AsiaStories

or a moment, Josh Nguyen thought he was back in Vietnam. Rubbing the wooden floor of a floating home in this remote village on Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake, the 44-year-old physician from Houston, Texas, remembered the country he left as a refugee in 1975.

Nguyen joined a team of nine other medical and dental volunteers working with the Vietnamese living in floating villages on Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. He and three nurses divided into two groups and visited from boat to boat, assessing medical needs and sharing the Gospel. Nguyen, who speaks Vietnamese, also translated for the nurse who assisted him.

The trip was revealing to Nguyen, who saw himself not only in the floorboards but also in the faces and experiences of those he met on the lake.

“I thought we were back,” Nguyen, a member of Second Baptist Church, Houston, Texas, said. “I thought we were boat people again.”

While the trip spawned memories for the doctor, it was a wake-up call for Gina Nguyen, 30, a pharmacist from Plano, Texas, who is no relation to Josh.

"Could have been us"

Gina left Vietnam in 1991 under less difficult circumstances. Although she returned to Southeast Asia two years ago on a trip with her father, this was her first volunteer trip.

The member of Plano Vietnamese Baptist Church, Plano, Texas, admitted she reluctantly signed up for the trip, which included medical and dental personnel from seven Baptist churches, four states and four different ethnic groups. She struggled initially with how best to contribute to the team.

“I can’t diagnose. I’m not trained. I didn’t think I knew the Bible well enough. I’ve never been a translator,” Gina said. “Until this trip, I thought my apartment in Texas was the center of the universe.”

Once on the lake, Gina also experienced the full force of the difficulty villagers experience everyday. There was no air conditioning or electric fans. The toilet and shower facilities were rudimentary and sleeping arrangements were uncomfortable, cramped and hot. Python was the main course for dinner. The nearby karaoke bar ran until all hours of the night.

“We look at these people and ask, ‘Why would they swim in this water? Why would they eat and drink in this water?” Gina said.

When Gina shared these complaints with Josh, he said simply, “Gina, this could have been us.”

"God chose us"

Once the team began its work, however, Gina, who speaks Vietnamese, realized she could serve not only as translator for the two nurses on her team, but she could also share the Gospel with villagers in their heart language.

“I was afraid,” Gina said. “What do I do? What do I say? But I knew God was speaking through me. So I kept praying inside, ‘God, just tell me what to say.’”

By visiting in their homes and sharing the Gospel, Gina came to understand that the physical challenges facing the villagers are nothing compared to the spiritual ones.

“They’re lost,” Gina said. “They worship different kinds of gods. They don’t know anything else.”

She also realized God was giving her a chance to “give back” — using the material blessings she gained in America to share the spiritual blessings of her faith in Christ with the people on the lake.

“God chose us,” Gina said, referring to the salvation she and other Vietnamese-Americans found in Jesus Christ while living in America. “He brought us to America and gave us the opportunity to live in nice conditions. This is our chance to spread the Gospel to the Vietnamese.”

In fact, Gina hopes to come back to the lake, noting, “I know that the weather and the living conditions have been tough on me, but I see what we’re doing here. I know it goes beyond medical needs.”

In spite of the difficulties, she encourages other Vietnamese-Americans to come as well because of their ethnic credibility with villagers and the Vietnamese language skills they provide to volunteer teams.

“We (Vietnamese-Americans) have a great opportunity to reach the Vietnamese in Cambodia,” Gina said. “We can speak the language. We can approach them better than non-Vietnamese speakers.”

“You don’t have to be a doctor or a nurse,” Gina concluded. “You can be the voice.”

Song Phu* is a healthy 2-year-old Vietnamese boy who gives visitors to his floating home an easy smile. He entertains them with giggles and gurgles common to toddlers around the world.

Born with the name, Mong, his grandfather changed it to Song — which means “live” — after he was miraculously healed from a rare blood disease nearly a year ago. Residents in this floating village of Kbal Taol come often to see this boy who, they believe, was healed by the Creator God.

To the 800 Vietnamese and Khmer families living in Kbal Taol on Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake, Song is nothing short of a miracle. Only one person in the village professes to follow Jesus, yet many believe that the Creator God saved Song. Sadly, though, Song’s miraculous recovery has not spurred the villagers, including his own mother and father, to worship the God who healed him.

“I believe the Creator God healed my son,” Song’s mother, Hoa Phu,* says. “We prayed to my ancestors and to Buddha but he did not get better. Doctors told us they couldn’t help. It was only the Creator God who healed him.”

The 27-year-old mother explains that when the boy was three-months-old, his belly swelled and he suffered from constipation and fever. The family knew the baby needed medical attention. They made the two-hour boat ride across the lake to Siem Reap. At the hospital, doctors ordered a blood transfusion and prescribed medication. They told Hoa and her husband, Thoah, 27, that the boy had a rare blood disorder. Without monthly transfusions, he would die.

Desperate

The family returned home with Mong. They prayed and offered sacrifices to Buddha and their ancestors. When the boy’s condition deteriorated, they returned to the hospital in Siem Reap where he again received a blood transfusion and medication. His condition improved. The doctors sent him home. Over the next few months, this cycle repeated.

“We took him to the hospital at least five times,” recalls Hoa. “Each time, they told us he wouldn’t live.”

