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To the Ends of the Earth with Empowerment of the Holy Spirit
To the Ends of the Earth with Empowerment of the Holy Spirit
To the Ends of the Earth with Empowerment of the Holy Spirit
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To the Ends of the Earth with Empowerment of the Holy Spirit

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Pastor David Kwang-shin Kim has shown us that a single man bound by his faith can be mightier and more influential than a million individuals whose interests are only their own.

The Holy Spirit led Missionary Kim Tae-won to receive the offering.
Missionary Kim followed, “If you came to give an offering, then give it.”
Then, the young couple gave him an envelope with a check for 80 million won ($100,000).

If the People’s Security came to detain Lee while he was leading worship and holding rallies, the two drivers from the intelligence agency always vouched for him.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherWestBow Press
Release dateJan 21, 2022
ISBN9781664253452
To the Ends of the Earth with Empowerment of the Holy Spirit
Author

David Chang-Soo Lee

Name: David Chang-soo Lee Instructor: Grace Mission University (Fullerton, CA) Graduate: Grace Mission University master and doctoral course, DMiss (2014) Graduate: Yonsei University (Seoul, Korea), BA (1972)

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    To the Ends of the Earth with Empowerment of the Holy Spirit - David Chang-Soo Lee

    To the Ends of the Earth

    with Empowerment of

    the Holy Spirit

    David Chang-soo Lee

    Translated by Don Jung

    51379.png

    Copyright © 2022 David Chang-soo Lee.

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means,

    graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by

    any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author

    except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

    This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher

    make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book

    and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

    WestBow Press

    A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

    1663 Liberty Drive

    Bloomington, IN 47403

    www.westbowpress.com

    844-714-3454

    Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in

    this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views

    expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the

    views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

    Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

    and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

    Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

    Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English

    Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry

    of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

    ISBN: 978-1-6642-5344-5 (sc)

    ISBN: 978-1-6642-5345-2 (e)

    Library of Congress Control Number: 2022900931

    WestBow Press rev. date: 1/21/2022

    Contents

    Foreword

    Preface

    1.Missions of Missionary Lee In-ho

    I.Missionary In-ho Lee: Background and Immigration to the United States

    II.Professor Sutherland of California Union University

    III.Vietnam Missions, Part 1

    A.Homeless on the First Night in Vietnam

    B.To Jail

    C.To the Bed and Breakfast

    D.The Pesticide Story

    E.Living in the Guest House of the Military’s Intelligence Agency

    F.The Miracle that Led to a Man of God

    1.Encountering Pastor Hue

    2.Encountering Faithful Colleagues

    G.Open Doors of Vietnam Missions

    H.Worrying for Tan’s Family

    I.Missions from a General’s Sedan

    J.The Bible

    K.Youth Retreat

    L.Vietnamese Motorcycles and Coffee

    M.Madam Tuyet and Four Tablets of Quinine

    N.Missions in Binh Duong Province and Can Tho

    O.A Korean Church in Vietnam and Tan’s Café

    P.Pastor David Kwang-shin Kim visits Vietnam

    Q.Missions to the Mountains: The Koho People in Lam Đong

    R.Leeches and a Near-Death Motorcycle Accident in the Mountains

    S.Waiting for Mission Funds

    IV.Vietnam Missions, Part 2

    A.Pastor David Kwang-shin Kim’s Visit on Lunar New Year

    B.Current Status of Church Developments in Vietnam

    C.Weighing in on Retirement

    2.Missions of Missionary Kim Tae-won

    I.Missionary Kim Tae-won’s Missions

    A.Missionary Kim Tae-won: Background and Spiritual Growth

    B.Infiltration into Hostile Territory—Ambush

    C.The Unstoppable Man in the Red Muffler

    D.From Head Mining Instructor to German Nurse

    E.Immigration to America

    1.The Beginning of a New Life in America: Sunday Christian

    2.What Happened at the Revival Service?

