VIETNAM: Unprecedented Christmas Gathering

A popular Vietnamese Christian website and other reports indicated up to 8,000 people responded to the gospel message indicating a desire to follow Christ. Authorities initially refused to grant permission and tried urgently to talk leaders out of going ahead, promising future concessions if they would cancel the event. At the close of business on 9 December just 48 hours before the scheduled event, officials granted permission but for only 3,000 people; organisers had less than two days to turn a vacant field into something that would accommodate a stadium-size crowd. Christian sources said authorities either did not or could not stop buses from other directions, and that at least 2,000 people had to be turned away. They said that the main speaker, the Rev Duong Thanh Lam, head of the Assemblies of God house churches, “preached with anointing” and people responding to his gospel invitation poured to the front of the stage “like a waterfall.”

Source: Compass Direct