Nhà Thờ Bình An Trong Chúa Jêsus Peace In Jesus Lutheran Church

     We are so thankful to the Lord for the special blessings we received during our experience at the recent LWMS Annual Convention in Denver.  What a whirlwind few days that became the culmination of our plans and dreams over a year in the making.  

     When we were informed that our congregation was chosen to be the recipient of the Kid’s C.A.R.E. offering, we were thrilled!  Our leadership group began to plan on a new Vietnamese outreach event, making the kids in our community feel special.  We planned for additional teaching materials for our Sunday School so that more and more Vietnamese kids would know their Savior and know him better.  Finally, we planned for the Children’s Education Wing of our new more permanent church home (we are in the planning stages for purchasing pre-existing or land and building for a more permanent church facility.  We are currently in a rental facility). 

As a special expression of our thanks, I had the dream of bringing our church choir to sing at the LWMS convention.  After much discussion, planning, and preparation; our group of 21 souls met at Peace In Jesus in Boise at 5:30 a.m. on Thursday, June 25th.  We all prayed together, asking God to be with us, protect us, and bless our proclamation of God’s praise at the convention.  We were on the road by 6, and followed our carefully constructed route, stopping at designated exits, and pulled in to Denver thirteen hours later.  We were tired, but thankful and excited for what the next day might bring.

We met in the room of our choir director, Mr. Toản Đoàn.  We went to the morning devotion together and our group stood when the LWMS President introduced the first-time attendees.  We had our final practice in the room, then went on to our sound check at 12:30 p.m. 

The choir members seemed more excited than nervous.  Everyone looked great—men in white shirt and tie and each of the ladies wore and “áo dài” (pronounced “ow zai”), which is the traditional Vietnamese dress and a symbol of Vietnamese culture.  We were thrilled to share a taste of the Vietnamese culture, dress, language, and song with many who perhaps have never encountered them before.

 We were blessed with an opportunity to share some of the wonderful things the Lord is doing among the Vietnamese community in our area and beyond.  Through a 15-minute PowerPoint presentation, we gave all glory to God for the blessings of connecting Vietnamese folks with the powerful Word of God.  We told the people about our members growing in areas of service, actively reaching out with the Gospel, and becoming more aggressive in our activities as a congregation. 

Cross-cultural mission work is challenging.  Yet I believe it is important to also share joys and victories the Lord pours out—in our experience, tremendous displays of Asian fruits of faith.  One example was the first adult baptism at our church—Mr. Giáo Văn Nguyễn.  He was baptized on Palm Sunday in    the year 2000.  Exactly nine Palm Sundays later,   Mr. Giáo’s son, Nghĩa Trung Nguyen was baptized in the same place.  For this and many other blessings, we gave thanks and all glory to God, asking the people attending the LWMS convention to join us in thanksgiving to God.

As a special thank you to those who participated in the Kid’s C.A.R.E. offering, I invited our choir to come forward.  I introduced our choir director, who introduced the members of the choir.  We began to sing our first song, entitled “Lo Gì” which means “What are you worrying about?”  During the time our choir was singing, several slides explaining the meaning of the song were shown.  One verse says, “The flock of birds in the sky—neither harvesting or sowing; the fields of flowers don’t knit or sew.  Yet daily the singing birds fly down to the flowers; the birds are full and the flowers are more beautiful than king’s robes . . . Know the value of your needs met, Friend; worrying is beneath you.” 

When our song concluded, the people began to applaud.  Then they began to stand.  As the heart-felt standing ovation swept through the auditorium, our choir became overwhelmed.  Several members of our group had a teary eye.  We sang another song, then invited the people to sing “My Peace” with us.  While a few brave souls sang the Vietnamese verses with us, everyone joined us to sing the English verses conveying the peace that God gives to those from every nation.

