As we wrap things up for this most recent venture helping the Vietnamese, we've been dotting the "i"s and crossing the "t"s for our next trip -- just after the first of the year. However, with those plans firmed up, we have also been finalizing schedules for what we'll be doing on our second trip here next year.
Indeed, word has gotten around. It also is God's time.
With our focus of investing in and mobilizing the poor among the brethren in persecuted nations, the Vietnamese have been applying what we're teaching -- and against incredible odds, these principles have been working for them as they reach for more of God and set their course to become self-sustaining.
There's been a momentum building, along with the sound of the rains of revival.
 We've been a part of the turning taking place in this nation. Change for good is emerging. While persecution remains a reality -- the spiritual climate has begun responding to the fervent prayers of the righteous.
The application of God's economy is also becoming a reality and it has been spreading. With that, Vietnamese are helping Vietnamese.
What strikes me most about the Vietnamese response to Truth is the way they embrace and navigate Truth -- into the way they live their lives. Their priorities are in the right place. Indeed, they are walking out the admonition of James: "To be doers of the word and not hearers only, who deceive themselves."
There's something about God's heart for sacrificial giving and revival bleeding together.
Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 2 Cor 8:2
Not only are they reaching for more of God and the goal of becoming self-sufficient, but our Vietnamese co-laborers are truly operating as "community-builders." They're becoming the head and not the tail, as Vietnamese help Vietnamese.
Vietnamese Helping Vietnamese
Here are a few examples.
* Many of the church networks we work with operate as missionary churches, reaching out to Vietnamese communities across Vietnam and Southeast Asia. One gathering was an annual conference attended by local leaders from across the region, the fruit of their efforts. These were communities they have mobilized to be the "head and not the tail," from the poorest of the poor, with majority of those attending being from Vietnamese tribal groups. Also, one of our workshops we hosted had an leaders from distant provinces and seven different tribal groups.
* We have initiated a matching fund program to help launch new businesses with three different leaders of church networks based on matching seed capital coming from Vietnamese business people with established track records.
* One of the business people we have worked with has a track record of helping  young people and orphans. Since touting orphanages can be an overused fund-raising technique, I take care when I hear of orphanage activities. In this case, we know the founding couple well and have played a part in their plans becoming a reality. They had already been raising six orphans in their home, besides their own two children, as well as giving scholarships enabling 18 teens from the poor region of this brother's hometown to attend secondary school.
Since then he has used a property he owns to build a facility to house his expanding family of orphans with plans to expand it into a private Christian school. The application for the next step, the Kindergarten, has already been filed. What a joy to visit, minister and share devotions with these happy children and house mothers.
* We have opened the doors for an alliance with a Vietnamese firm that uses half of its facilities to house a Bible school that brings in rural pastors for intense, short-term Bible training. Through the Internet, the goal of this new alliance is to expand the market of their products into the US.
* Across a wide group of church networks leaders are meeting together to pray, collaborate and bless their communities with agendas ranging from feeding the poor to digging water wells. I was honored to be the keynote speaker concluding three days of a monthly fasting and praying gathering.
* A group of business owners in a coastal city who attended one of our prior workshops have been meeting regularly in support groups to seek God and help each other become successful. Their businesses have been growing. On this trip we conducted a special seminar for them, to review, pray for them and answer questions on "next steps." They've entered God's economy and they want MORE.
* One of the key church network leaders we work with has just received government approval for a travel service. We have been a part and have encouraged this initiative as it holds the potential of supporting his already significant efforts to advance the Kingdom. This man is not only a proven leader, but a serious giver and an Isaiah 58 practitioner.
Strongly related to these most recent testimonies of Vietnamese helping Vietnamese is the story from one of our previous missions. A village chief/ pastor of a tribal minority group attended one of our workshops. Not long before he came to our workshop, typhoon-level weather had torn out the electrical lines of his village and made many of the dirt roads impassable. Authorities told him: "Let your God help you." Shortly afterward, he was invited to attend our God's economy workshop.
After the workshop, we learned he had expertise in breeding a special variety of livestock used in high-end restaurants. We assisted with the purchase of three of these animals. When we returned less than two years later to see how his venture was going, we were surprised to find four other smiling village chiefs/ pastors greeting us.
What happened was that with the birth of the first offspring of the animals, this pastor gave half to another village chief/ pastor and trained him in the business. The process multiplied, as the second village chief did the same. Vietnamese helping Vietnamese.
The result was a cash flow being established in which these pastors began feeding their families, supporting their ministries and in each case extending their self-sufficiency with generators to provide them critical, consistent electrical power. The time commitment for raising these animals was less than two man hours a day. Even the authorities, who had previously denied them the services they provided to others, were impressed.
With the upswing in demand for our workshops has been an increase in the requests for my books in Vietnamese. I've investigated further to determine current pricing, as well as which book(s) should have priority.
The Dynamics
The parable of the talents, among many other like-truths in Scripture, teaches that as good stewards, God expects us to bring an increase. That's the foundational premise behind Biblical entrepreneurship. Indeed, God's very nature is to create, to innovate, to build and to multiply.
In the wisdom of God, in establishing their own foundation, our Vietnamese brethren avoid the snares that divide, as they fear God alone and apply the simple biblical wisdom to pray, to listen to God's Spirit, to serve and to place their dependency on reaching for more of Him. The result has been the sounds of rain, heavy rain.
Becoming the head and not the tail means resisting the trap of missing the real potential of God being their source -- by placing their trust in Western donations. It's about making a way where none seem to exist within their own cultural and economic infrastructure. That's the creative foundation for establishing God's economy.
Jesus' Kingdom message raises the bar. It establishes a standard, a dimension in God, beyond our human capabilities. The church in Vietnam has been through the fire. They've had everything possible thrown at them.
Still, they've heard the sound of rain, and will settle for nothing short of it.
The Expectation and Turning
Wherever we've gone, when received, it seems we've been igniters for revival and new  dimensions in God. The stewardship of something as significant as God's economy, through the imperfect vessels of God's people, can at times seem daunting. Yet, as I ponder the developments noted above, two things are clear. Our efforts are taking root. With that, we're also at a threshold in the turning underway.
Something new, vital and subtle is emerging. As a boy, I recall my mother frequently commenting: "Thank God for small favors." Sometimes it's the simple things that are the easiest to overlook when the turning and the birthing of the "new" comes forth. It's the "small favors" from the Lord that we don't want to miss.
Please pray for the development of our role in each of the above examples, as well as for what may be a new role with the American-Vietnamese community, the next steps in my writing, as well as our return to Israel the middle of October.
We deeply appreciate you for holding up our arms in the midst of all this. Thank you for your continued support that is making these efforts possible.
With every blessing,
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