​O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave...

​It’s those patriotic lyrics that Americans proudly sing on Independence Day. Yet many people in rural East Asia don’t have the privileges of “home” that we do. Here's how we’re helping.

We praise the Lord who guides us and provides us with the daily needs of our little orphans. And we'd like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all who partner with us through financial and prayer support. Special thanks goes to Agape Fish Fund, who faithfully supports us financially for the orphans' nutrition and educational expenses. We would also like to say thanks to our private donors, both from abroad and locally. May the good God return them bountiful blessings in their life.

Thank God all our orphans passed their grades last year. The school year is from June to February. As the new school year has started, the children have all been admitted, and now they are attending school from Monday to Friday. They go to school at 8:00 am and come back at 3:30 pm.

In the morning they have breakfast just before going to school. Mrs. Rev. Thang drops them off at school, and then at noon she brings them lunch. Lunchtime is 12:00 - 1:00 pm. Mrs. Rev. Thang again picks up the children when school is dismissed in the afternoon.

Are you striving to do something meaningful with your vacation time in 2017? Prayerfully consider joining a South East Asia Prayer Center (SEAPC) Vacation with a Purpose short-term team trip and you will be impacting the lives of others.

All SEAPC mission teams go first and foremost for the purpose of prayer, leading people, and using their unique God-given abilities. We invite you to use whatever gifts God has given you to serve alongside SEAPC on a short-term mission team in the platforms of healthcare, education, parenting, and micro-economic development. For more information regarding trips to other areas or about anything listed below, please contact SEAPC at 412-826-9063 or [email protected].

​It’s summertime! Our ministry partner O’Keefe has been busy these past few months, wrapping up the school year strong with their tutoring program for low income students.

​We continued the weekly tutoring sessions on Thursday and Monday, one for middle school students and one for elementary school students. The fun event this month was taking a Thursday to decorate cookies with the kids. What a great way to celebrate spring break.

​Some of the kids were starting to finish their homework already, so the challenge was to keep them productive during the tutoring time. Our tutors still wanted to give them their attention, even if it meant reviewing the homework to check it over.

​Pastor Thu is like a spiritual father to children in Cambodia and prisoners in Taiwan.

​The terms Asian-American and homeless don’t regularly go together, as San Francisco State University professor Russell Jeung points out. 
 
But despite common belief, many Asian-American immigrants escaping war and poverty at home face homelessness in America. For Jeung’s neighbor Jimmy, being without permanent shelter is a sacrifice to make higher education possible. Jimmy attends SFSU and lives out of his car, cleaning himself with hydrogen peroxide and at times resorting to sneaking a rice cooker into his university’s library. Jeung has two other neighbors, Sonny and Mary, who have faced housing challenges. For them, displacement and lack of a home are also sacrifices that serve a larger purpose; a momentary discomfort that allows greater convenience for their family. 
 
Jeung urges those more well-off to love and identify with their homeless neighbors, rather than blaming the societal forces that allow for homelessness. He believes that “we, too, are foreigners and exiles to this world,” and that the impetus is on the individual to seek God’s righteousness with mankind, regardless of status or monetary wealth. 

You are invited to join our partner Vets with a Mission on one of three medical mission teams to Vietnam in the spring of 2018. These trips include experiences to: 

1. Thua Thien Hue Province
2. Near Hue City
3. A Luoi Near the Laotian/Vietnam Border

 
​If you are a medical-health professional, your role will be hands-on with the patients. Physicians, Physician Assistant's and Nurse Practitioners all serve as patient examiners. Nurses serve in triage working up the patients, identifying their health issues before the patients are examined. If you are a dentist, you will be very busy! A Pharmacist is needed to supervise the VWAM pharmacy, a Physical Therapist would do PT, an Ophthalmologist/Optometrist would see eye patients, and so on. Each medical-health professional has an assigned interpreter. 

Those who are not medical-health professionals play an integral role on the team in either pharmacy, patient services, or security. There is an important role for each team member to play!

​Vietnamese Inmates Converted in Taiwan
As part of his official assignment from The Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) in Canada, Pastor Thu has been ministering to 100 Vietnamese inmates in Taiwan since 2007. A majority of these Vietnamese have become believers while they’re in the detention centers or prison. After they are released, they must return home, according to Taiwan’s government immigration policy.

Returnees Face Challenges in Vietnam
Pastor Thu visits the converted returnees back in Vietnam and helps connect them with churches in their homeland. During these visits, Pastor Thu has realized how the returnees are economically disadvantaged. The local areas where they live don’t have available jobs. Therefore many of them have to leave again to look for jobs elsewhere. Some of them go to bigger cities; others go to other countries such as Laos, Thailand, or Malaysia.

Livestock Breeding Center
We want to help alleviate the poverty in Vietnam so these returnees can have a livelihood in their homeland. We are partnering with Pastor Mui in Vietnam, who has a large piece of property. Together we will develop a livestock breeding center. This holistic project can satisfy the needs of the local church and its surrounding impoverished community in two ways, both economically and spiritually.

• Economic benefits: The community will have the opportunity for additional income by raising, breeding, and selling goats. This will help improve the standard of living for both the church and the community members.
• Spiritual benefits: The church can increase their influence in their community for evangelism. This strategy is an innovative way to evangelize, which is appropriate for the political and economic situation in Vietnam.

Proven Effective for Poverty Alleviation
According to the Goat and Rabbit Research Centre in Vietnam, goat production is popular in mountainous areas and is a means to improve the income of the rural poor. In fact, the results of goat farming seem so effective, that the research center proposes that research activities should be extended into more areas in Vietnam as a means of increasing farmers’ incomes and alleviating hunger and poverty in these areas of Vietnam. They conclude that goat production is playing an increasingly important role in the improvement of the income of poor farmers and is contributing significantly to poverty and hunger alleviation in Vietnam. [Source]

From Vietnam to Canada
Pastor Thu Nguyen was an unbeliever in Vietnam, where he served in the navy for six years. He was there until the naval ships were evacuated on April 30, 1975, when the war ended. In August 1975 he was allowed to reside in Edmonton, Canada. He became a Christian a year later, when he first heard about the gospel. "My conversion is the starting point of God's abundant grace in my life," he said.

Soon after his conversion, he moved to Vancouver to join a Vietnamese church there. Back then, there was only one Vietnamese church in the West. 

First Ministry Calling
In 1978 Pastor Thu attended a Christian youth retreat in California. He responded to the preacher's call to serve in ministry, even though he was still a new Christian. "This was my first ministry calling, which happened as a process," he said. This calling, which was an amazing grace, became a reality nearly 20 years later.

​Many thanks to all of you who supported our Boba Fundraiser on Saturday, June 3, 2017. We raised $770 toward a new house for a poor family in Vietnam. We are more than 1/3 of the way to funding a new home, thanks to your help.