    3.Blinded by Abalones: Being Arrested by the American Police

    4.Deacon Kim Brings Life to Our Congregation

    5.Dreaming of Europe Missions

    F.German Missions

    1.Go to the land that I will show you—to Europe

    2.Plentiful Fruits

    3.Son-in-Law of North Korea’s Premier of the Administration Council Accepts the Lord

    4.Material Assistance by the Grace of God

    G.To the Ends of the Earth—Missions in South America

    H.A Three-Month Terminal Diagnosis Turns into Ten Years

    II.Missionary Kim Seong-nyeo’s Missions

    A.Wife and Korean West German Nurse

    B.From West Germany to America to a Life of Faith

    C.Returning to Germany—Europe Missions

    3.The Ministry and Missions of Pastor David Kwang-shin Kim

    I.Pastor David Kwang-shin Kim: Background and Path to Conversion

    II.Pastor David Kwang-shin Kim: Leadership

    III.Pastor David Kwang-shin Kim: Philosophy of Missions

    IV.Pastor David Kwang-shin Kim: Preparation for Soviet Union Missions

    V.Soviet Union Missions: Opening New Doors

    VI.Soviet Union Missions and the Jehovah-Jireh

    VII.Soviet Mission Festivals

    A.Almaty—Follow Me

    B.St. Petersburg—Grace Festival ’93

    C.The Goal of Mission Festivals and Pastor Kim’s Philosophy of Soviet Union Missions

    D.Moscow—Grace Festival ’94

    E.The World Stands in Awe

    VIII.A Missionary’s Testimony

    IX.Missiological Analysis of Grace Korean Church’s Soviet Union Missions

    A.Missions of Grace Korean Church and the Pentecost

    B.Missions of Grace Korean Church and Early Church Missions

    X.Conclusion of Pastor David Kwang-shin Kim’s Missions

    XI.Grace Korean Church and Sanctuary

    Photographs

    I.Photographs of Missionary Lee In-ho

    II.Photographs of Missionary Kim Tae-won

    III.Photographs of Pastor Kim Kwang-shin

    Epilogue

    Bibliography

    About the Author

    Foreword

    I am thrilled to receive Professor David Chang-soo Lee’s To the Ends of the Earth with Empowerment of the Holy Spirit. I have been fortunate to have had a close relationship with Professor Lee, which gave me the privilege of hearing some of the following stories before. For bringing to light the full collection of three leading missionaries’ indispensable testimonies, I commend and applaud Professor Lee.

    Two of the missionaries in this book were sent on their first missions after they had turned fifty. Their testimonies display decades of hard, often brutally physical work that provide us with the lessons and rewards that follow when performing God’s holy work. To our delight, Professor Lee has purposefully written these testimonies and their analyses in plain language to allow dense, hard-to-read missiological texts in their complex contexts to be relatable and understandable by all. As such, it will not only be used to strengthen the faith of existing Christians, but also be used to further the mission of God and evangelize those who have yet established their faiths.

    It is without doubt that this book’s contents will stand to be further researched and cited by many Christian scholars, especially by those who work in the field of missiology. Fundamentally, mission work can only be performed by God Himself, and missionaries are ultimately to be used as God’s holy tools. This text does approach its subject matter with an academic underlining. However, Professor Lee simultaneously utilizes the excerpts and examples of years of mission work to be applicable for all current missionaries.

    I give high praise to Professor Lee, a man who, despite having found his faith late in life, has attained the highest levels as an academic researcher and a professor of missiology. I genuinely recommend that this book be read by all Christians and, beyond, by all readers regardless of background and religion.

    Pastor Tae-yoon Kim

    —Secretary-General of the Korean Bible Society

    Preface

    Pastor David Kwang-shin Kim was saved at the age of forty-two, studied theology at forty-four, and founded Grace Korean Church (GKC) in Orange County at forty-seven. Despite beginning pastoral activities at such a late age, Pastor Kim helped save countless souls throughout the world and produced many disciples. Now in his mid-eighties, Pastor Kim continues to lead Grace Ministries International (GMI) and is as focused as ever on the expansion of global missions.

    Similarly, Missionary Kim Tae-won, the first full-fledged missionary of GKC, and Missionary Lee In-ho both started their mission work at the late ages of fifty-three and fifty-seven respectively, yet decades of their mission work were filled with immense grace and events that could never happen without the power of the Holy Spirit constantly happened at their mission sites. They effectively saved hundreds of thousands of people.

