funding of the BGCT, and also some Southeast Asian churches donated as well. 

I and my team travel to Southeast Asia yearly, helping to feed the hungry and heal the sick as Matthew 25:35-39 says: “For I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when saw we thee hungry, and fed thee? Or athirst, and gave thee drink? And when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? Or naked, and clothed thee? And when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?’”

However, despite all the work we have done in these 15 years, there is still much that needs to be done. Most recently, we learned about the plight of orphans, who continue to go through their lives hungry, who have no food in the morning, crying as they go to their classes with empty stomachs. By the time they get any food at lunch, their stomachs are aching with hunger. Some of them are in such a condition that this daily trial hospitalizes them. My prayer now is to have 13,680 kilos of rice for 2016 given to these children so that they may eat in the morning. 

These children will have breakfast because people who live in America feed them. Will you please join me in prayer for these troubled children? I also invite you to be a part of these ministries as well. If you would like to know more about this ministry please contact the BGCT Intercultural Ministry by clicking here. 

Pastor H leads a church in Texas. He is a member of the BGCT Ethnic Affinity Counsel, the Intercultural Strategic Partnership committee member and the Committee on Convention Business. His full name is withheld to protect Christian sisters and brothers in Southeast Asia.