A Supernatural Dimension
Vietnam has experienced a lot of revival since the end of the 80th. especially among the tribal people. In 15 years, the network that Tham is a part of has grown from 20 persons to over 30.000! There are more church networks that has experienced the same amount of growth.
This revival started with an outpouring of the Spirit over the people in the official church in Vietnam. Although there are good things to say about the official church as it was intended from the beginning, the story today is something else. There is not really a lot of spiritual freedom, and that is why many of the church leaders cannot submit to the official church.
Those who would not stop with their spiritual activity where outcast by the official church, and started their own house church movement. This movement is known by a great passion to evangelize, endurance in trials, and the importance of listening to The Holy Spirit.
Many of the leaders in the house church were very skeptical themselves to the baptism of the Spirit, but at the end they were overtaken by the power. They were also deeply touched to see the love and care within the people that had been touched by this charismatic movement.
One of four evangelists, brother Thom - came to a distant village, about 120 km from Saigon. This tribe is called "Stieng", and in this village with about 150 inhabitants, only four of them were Christians. Thom preached the gospel and asked if they wanted to receive salvation. They answered him that they could not do that before a certain person had done it. Thom asked who this person was, and they brought him to a cabin in the outskirt of the village. He went to look in to the cabin, and saw a woman in her 60’s swinging back and forth in a hammock. When the woman saw him, she came against him angry as a wild tiger. She jumped towards him and wanted to attack and fight him. Thom asked God for protection by the blood of Jesus, and because of that the woman could not get anywhere close to him. This all went on for about one hour, it was just as if Thom was surrounded by a protective curtain, that is how sister Tham puts it. Suddenly he heard the Spirit say to him "watch out!" He looked up, and he saw that the lady stood there, and all the villagers were at the edge of running away; full of fear, but still curious about what was going to happen. Led by the Spirit, Thom said that everyone who would not worship God, had to leave the room immediately. Only those who would submit to God could be there. The power of the words of the evangelist made some of the curious people leave, while some others still stayed there to watch. Surprisingly to him, the lady bended forward with her arms together as if she was praying. Thom spoke three words over her: "in Jesus name" - and she sank together on the floor. The evangelist cast out the demons, and when she came to herself again, she was totally normal.
She was not aggressive, nor was she full of raw strength like she had been some moments ago. As a kind older lady, she sat down and received the gospel. This was the first time that the people in this area saw a witchdoctor submit to the gospel, and because of this all of them confessed that the God of the heaven is the real God! Confrontations of power like this are very normal. This witch had full dominance not only in this place, but also in some other villages nearby. After she had received Jesus, everyone in the village wanted Thom to pray for them. The evangelist got wisdom to arrange a competition. He said: "The first one to get rid of all their idols I will pray for first". The whole village started to move; everyone ran to their homes to carry out all idols from their houses. When Thom went around to pray for people, they were already on their knees waiting to get prayer and blessing. For twelve hours Thom ministered to the people and helped them to get rid of their idols.
But the story doesn't end with that. The newly converted witchdoctor said: «I have a lot of followers in other villages, we have to reach out to them as well! » Late at night, after ministering to all the villagers in the first village, the whole group went together through the rice field, led by the former witch doctor. She walked in front with a torch, behind her came the evangelist, and then everyone else. They were neither hungry nor thirsty even though they had been going on all day long. The power was over them, so they walked from location to location and preached the gospel. The newly converted lady woke up her followers in the middle of the night and told them about the heavenly God, that they had to believe in him. Almost 10 000 have come to believe in Jesus in this area, and they are now spreading the gospel to Cambodia.