    Fundamentally, God spreads the gospel, and missionaries are simply those who are used as tools for God’s mission. These three missionaries have outstandingly shown that God will listen when an individual understands the role of being an obedient, humble, and loving servant. Paul the apostle did so in the Bible, and so did Philip, who preached the gospel to the eunuch of the queen of Ethiopia. And Peter, who preached the gospel to a stranger, Cornelius, did the same under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

    Missionaries Kim Kwang-shin and Lady Kim Young-jin, Kim Tae-won and the late Kim Seong-nyeo, and Lee In-ho and Lee Soo-bok are exceptional role models for all future generations of missionaries. I am immensely grateful to have the opportunity to create a reference for other scholars and missionaries that derives its significance from the gracious testimonies of these three missionary couples.

    Though his path to becoming a pastor and missionary was difficult, upon examining Pastor Kim’s mission work, disciple fostering, and general pastoral outreach, it isn’t difficult to find grace in his life. Throughout his pastoral and missionary career, he has passed on his spiritual DNA to his students, who, in effect, serve in their respective fields and yield great fruits.

    As a writer who was also saved late at the age of fifty-seven and began studying theology at sixty-two, Pastor Kim Kwang-shin’s gracious testimony has dearly touched my soul. But I believe his pastoral and missional testimony will move audiences regardless of religion.

    As of December 2019, Grace Korean Church has 344 dispatched missionaries in fifty-eight countries. If calculated with missionaries from all churches and institutions affiliated with Pastor Kim and his disciples, that number rises to more than seven hundred missionaries in seventy countries. In addition, a total of nineteen theological seminaries have been established at various mission sites and are currently in full operation, exponentiating future scholars and missionaries.

    I offer my sincerest gratitude to the three missionaries whose bodies of work made this book possible. It has been a great honor to examine their testimonies through an academic lens.

    Pastor David Kwang-shin Kim has shown us that a single man bound by his faith can be mightier and more influential than a million individuals whose interests are only their own.

    Pastor David Chang-soo Lee

    —Professor of missiology at Grace Mission University

    1. Missions of

    Missionary Lee In-ho

    I. Missionary In-ho Lee: Background and

    Immigration to the United States

    Born on May 14, 1936, in Incheon, Missionary Lee In-ho spent most of his young life in Incheon and Seoul, except for the brief period when he attended high school in Busan as a refugee during the Korean War. Shortly after the Korean War, in 1956, he joined the Republic of Korea Air Force at age twenty and was discharged three years later, in 1959.

    In February 1968, during the most active periods of the Vietnam War, Missionary Lee left for Vietnam as an employee of PA&E, an aerospace company providing support to the Twenty-Fifth Air Force, which was the intelligence division of the USAF with whom he had developed connections during his own military career. He was stationed near the Cu Chi tunnels near Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) and was in charge of various supply logistics operations for the Twenty-Fifth Air Force, such as delivering C ration cans and basic foodstuff, as well as commanding the fire station unit. He also began learning Vietnamese since his work entailed supervising several Vietnamese service workers. At the time, supplies and foodstuff were so abundant for the American military that they often used forklifts to dig up graves to throw away their excess goods when electricity to their refrigerating systems suddenly cut out. During these occasions, Missionary Lee would secretly call for local Vietnamese village people to dig up such supplies and distribute them throughout the neighborhood. The leftovers of American troops, which were too good to throw away, were loaded into Jeeps from time to time and distributed to the struggling village people nearby. These events occurred often, and the Vietnamese people regularly expressed their gratitude to Missionary Lee.

    On one evening, after finishing work at a location about thirty miles from Saigon, Missionary Lee and several of his colleagues rode a Jeep into downtown Saigon. On the way, they passed through a bridge over a large stream, the end of which was blockaded by barricades. When they stopped the car, armed Viet Cong guerrilla members suddenly came out of the woods and ambushed them. After they confirmed that the Jeep belonged to the US military, one man pointed a gun at their throats as the other disappeared back into the woods. Moments later, an elderly man who seemed to be in charge came out of the forest, looked closely at Missionary Lee, and said, This is the benevolent man who supplied us with lots of food! The guerrilla members drove the Jeep to take Missionary Lee and his colleagues back to the American garrison, let Missionary Lee and his colleagues safely return to the garrison, and immediately burned the Jeep in front of the garrison. Many of the Vietnamese around the military base were farmers by day and Viet Cong fighters by night.