Desperate to save the child’s life, his parents gave Mong to other families on the lake, thinking that conflicting birth dates within the family may have angered the spirits. But the boy’s condition did not improve and the adoptive families always returned him.

Then, David Dau,* a Christian worker, came to visit with a team of medical volunteers from the United States. They sought medical care for the child and confirmed from doctors in Siem Reap that the boy was beyond hope. Without monthly transfusions, he would die.

Dau explained to Hoa and Thoah that neither he nor medical science could save the boy’s life. He offered to help them pray to the Creator God for healing. The parents agreed.

Soon after, Mong improved. He gained weight. He remained healthy. When it became obvious that the boy was well, his grandfather changed his name from Mong to Song, saying, “This boy was given new life.”

One year later, Song is healthy and happy. He has no recurring problems.

Miracle

“It was a miracle that healed that baby,” Dau says. “Everybody in the community knows it.”

Still, none of the villagers have come to faith in Christ as a result. Even Hoa and Thoah, who acknowledge that they worshipped the Creator God for a while, returned to their life-long practices of Buddhism and ancestor worship a few months after Song was healed. Today, they rely on the traditions of the past — rather than the Creator God — to protect them from the spirits.

“I pray to my dad most often,” Hoa explains, “I was taught that he helps me.”

This is frustrating for Dau who has worked since 2005 to share the Gospel with the people on the lake. From his days as a boy growing up in Vietnam, the Vietnamese- American understands the fear enveloping the villagers. He compares the spiritual situation of those on the lake to the dirty water surrounding them – infested with trash, bacteria and filth. But, he also understands that faith in Christ can overcome every fear and the truth of the Gospel can cleanse their souls.

“The only way to pump out the dirty water is to blow in the truth of the Gospel one breath at a time,” Dau says.

For this reason, Dau looks for every opportunity to find ways to share the Gospel with the people on the lake. He makes personal visits, trains the handful of local believers from a neighboring village and brings teams of volunteers from the United States to conduct medical and dental clinics, evangelism and Vacation Bible Schools. He uses every means possible to drain the dirty water from the hearts and minds of the people and to blow in the fresh air of the Gospel.

He also prays for miracles, though he admits that the experience with Song taught him many things.

“Miracles just aren’t enough,” Dau says. “Miracles won’t save these people. Only the Gospel can save them.”

Song’s story is living proof.

*Name changed

Life in a floating village is simple and quiet.

Men fish at night. Women spend their days harvesting fish from the nets. Families purchase meat, vegetables, cigarettes, soft drinks and beer from vendors who paddle from houseboat to houseboat. From a young age, children learn to navigate the peaceful waters of the village in roughly hewn wooden boats.

This is Kbal Taol, a floating village on Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. This close-knit community is home to approximately 350 Vietnamese families and 450 Khmer (or Cambodian) families.

There is a school boat, but the teacher moved away. What appears to be a church — with a cross, an image of Mary and a statue of Buddha — also dots the floating neighborhood, though it is unclear if anyone attends. Most pay homage in their homes to Buddha, the spirits or their ancestors by burning incense and offering sacrifices of fruit or drink. Many live in fear of the spirits.

Only one man in the village claims to be a follower of Jesus.

The lone believer in Kbal Taol opens his houseboat to a small group of believers from neighboring Chong Khneas, another floating village about two hours away by boat. All came to Christ within the last three years.

Sharing with Neighbors

They accompany a team of medical and dental volunteers from the United States to help share the Gospel to their neighbors. Some work as translators. Some cook for the team. Others learn simple medical tasks.

David Dau,* a Christian worker reaching the Vietnamese on the lake, hopes that by having the local Christians work beside the Americans, they learn to be bolder in sharing their faith. He thinks these visits will allow them to build relationships within the community long after the volunteers leave.

When Dau first brought medical clinics to Kbal Taol two years ago, volunteers set up in a central location and villagers came to them. This time, the medical team — one doctor and three nurses — paddle from boat to boat with local believers, assessing medical needs, sharing the Gospel and praying with families.

“In the past, we used medical clinics to gain access to the village,” Dau says. “Now that we are in the village, we want to visit in their homes.”

In addition to building relationships, Dau wants locals believers to learn practical skills. As a result, two volunteer dentists train four local believers to provide basic dental services. By the end of the first day, all four — including two teenagers, Chanh-Ri Tien,* 15, and Hong Hau,* 17 — fill and extract teeth in very primitive conditions.

Role Models

Still, teaching new believers to meet physical needs isn’t nearly as important as teaching them to meet spiritual ones. Dau says volunteers can serve as spiritual mentors to local believers who are new in their faith. For this reason, he encourages local believers to take advantage of every opportunity to learn Biblical truths from the volunteer team.

At Dau’s encouragement, Tien and Hau seek out the volunteers after the work is done. As Hau reads passages of Scripture by flashlight with two women, Tien practices the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with two others.

Lying on top of the boat under the clouds, Tien recites, “On a hill listening to Jesus sat a boy. His stomach was growling. The boy had forgotten to eat his lunch. Listening to Jesus was too wonderful to stop and eat …”

Dau appreciates the opportunities volunteers give local believers to practice their stories and he welcomes those who model the truth of the Gospel.

“When teams come and share about the Creator God, it underscores the truth of the stories we tell them,” Dau says. “They realize that there are many others who also believe in the Creator God and worship Him.”

*Name changed