Love Of Vietnam Expressed, Inc.

By

Helping the poor and needy

Web page: www.loveofvietnamexpressed.org

Official Newsletter of  LOVE                                                                       February 2006

Lunar New year

The year of the Dog

It is my hope that the articles presented here will help you in your prayers for our ministry in Vietnam...that you may better understand the daily battles we wage.

(Rom 8:26-27 NKJV)  Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

(Rom 10:1-4 NKJV)  Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.  For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

AS PAUL PRAYED FOR ISRAEL SO IS MY PRAYER FOR VIETNAM.

According to custom, New Year’s Eve and the

To better understand the Vietnamese people and our ministry to them you can click on the links below.

  Understanding

  Ancestor Worship

  Symbols of Tet

  Tet and the Vietnamese cultural identity

  First visitor after the New Year

  Some spiritual beliefs

  Year of the Dog

first and second days of the New Year are the three most important meeting times.

Vietnamese people believe home deities, such as the Kitchen God, God Mother, or ghost will return home. Ancestors and deceased family members also come home and on New Year’s Eve, families arrange a meal, called Com Tan Nien, to welcome them, this is the united meal of families.

During Tet, families worship and follow traditional customs. They worship their ancestors by lighting incense and praying for them, and by offering them nourishment, paper money and effigies. Copied from VietNamNet

Bank of Hades” busy during Tet

Copied from VietNamNet – Hanoi’s Cot village is known as the “Bank of Hades” with vast quantities of votive money made and traded daily.

Straying into the Bank of Hades

Cot village in Yen Hoa ward, Cau Giay District, specializes in producing instruments and money for the afterlife. I visited the village early in the morning close to Tet, as “banking staff’ from various areas came to make transactions.

Entering the village I saw innumerable paper clothes, vehicles, and votive US dollars airing on the sidewalk. Several small trucks were running on the small village road carrying paper for votive objects, and men were pulling cyclos loaded with all kinds of votive money, from coins to US dollar, Vietnamese dong and even gold and silver bullion.

Cot villagers say that votive money printed in their village does not only serve the need of Hanoians' ceremonial ‘burnt offerings’, but also people in neighboring provinces such as Hung Yen, Hai Phong, and Nam Dinh.

It is said that life in the Hades is similar to life on the earth, with people in the afterlife spending money just like us, and coming to Cot village, I became aware of how people of the beyond spend. They have all kinds of money in this other world: Vietnamese dong, US banknotes and coins, and gold and silver in the form of bullion and sheets.

According to preliminary statistics of the culture and information sector, Vietnamese people annually burn 40,000 tons of votive paper. According to Prof. PhD To Ngoc Thanh, Secretary General of Vietnam Folk Arts Association Production, burning of votive paper is part of Vietnamese culture, but it is a waste if too large a volume is burnt so it is necessary to control the votive paper sold in the market to ensure the existence of craft villages producing such objects.

Dung, one of the biggest producers of votive money in Cot village, said that money for people of the beyond is divided into several kinds based on the buyer. The poor can purchase votive money made from recycled paper at a low price, while richer people can buy votive money made from better quality paper.

Above, some of the children’s mothers at Hoa Quy Ward of Nhu Hanh Son District in Danang help us pack bags of goods for each family for Tet. This is one of the poorest wards in Danang. Last year two of our families in this ward each sent a child to college. LOVE is helping them also. We gave 50 Tet gifts mostly in Ngu Hanh Son District of Danang with funds coming from an anonymous  donor.

Chi and I enjoy a New Years dinner cooked by the poor students of the embroidery class at a Catholic school. LOVE provides lunch for them. We were allowed to share God’s love with them. I sang the only song I can sing in Vietnamese, “I love you Lord”.

The men all work around the convent and school which also has a day care and kindergarten. Pray for them all to know Jesus.

LOVE delivered 50 TET gift and 37 scholarships in Tien Phuoc, Quang Nam.

The funds to do this came from “A Helping Hand Adoption Agency”.

Pray for Vietnam

The children here in Vietnam need your prayers and your help!

PLEASE HELP A CHILD THIS MONTH

Blessings,

Reggie, Bao Chi & Hannah

in

Vietnam