The church of Vietnam is the largest of all of our C&MA sister denominations around the world. One quarter of all believers who gather in our connected fellowships are in this country.
For over two hours we celebrated the centennial with 10,000 or more Vietnamese and perhaps 100 expats. The brief video presentations were excellent. The music was great. It began with a powerful soloist accompanied by a small group of singers. We then moved into congregational singing of How Great Thou Art. I have sung this grand hymn in Billy Graham Crusade gatherings and long ago in large university student gatherings. However I came close to tears as I sang the Vietnamese words with brothers and sisters who have been through so much over the past century and are so committed to Christ.
One highlight for me was a quartet of obviously professionally trained men. Each sang a verse of Amazing Grace and then they combined for a verse. I've not heard any better rendition of this familiar hymn.
Most moving for all of us, was the procession one by one of representatives of 33 ethnic tribal peoples where there are believers and established churches. The percentage of believers in each tribe varies from less than 1% to over 50%. They wore traditional costume and stood together on the large platform in the centre of the arena. There are still 21 tribal groups who have no viable church.
The building, the setting, the visuals, the organization, the presentations - all were on a par with what one might expect from the best of North American Christian events. It was a privilege to share in this great event. Oh, and thankfully we had English translation for the spoken parts of the service.
For over two hours we celebrated the centennial with 10,000 or more Vietnamese and perhaps 100 expats. The brief video presentations were excellent. The music was great. It began with a powerful soloist accompanied by a small group of singers. We then moved into congregational singing of How Great Thou Art. I have sung this grand hymn in Billy Graham Crusade gatherings and long ago in large university student gatherings. However I came close to tears as I sang the Vietnamese words with brothers and sisters who have been through so much over the past century and are so committed to Christ.
One highlight for me was a quartet of obviously professionally trained men. Each sang a verse of Amazing Grace and then they combined for a verse. I've not heard any better rendition of this familiar hymn.
Most moving for all of us, was the procession one by one of representatives of 33 ethnic tribal peoples where there are believers and established churches. The percentage of believers in each tribe varies from less than 1% to over 50%. They wore traditional costume and stood together on the large platform in the centre of the arena. There are still 21 tribal groups who have no viable church.
The building, the setting, the visuals, the organization, the presentations - all were on a par with what one might expect from the best of North American Christian events. It was a privilege to share in this great event. Oh, and thankfully we had English translation for the spoken parts of the service.
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