TaiDam Christians & the narrow road

The TaiDam Christians are very familiar with the "narrow road" that Jesus described in Matthew 7:14. In fact, the following account shows that not only is the road narrow, but extremely uncomfortable and unpredictable as well. 

Three of the lady leaders have just returned from a grueling bus journey to visit a group of TaiDam Christians in a remote area of Vietnam. They booked fare on a "sleeper bus" that had upper and lower beds down on both sides of the bus. However, upon boarding the bus, the conductor showed them to their berth, which was only a small space on the floor normally used for luggage!

To make matters worse, the assistant bus driver came along later and tied his hammock over their heads, climbed in and went to sleep.  They did not have enough room to lay down, and one of the ladies could not even sit upright without hitting her head on the hammock, even though they were sitting on the floor.

When they complained to the bus driver about paying full fare and not getting regular berths (they actually paid thirty percent more than the Vietnamese passengers), the bus driver told them that they should have come and paid him to ride his bus instead of purchasing their ticket at the bus company's window in the bus station.

Once they arrived near the village in Vietnam, the TaiDam Christians they had gone to visit would not talk to them and told them not to come into their village. Then upon their bus ride back home, they were once again assigned the cargo area! By the time they had returned home, they had traveled over seventy hours in the cargo area of a bus. What a failure the trip would seem to them to have been!

But James, chapter 4 says: “Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.''

So even though the trip may seem to have been a failure, we believe that what happened was in God’s will. We believe that the Holy Spirit was protecting the team that was sent and also may have been protecting the Vietnamese TaiDam believers.

Please join us in Praising our Lord and Savior for a safe journey and thanking God for these faithful TaiDam workers, who go through so much but still have such humble, thankful hearts!