Teaching new stories

5/09/2023 12:00:27 PM | Mark and Ngoc

Ngoc and Mark share how the ministry in Vietnam is opening eyes, empowering young people with disability and sharing the Gospel in culturally relevant ways.

Our partner NGO in Vietnam was founded in 2007 by Hoa (Peter), with a vision to equip young people with disability with the skills they need to be able to live independently.

This led to a vocational training centre being formed to train people with disability in teaching, business management, English, baking and more. This is the foundation of a rich ministry, where many people have experienced God’s love over many years. Before moving to Indochina, we had both served short-term with Hoa at the centre and seen first-hand its positive impact.

In April 2021, Hoa sadly passed away. And we were asked to prayerfully consider coming alongside his wife, Hien, to provide support and encouragement so that she could continue the ministry. After praying about it, we discerned God’s calling was for us to join the ministry.

We celebrate that our partner NGO is fully managed and operated by local people with disability. As team members, we come alongside these young people with disability and share the love of Christ by doing life together.

Through this ministry, we can see that young people with disability are being empowered and encouraged to do things that they otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to do.
For example, there are four English teachers who provide night classes to 150 children from the community.

In Vietnam, people with disabilities are often undervalued, while teachers are held in high regard. This means it is very rare for people with disabilities to be teachers and to teach able bodied children.

However, at our partner NGO this is exactly what is happening. The community is entrusting their children’s education to teachers with disabilities.

Perceptions don’t change overnight, but we believe that this experience is opening the eyes of the students and their families. We hope that as they see their teachers as empowered, intelligent and capable people, their perceptions of people with disabilities more broadly will change for the better.

Please pray with us that this will happen through the love of the Father and His transforming power.

Suong's story
Suong is a 25 year old woman who was affected by Agent Orange. As a result, she has a severe deformity which prevents her from being able to walk. Before she came to our partner NGO, she had not gone to school because her family thought she would not have a future due to her disability. She could not read or write.

After being trained at our partner NGO for five years, she decided to move back to her hometown. Since then, she has opened up an English school and is a well respected English teacher in her community. Praise God for this transformation!
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