    As the Paris talks for the Vietnam War came close to an end, US soldiers prepared to withdraw from Vietnam. This allowed Missionary Lee to return home in March 1972 after four years of tour in the Vietnam theater as civilian support. In 1973, due to his contributions and service with the US military during the war and his wife’s education in nutrition, Missionary Lee and his wife received visas to immigrate to the United States. One of his colleagues at PA&E coincidentally settled down in Chicago shortly prior, so the Lees followed suit and arrived in Chicago on Saturday, September 16, 1973. Missionary Lee, who attended Seoul Youngnak Church, found out that one of its assistant head pastors had also come to Chicago and that the pastor had established a church nearby. The day after his arrival to the United States, he visited the church and attended Sunday worship.

    Missionary Lee In-ho (hereafter referred to as Lee or Missionary Lee) operated a Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream store in Chicago, while his wife, Missionary Lee Soo-bok (hereafter referred to as SB Lee or Missionary SB Lee when ambiguous), worked as a real estate agent. SB Lee had a particularly lively and sociable personality that greatly aided her real estate business and helped them thrive economically.

    In 1989, Missionary Lee attended Los Angeles Grace Korean Church’s Tres Dias program and found immense blessings. It was at this moment that he vowed to devote the rest of his life as a missionary. In 1991, Missionary Lee enrolled in California Union University, GKC’s own theological seminary, and traveled back and forth from Chicago several times a year to attend the seminary.

    On February 21, 1993, after graduating from California Union University, he and his wife received orders, as he had wished, to be sent as GKC missionaries to Vietnam. Lee, aged fifty-seven, was the oldest among all active GKC missionaries at the time. On March 9, Missionary Lee left for Vietnam, equipped with nothing more than his limited knowledge of the Vietnamese language. He headed into a country where he knew utterly no one.

    II. Professor Sutherland of California Union University

    There was an American professor on the faculty of GKC’s California Union University by the name of Professor Sutherland. Nearing graduation, Professor Sutherland ended a lecture and asked, I heard that there was a student among you by the name of Mr. Lee who wants to be sent to Vietnam as a missionary. Where is Mr. Lee?

    Lee stated, It’s me, Professor, to which Professor Sutherland requested that he come to his office if time permitted.

    In his office, Professor Sutherland sat Lee down and told him stories of his own time as a missionary in Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, Professor Sutherland was sent on a mission with the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA). He stated that he was sent to work as a theology professor and dean of Nha Trang Theological Seminary in Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa Province, and he expressed how he could never forget the rewarding work he did while in Vietnam. Professor Sutherland recalled his tireless efforts to create a pathway for eager Vietnamese seminary students to become competent ministers and his focus on two particularly driven students, Hue and Khanh, whom he also taught English separately outside of class. Professor Sutherland, who left Vietnam in early 1975 as the war ended, told Missionary Lee to come back to him for recommendations to those two Vietnamese pastors if Lee did end up being sent to Vietnam as a missionary.

    Before leaving for Vietnam, Missionary Lee visited Professor Sutherland. Unfortunately, however, Professor Sutherland told Lee that despite his efforts to recommunicate with pastors Hue and Khanh, he could not reach them. Instead, Professor Sutherland gave Missionary Lee notes of the old addresses of pastors Hue and Khanh and two letters written for the two pastors introducing Missionary Lee if they were ever fortunate enough to cross paths. The professor stated that networking with these two pastors would surely provide great assistance to his mission work in Vietnam and urged Missionary Lee to pray and depend on God for his missions, as Vietnam was a region known for persecuting Christians. Finally, Professor Sutherland prayed earnestly for Missionary Lee for his safety in Vietnam and to overcome all turmoil and difficulties.

    However, in all practicality, the addresses were hopeless. Though Missionary Lee put those notes carefully in his Bible, searching for those pastors was like searching for a Mr. Kim throughout all of Seoul. Yet he was relieved that, still, such bettered his circumstances as opposed to entering Vietnam with nothing else. So Missionary Lee took heed of Professor Sutherland’s advice and prayed fervently and put the entirety of all matters into God’s hands. Lee thanked Professor Sutherland and praised the Lord for all His grace before leaving his office. As he left GKC, Missionary Lee visited Head Pastor Kim and reported his final matters.