We left the stage, humbled by the acceptance of our brothers and sisters in the faith who gave us such an incredible response.  We were thrilled that we had such an opportunity.  Following the choir singing, the Kid’s C.A.R.E. offering was given to Thảo Nguyên and Thảo Vi, who are kids from our congregation.  Along with that gift, we also received a second gift of matching funds from the Antioch Foundation.

We are so thankful for these tremendous gifts from the Lord.  We sincerely thank you for your generosity in the gift you have given to our congregation and the way you have taken this opportunity to “do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” (Gal 6:10)

More pictures are available on our website:  www.PeaceInJesus4Vietnamese.org       

God bless you as you center your lives in Jesus Christ, the Savior of all nations!  Praying the Lord continues to shower blessings upon your lives to the point of overflowing!      —Pastor Daniel Kramer

Dear Partners in His mission. 

     Praying this letter finds you well and joyful in your continued celebration of the resurrection of the Lord of all Nations.  We are thankful for special blessings during these past few months.  In February, we celebrated the Vietnamese New Year.  We had a great service—fun decorations, both choirs sang, attendance was strong.  A potluck followed the service, then a kid’s program including

New Year’s craft, Bingo for the adults, then on to a member’s home for Karaoke! 

     Along with growing numbers, we are striving to grow closer together as a faith family.  We have implemented a new “tag—you’re ’it’” assimilation practice.  In this practice, I take a member family with me to visit another member family, allowing our families to better know each other.  The following week, the member family that just received the visit will go with me making a visit on yet another family.    So far, this practice has been very well-received.  

     The Lord has poured out blessings as our congregation has celebrated baptisms over the past few months.  Linh Dao, a new member, brought her two young boys for Baptism on February 1st.  Then, on Palm Sunday, we had two adult baptisms:  Hoàng Trần and Nghĩa Trung Nguyễn.  On Palm Sunday nine years ago, Nghĩa’s father, Giáo Văn Nguyễn was baptized—he was the first adult baptism at our church.  The pictures below show the baptisms of father and son, respectively. 

Much has changed since Mr. Giáo was baptized.  Nghĩa represents the tenth member of Mr. Giáo’s family to stand before God’s altar with wetted brow.  Before going to heaven, on his deathbed, Mr. Giáo’s wish was for his children to follow the Christian faith.  We give thanks to God for his grace and mercy, blessing so many of Mr. Giáo’s family through Baptism . . . as our words of prayer echo with your words of prayer, “Your kingdom come.”

We had a wonderful Easter celebration!  He is risen—He is risen indeed!  We enjoyed the largest Easter Day attendance in our congregation’s history, clear communication of the message of Easter victory, and a service utilizing the involvement of over 30 of our members.  Following a wonderful service, we enjoyed a potluck and children’s program.  What a joyful celebration of the resurrection of the birth of the Savior of all nations!

This coming Sunday, we will have another Baptism service, sharing God’s tremendous outpouring of love upon three more souls.  We give all glory to God as we marvel at all He is accomplishing among the Vietnamese community here.  It is humbling to see God changing lives forever.  One of our newer members was recently contacted by the leadership of the Buddhist temple in Boise.  They asked when she would be coming back to the temple.  Her answer?  “No, I’m a Christian now.  I won’t be coming back.  I follow Jesus.” 

     This past Sunday, we had a special church outing.  We traveled in a caravan of 6 cars to Twin Falls, Idaho.  The mighty 212 foot Shoshone Falls is the strongest it has been in a decade.  We were concerned as the rain and sleet began to fall as we first arrived.  However, this weather only lasted 10 minutes and chased many of the crowds away, leaving us with prime viewing in bright sunshine.  The pictures below are from our fun outing to Shoshone Falls.

     I am participating in the WELS Missions Blog, you can find news about Peace In Jesus as well as many other missions here:  http://missions.wels.net. 

     God bless you as you center your lives in Jesus Christ, the Savior of all nations!  Praying the Lord continues to shower blessings upon your lives to the point of overflowing!  —Pastor Daniel Kramer