Today Jan and I attended the Sunday morning service of the Saigon Church (1000 Vietnamese and 25 foreigners) as we usually do. The Senior Pastor was absent. He has preached only once in our ten months here, due to his ongoing struggle with cancer. Usually he participates only by bringing the opening prayer, and monthly leading in Communion. However now cancer has made him too weak even to attend the Sunday service.
Back in the Spring we learned that the wife of the President of the Evangelical Church of Vietnam was ill with cancer. Early in June, just two months later we were attending her funeral.
We chatted the other day with a Viet Kieu friend whose father, back in the USA, is very sick with cancer. (A Viet Kieu is the term used for someone born in Vietnam, lived for years in another country, who has now returned to Vietnam.) This young man wonders if he will soon need to fly back to say a final goodbye to his father.
This week we received sad words from Canada. An older friend has just passed away after battling with cancer; a younger friend is just now beginning treatment for a recently discovered, serious cancerous growth. Only weeks ago Canada mourned the passing of one of its best known political leaders.
The older one gets, the more our lives have been touched by death: countless news reports of the death of those known only through the media; much closer to home, the death of acquaintances, friends, family members - an ever increasing list. Death: familiar to all of us, yet always our enemy. Ultimately we know each of us will have our personal encounter with this universal human enemy.
In the face of death, we who know Christ return again and again to the wonderful words of Scripture. "Where O death is your victory? Where O death is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." I Corinthians 15:55, 56
Back in the Spring we learned that the wife of the President of the Evangelical Church of Vietnam was ill with cancer. Early in June, just two months later we were attending her funeral.
We chatted the other day with a Viet Kieu friend whose father, back in the USA, is very sick with cancer. (A Viet Kieu is the term used for someone born in Vietnam, lived for years in another country, who has now returned to Vietnam.) This young man wonders if he will soon need to fly back to say a final goodbye to his father.
This week we received sad words from Canada. An older friend has just passed away after battling with cancer; a younger friend is just now beginning treatment for a recently discovered, serious cancerous growth. Only weeks ago Canada mourned the passing of one of its best known political leaders.
The older one gets, the more our lives have been touched by death: countless news reports of the death of those known only through the media; much closer to home, the death of acquaintances, friends, family members - an ever increasing list. Death: familiar to all of us, yet always our enemy. Ultimately we know each of us will have our personal encounter with this universal human enemy.
In the face of death, we who know Christ return again and again to the wonderful words of Scripture. "Where O death is your victory? Where O death is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." I Corinthians 15:55, 56
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