    III. Vietnam Missions, Part 1

    A. Homeless on the First Night in Vietnam

    On March 10, 1993, Missionary Lee arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (formerly Saigon), through a layover in Seoul. When he exited the airport, he was hit with an enormously humid heat wave as if he had just entered a sauna. After bargaining with the taxi driver, Lee headed to Keumran Hotel, a hotel operated by a man from Hong Kong, where he had stayed before. Unfortunately, the hotel was entirely booked, and there weren’t any vacancies for the next two months. Moreover, a day’s room and board cost seventy dollars. He checked several other nearby hotels, but they were also full, with some of them charging ninety to one hundred dollars per night.

    The reason for such maxed bookings at these hotels was due to the Doi Moi policy (a liberal economic policy implemented by the Vietnamese Communist Party in 1986; Moi means new and Doi means change). This opening of establishing diplomatic and economic relations with Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and many other countries led countless businesspeople to rush in, causing hotel prices to skyrocket. Even the hotels in the suburbs of Ho Chi Minh City were full, forcing many guests to ride buses from outside city limits to come and do business. Missionary Lee gloomed over this unexpected reality. Vietnamese hotels that were once cheap and inhabited by flies and insects were now charging prices of gold for a night’s stay; that is, if you could even get one.

    Lord, where shall I go? Missionary Lee’s prayer came out without intent. Behold, I am lying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known¹ (1 Peter 2:6, Jeremiah 33:3). Lee prayed, Almighty God, I, too, have taken the Lord’s cross and have come to this land that you have chosen to spread the gospel to these people. Please have mercy!

    He called for another taxi and went to a village ten kilometers away, looking desperately for bed-and-breakfasts or other smaller lodgings, only to discover that this plan was just as hopeless. At the time, Vietnam had implemented strict regulations for private lodgings in that they were licensed to operate only if they had air conditioners, refrigerators, and Western-style toilets. Soon, Lee found himself homeless. With no other options, he went to a nearby house with a long roof and asked the owner if he could just stay one night under the eaves, to which the man reluctantly allowed. The owner allowed Lee to store two pieces of luggage in the house, and Lee squatted uncomfortably under the eaves without having eaten a single meal that evening. Mosquitoes rushed in at the chance, and Lee unconcernedly dozed off for a few hours being as exhausted as he was.

    B. To Jail

    Missionary Lee woke up to someone kicking his ankles. It was a People’s Police Force² officer holding a flashlight. The officer spoke with the owner of the house and a few other folks before pointing the flashlight at Lee’s face and demanding his documents. When Lee handed the officer his US passport, the officer confiscated it and took both Lee and the owner to the local station. Until the morning, after when the station chief was due to arrive, Lee had to stay in a jail cell with the homeowner. It was around 2:00 a.m. when they were put in the cell, and they noticed three other people who had already been put in previously.

    The jail cell guarded its prisoners with bamboo bars, and mosquitoes constantly came flying in. The floor, however, was covered with a fabric mat, which reduced humidity and was far better than sleeping under the eaves on bare ground. They were also relatively well shielded from possible rain, so another worry had been lifted. Nonetheless, Lee could not fall asleep and spent the entirety of that night fighting off mosquitoes. He desperately prayed that he’d be willing to suffer any punishment except that of deportation. And he prayed passionately for the owner of the house and the man’s family, for he knew how worried they’d be simply for helping a foreign stranger. Grace to you and peace from God our Father (Colossians 1:2b).

    Missionary Lee expressed great remorse and apology to the owner. His name was Tan. To Lee’s fervent apology, Tan said that he would probably be let go because he didn’t allow Lee to stay inside his house. Surprisingly, Tan offered worries for Missionary Lee’s potential charges. Lee felt grateful and thought that Tan was a good man. After some discussion with Tan, Lee discovered that there was a People’s Police officer or informant in at least one out of twenty houses in the village and that it was common for people, regardless of whether they were adults or children, to be taken away to authorities for the simplest violations.

    Heavy dust was rushing in. In the devastating heat, the desperately thirsty Missionary Lee asked one of the guards if he could get some water, but the guard told him that the only available drinking water was at the house next door, which he couldn’t go to since he was the only one guarding the holding cell. Tan told Lee that because food and water weren’t available at the station, individuals in cells often had to provide for themselves somehow. Missionary Lee, recalling his time at Saigon, knew that bread merchants regularly passed by parts of town. Lee asked the guard to call for a bread merchant if one were to come their way.

