A Pastor's Point of View

by Eric Farel

On February 17, 1997, I flew out of JFK Airport, New York City via Vancouver, Hong Kong, and Bankok, Thailand, for an 18 day mission trip to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam and Battambong, Cambodia.

The goal of the trip was to meet and train Vietnamese and Cambodian pastors as part of a two year seminary program. Our task was to take the men in Vietnam through an intensive survey from II Chronicles through the Book of Psalms. The teaching was done from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for seven days with just a 1 1/2 - 2 hour break for lunch.

The pastors came from their underground churches located in provinces all over Vietnam. They came with a heart to learn and a fervent desire to take what they received back to their churches. We prayed and we sang and we studied the Bible together with 15 men in a tiny, hidden-away hotel room not far from the Communist headquarters in downtown Saigon.

The Lord protected us and we only had to move our teaching location one time due to possible discovery by the police. As it turned out, we were never disturbed in any way at all during our entire stay.

We also taught another group of twenty-five pastors in a back alley underground church, bringing the total number of pastors who received training to forty sold-out servants of God.

The interpreters that were provided were excellent and did not hinder the teaching at all. I was able to travel within the country without any interference to some remote provinces where I had been stationed during the Vietnam War in 1968-69.

The country is still slowly rebuilding—capitalism appears to be winning (we really won). Growth is hindered only by the fact that the Communist government does not know how to treat the capitalistic companies such as Nike and Oral B Toothbrushes with large facilities in some of the growing cities such as Bein Hoa. The cost of living is both high and low. You can pay as much as $100 a night for a hotel room or as little as $20 a night for a room depending on your own idea of what you consider comfortable.

Cambodia is a totally different situation. This country is still very war torn. They think that it will take an additional 20 years to remove all of the land mines from the farmers’ fields.

There are many aid organizations in Cambodia such as World Vision and CARE as well as a small number of UN observers. The war for the most part is over. Christianity can be taught and practiced out in the open without any fear of government reprisal. We met for a week from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. with approximately 40 pastors from all over Cambodia and their wives and their children in a house church setting.

The Khmer Christians are some of the most humble and gracious people I have ever known. They have taken the war orphans into their homes without hesitation and treat them the same way they do their own. These folk are truly like the Christians in the first church as pictured in the second chapter of Acts.

These pastors are on fire for God and are witnessing of their faith everywhere. They are very anxious to learn. They have a sweet, sweet spirit and a servant’s heart. The teaching in Cambodia was not seminary training but basic Biblical teaching and preaching on key doctrines and specific problem areas which they felt needed to be addressed such as “what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit?”

Although the 18 days of teaching was extremely exhausting and the jet lag very difficult, the work we set out to do was accomplished. However, many more laborers are needed to carry on this work. I would recommend taking a few days rest in between the teaching locations. The city of Bangkok, Thailand, was a haven of rest for this weary traveler.

One also needs to be prayed up because the satanic influence of Buddhism is felt in a very strong way which cannot be explained but only experienced. But we overcame that particular problem through the POWER OF THE BLOOD!

Eric Farel pastors the Shanandoah Valley Baptist Church in Stephens City, Virginia