A
choir of ethnic Hmong in Vietnam’s Central Highlands performs at a time
when authorities are making it harder to worship. Officials are forcing
congregations from several villages to combine into a single church so
they can better monitor their activities. “The government wants to
suppress the spread of the gospel,” the leader of an indigenous ministry
said. “One area has five churches within an area of a radius of 20
kilometers (12 miles) that have been registered, approved. They are
going to be combined together into one big megachurch so that the
government can control it better.” Families are hard-pressed to make it
that far to Sunday worship by bicycle, and trying to cram 2,000 people
into one structure is impossible. The ministry is expanding the kingdom
of God, however, by helping congregations to build worship centers,
training evangelists and pastors and providing an “Evangelical
Explosion” curriculum to pique people’s curiosity. “When one person
believes in these ethnic groups, the family and the neighbors also will
believe,” the director said. “It’s a movement, and that’s why the
government doesn’t like it.”
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