    At around seven in the morning, a bread merchant fortunately came through. The guard called for the merchant, and Lee and Tan bought warm breads. They first gave two loafs to the guard and gave bread to the other three individuals in the cell before eating themselves. With bread in his hands, Lee quietly prayed to God. He then asked the merchant to come again at eleven for lunch and to also call for a coffee merchant. Soon, a coffee merchant came by. Lee told the guard to order first, but, this time, the guard let Lee and the others order before him. As Lee, Tan, the three other jailed individuals, and the guard all sat down to drink warm cups of coffee, it was as if they had all become a closely knit family and had all amicably gathered at a café. The clock read close to 10:00 a.m. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord (1 Timothy 1:2b).

    C. To the Bed and Breakfast

    Two more officers came in to switch shifts with the lone guard at around 10:00 a.m. After a morning meeting among the officers, they called for Tan. A bit later, they called for Missionary Lee, and they sat him across from the station chief with Tan sitting by the door of the interrogation room. The chief looked over Lee’s passport and asked him, You arrived in Vietnam yesterday. Why didn’t you check into a hotel? Missionary Lee replied, I looked everywhere in Ho Chi Minh City for a room, but all were filled. I rode a taxi to come to the outskirts of the city for cheaper lodgings or bed-and-breakfasts, yet I couldn’t find any here either. It was getting dark, so I went below this man’s house and, without permission, sought cover under his eaves to lay down while the rain passed by.

    The chief pondered for a moment, then expressed the following sentiments. The chief stated that from the latter half of the previous year, there were waves of foreign businessmen coming into Ho Chi Minh City. He knew of the ongoing issues regarding the lack of hotel rooms to match the overwhelming flow of incoming foreigners, as well as how such situations would trouble international visitors. He was himself quite frustrated at the situation and felt sympathy for such visitors. Then, the chief explained that his subordinates had no option but to detain Lee and Tan in the cell because of the strict regulations regarding keeping foreign guests in homes without refrigerators and air conditioning. He said, We had a brief meeting earlier, and we discussed with Mr. Tan. We concluded that you, despite being a foreigner, were an honest and kind man. Rather, it’s our embarrassment that we as a country can’t house our incoming international visitors. Mr. Tan is also glad that he met you and thinks of this situation as a special circumstance. So, I asked him to take care of you for the time being while you finish up your business trip. To Lee’s surprise, the station chief was a tender and thoughtful man. Despite the political nature of things, it was reaffirmed to Lee that the people and society of Vietnam still held steadfast to strong Confucian customs. As he and Tan left the station, he politely said to the chief, I hope your official duties go smoothly, and please fare safely!

    On his way out, Lee fell into tears as he thought of both the station chief’s kindness and Tan’s respect and recognition. Further, his room and board situation had been resolved. He thanked the Lord. To those who act with a kind heart, God, without question, rewards tenfold with His benevolence.

    When they left, it was around 11:00 a.m., and they encountered the bread merchant on his return trip. As promised, Missionary Lee bought a bag of bread and returned with Tan to his home. Tan’s wife and their children were sitting worriedly, but when the children heard footsteps, they rushed out to greet their father. The Tans had two boys and a daughter. When Lee gave the children the bag of breads, they jumped in delight. Lee then suggested to Tan, It’s time for lunch. If there’s a restaurant close by, let’s all go together for a meal. Tan hesitated, but the eldest child excitedly said that there was a restaurant nearby. It was a hot day, yet the children were gleefully skipping and leading the way to the restaurant. At the diner, there were tables with deliciously looking com suon nuong (a rice dish with marinated pork chops grilled over charcoal). Lee ordered six iced teas and six servings of com suon nuong. The Tan family and Missionary Lee sprinkled extra seasoning over the pork and enjoyed them with sides of vegetable soup.

    On their way back to Tan’s house, they stopped by the local rice shop. Lee asked Tan’s wife which rice was best, then bought fifty kilograms worth and had them separated into five ten-kilogram bags. This was because Missionary Lee had noticed before being detained that only a small handful of rice was left in Tan’s rice container. Lee also handed Tan’s daughter $20 in US currency for her and her mother to go grocery shopping. When evening arrived, the family put together a wide array of side dishes with separate rice bowls for each member, and they all feasted communally.

    When the Tans slept, they opened the door across from their bedroom and pulled a screen to shield against mosquitoes. But

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