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Vietnamese church leaders gather for discipleship training. Image from Open Doors USA

Angh (not his real name) received a message to go to the district police station in the Daklak province of the Central Highlands in Vietnam. The teenager, a church worker and student in a Christian discipleship class, was interrogated by the police and asked about his attendance in the class. He said he was studying the Word of God. Immediately one of the policemen used his club to strike him on his head. He fell flat on the floor, seeing nothing but blackness.

Angh was told to go home and no longer attend the Bible class—or else there would be more severe punishment.

For days Angh experienced dizziness from the clubbing. His family advised him to drop out of the class. He refused.

Angh told his family: "I am convinced that as I follow the Lord, I have to learn His Word. I will continue to study the Bible. I am not afraid. After the incident, my faith has gotten stronger."

Persecution of the majority of Protestant Christians in Vietnam, especially minority Montagnards in the Central Highlands and Hmong and Dao in the Northwest provinces, remains systematic and severe. Many of the ethnic-minority Christians have been evicted from their ancestral homelands. Others have been arrested, tortured, and have had their homes and churches burned to the ground. The communist government of Vietnam recognizes as legal only 20 percent of Vietnam's estimated 1.2 million evangelical Protestants.

Last November, Vietnam put into effect a new Ordinance on Religion. This law purportedly guarantees freedom in one article, but the reality is different.

Despite the severe persecution, thousands of believers are coming to Christ. According to Operation World, evangelicals are growing at an annual rate of over 6 percent. Unregistered house churches are thriving, often meeting secretly in the jungle to avoid the police. And among the ethnic minorities, the Good News of Jesus Christ is spread by word of mouth, from tribe to tribe.

Persecution Report is presented in cooperation with Open Doors USA, which serves the Persecuted Church through training, Bible distribution, and community development. For more information, call 1-888-5-BIBLE-5 or visit www.odusa.org.

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