Pastor Jeremy Stephens

OVERVIEW
We’ll be hosted by An Giang University and have an invitation from the government of Vietnam, so we’re official, but not in a traditional sense.   Overt Christian presence is sometimes glanced askew in Vietnam.  It’s a place in transition–where the church is just emerging from the cultural oppression of the communist regime.  Our task is to offer a voice of encouragement to our hosts and to the ongoing Christian witness in Vietnam through respectful engagement and a listening posture.
A fruitful trip for us will continue to open doors for indigenous Christian witness along with more openness for possible engagement with Christian communities outside of the country.  A fruitful trip will include conversations with persons who are interested in practicing their English–who may or may not ask questions about our faith.   We’ll learn patience in our traveling, knowing that God is working and the Spirit is provoking even when we ourselves may not be able to share the gospel directly.
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DETAILS
We’ll be spending time in Long Xuyen, a city on the Song Tien River in the storied Mekong Delta of what was South Vietnam and a little time in Ho Chi Minh City.   We’ll be learning and offering a glimpse of Christian witness in a post-colonial context, attempting to offer, alongside of long-term Christian staff at An Giang University, a non-anxious witness of Christ’s love and peace.   Long-term missional education staff there are participating in English language training as well as peace-building courses through connections with the University of Denver, Bluffton University and Eastern Mennonite University.
We’ll interact with students, worship with indigenous Christian communities, and offer a listening ear in this post-war context.  We’ll be attempting to learn what it really means for western Christians to love their enemies in a context where public Christian witness is frequently suppressed.  We’ll also make a few days journey into Cambodia and hear the stories of Vietnamese refugees there–those who have been exiled due to economics, faith and politics along with the rapid rise of Global Christianity in the city of Penom Penh.  We’ll have considerable interaction with Buddhism in both cultural settings.
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ITINERARY
June 1-2:  Travel
June 3-4:  Ho Chi Minh City
June 5:  Leave HCMC early AM for the 4.5 hour (or so) drive back to Long Xuyen
June 5-6:  Long Xuyen and the surrounding area
June 7:  After finishing at the University in the morning, we should travel to Chau Doc in the afternoon
June 8-10:  Travel to Cambodia, via boat and bus
June 10-14: Siem Reap and Angkor Wat

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