Sadly, the 58 year old wife of the President of the Evangelical Church of Vietnam passed away on Friday after a brief battle with cancer. Today Jan and I attended the 8:00 am funeral service held in our "home" church building. (Funerals are normally held early in the morning here.)
About 1200 people attended today's service. Three church choirs each sang a hymn as well as a 200 voice choir made up of the entire ECVN Bible College student body. A variety of denomination leaders spoke and prayed during this two hour service. President Truong spoke for a few moments and his son brought a tribute.
On Sunday mornings at this church, English translation is provided for the 15 to 30 English speaking attenders (some regulars, some tourists). Today however there was no translation. We may have been the only westerners in the congregation. Jan and I could recognize words, but we are far from having enough fluency to understand what was said. We could read the words of the congregational hymn but most of those Vietnamese words are not yet part of our vocabulary.
However the tunes of the congregational hymn and the hymns sung by the four choirs were all familiar to anyone raised in an evangelical hymn singing church. They were translations of hymns such as "It is Well With My Soul", "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder" and "I Know Whom I Have Believed".
We felt very united with the 1000 Vietnamese (including one Canadian Vietnamese Pastor and his wife who flew in for the funeral); not simply because of the familiar hymns or because we know several of the pastors who participated in the service.
We are united with these believers, in spite of language and culture differences because we have the same Father, the same Saviour and the same Holy Spirit dwelling within us. We are united because we share the same wonderful hope (certainty) of resurrection life with Christ which marks Christian life, death and funerals as very, very different.
Funeral processions led by one or a few Buddhist monks regularly pass by our apartment building early in the morning. Though the five piece band that follows the procession always plays up beat music, we know that those who mourn have no eternal hope.
How very conscious we were again today of the vast difference between those sad processions we observe on our street and today's funeral service. Praise God for a Risen Saviour!
About 1200 people attended today's service. Three church choirs each sang a hymn as well as a 200 voice choir made up of the entire ECVN Bible College student body. A variety of denomination leaders spoke and prayed during this two hour service. President Truong spoke for a few moments and his son brought a tribute.
On Sunday mornings at this church, English translation is provided for the 15 to 30 English speaking attenders (some regulars, some tourists). Today however there was no translation. We may have been the only westerners in the congregation. Jan and I could recognize words, but we are far from having enough fluency to understand what was said. We could read the words of the congregational hymn but most of those Vietnamese words are not yet part of our vocabulary.
However the tunes of the congregational hymn and the hymns sung by the four choirs were all familiar to anyone raised in an evangelical hymn singing church. They were translations of hymns such as "It is Well With My Soul", "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder" and "I Know Whom I Have Believed".
We felt very united with the 1000 Vietnamese (including one Canadian Vietnamese Pastor and his wife who flew in for the funeral); not simply because of the familiar hymns or because we know several of the pastors who participated in the service.
We are united with these believers, in spite of language and culture differences because we have the same Father, the same Saviour and the same Holy Spirit dwelling within us. We are united because we share the same wonderful hope (certainty) of resurrection life with Christ which marks Christian life, death and funerals as very, very different.
Funeral processions led by one or a few Buddhist monks regularly pass by our apartment building early in the morning. Though the five piece band that follows the procession always plays up beat music, we know that those who mourn have no eternal hope.
How very conscious we were again today of the vast difference between those sad processions we observe on our street and today's funeral service. Praise God for a Risen Saviour!
Amen - we serve an awesome Saviour, Hallelujah.. .. that wonderful blessed assurance we have spurs us forward, keeping our faith, till one day, when we will hear.. Well done, my good and faithful servant, you have kept the faith.
ReplyDeleteWonderful words written above, Nelson - thanks - Regards Jean/Francois Wethmar