The vital
importance of religious liberty
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around the world,
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mission in Vietnam
and an unnamed country,
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coming up next.
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Hello, and
welcome to Mission 360.
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I'm Gary Krause.
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Today's program is coming to you
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from Ho Chi Minh City,
formerly known as Saigon,
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here in Vietnam,
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and I'm standing in
front of Independence Palace.
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And this is a historic site
because during the Vietnam War,
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it was the home and the office
of the South Vietnam president.
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And this was also the sight
of the end of the Vietnam War
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because on April 13, 1975,
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a North Vietnamese
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tank crashed through these gates
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during the fall of Saigon.
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Well, through the years
this country has been invaded
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by many powerful civilizations,
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but it's, the people have
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proved themselves
resilient and strong.
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And I tell you, today's program
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we'll be looking at
mission around the world,
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we'll be looking at
mission right here in Vietnam.
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But first up, let's look
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at the importance
of religious liberty.
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For many Adventists
waking up on a Sabbath morning
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and going to church is routine.
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It's something we do every week.
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Many of us can't
imagine anything more serious
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than the occasional illness
or bad weather preventing us
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from going to church.
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For the most part,
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we have the freedom
to worship when, where
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and how we want.
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This freedom is
called religious liberty.
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Religious Freedom
or sometimes called
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in the international
community, freedom of religion
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or belief is part of
a cluster of values that
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the international community
has identified as necessary
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for human flourishing,
for peaceful coexistence
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and also for
societal prosperity.
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The religious
freedom has its roots in God.
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God that created freedom
and the reason is very simple.
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Without freedom,
love is impossible.
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Love has to be a choice.
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So therefore God
that created freedom.
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Also, even at a deeper level,
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we can think all human beings
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are created in the image of God.
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So if God is free,
then God's image ought
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to also enjoy the same freedoms.
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Religious freedom is
fundamental in accomplishing
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the mission of
the Adventist Church,
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both
theologically and practically.
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The freedom to
believe is only as valuable
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as your ability to
build a church to worshipping
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or to share your
beliefs with someone else
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or to keep a day holy
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according to your
religious beliefs.
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Without that ability to act,
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religious freedom
doesn't really exist.
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Religious
liberty is typically seen
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as fighting for
the Adventist churches
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right to worship,
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or an individual
Adventist's right to worship.
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But at the
office of Public Affairs
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and Religious Liberty,
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or PARL at the
world church headquarters,
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Adventist take religious liberty
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one step further.
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One of the things that I'm
very proud about our church
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is that we don't just
protect religious liberty
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for Seventh-day Adventists.
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We recognize that
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religious freedom
is a gift from God,
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and that we can't
coerce anyone to follow Him.
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We have to protect
the rights of all people.
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For instance,
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PARL has signed
on to a legal case
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where a young Muslim
girl was fired from work
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for wearing a
religious headdress.
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PARL representatives
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have supported the
rights of individuals
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from other faiths and efforts
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to uphold their
religious freedom.
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What PARL advocates
is an essential right
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God intended for
every human being.
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Without going into all
the facts for this case,
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the important thing to note
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is that many people would say,
"Why would we ask to protect
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the rights of a
young Muslim girl?"
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It's because
those similar rights
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in the workplace
are the same things
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that we as Adventist require
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when we want to get
Sabbath accommodation.
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And so, that's why sometimes
in explaining it to people,
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it's important for
them to understand that
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religious freedom
for all is important
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and without it for all, we
can't get it for ourselves.
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My guest is Dr. GT Ng,
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who is the executive secretary
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of the General Conference
of Seventh-day Adventists.
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And we're here
in Ho Chi Minh City
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and you know this territory
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very well
Southeast Asia, Dr. Ng.
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A little bit.
Yeah, a little bit.
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In fact, we were just
talking earlier about the fact
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that you were born in Singapore,
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and there was
something very special about
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where you were born.
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Tell me about that? Yes.
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My mother was the
first maternity patient,
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first Adventist
maternity patient
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of the hospital.
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And I was the
first Adventist baby
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ever born in the hospital.
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And was called the Youngberg...
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Youngberg Memorial
Adventist Hospital.
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Wonderful.
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During the 25th
anniversary of the hospital,
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my mother was invited
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by the hospital administration
to receive a plaque
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from the hospital president.
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And the plaque said,
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"This is given
to Mrs. Karina Lee,
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the first
Adventist maternity patient
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in Youngberg
Memorial Adventist Hospital.
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And the name of
his son is GT Ng.
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At that time, I was
serving in Cambodia.
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So my mother told
me about it later on
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and what an honor
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it was to be the
first baby ever born there.
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Yeah, that's wonderful.
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Now you were serving
in Cambodia at that time,
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now, that was the time too
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when you were
forced to come to Vietnam.
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Tell me about that? Yes.
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We were evacuated
from Phnom Penh to Saigon,
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which is now
Ottoman City in 1975.
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Ralph was the president
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of Services Youth Union
ordered us out of the country
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because according to news report
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the Americans with a
stop of bombing Phnom Penh.
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And he said,
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"All of you
student missionaries and I,
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myself must get
out of the country
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before Khmer Rouge
walked right into the city."
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And so we did
leave, we obey his order.
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And that's why
we landed in Saigon.
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And here we stay
for a couple of weeks,
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not knowing when to return.
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And so they put us up in
Saigon Adventist Hospital,
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one of the guest houses.
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Which is near here?
Which was near here.
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Okay. Yeah, in that direction.
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And so, what was it like
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when you were here
for that period of time?
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Uncertain, obviously?
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Very uncertain as to
when we will have to return.
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But the first
impression of Saigon at the time
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was that Vietnam was
a very peaceful country.
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Compared to
Cambodia? Compared to Cambodia.
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At that time,
Vietnam would have been
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at war for 28
years, that was 1973.
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And so, I thought to myself,
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"Man, this is a peaceful city.
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There's no bombing.
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There is no
gunshots that we could hear.
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You know,
compare with Phnom Penh,
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there was constant bombardment,
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constant rocket explosions,
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you know, fire on the outskirts,
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lots of military actions,
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B-52 bombing in the evening,
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and F-111 fighter
bombings during the day
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while some military activities
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whereas in Saigon,
it was very peaceful.
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So we had two weeks... Yeah.
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We could sleep well.
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And so we had two
weeks of tranquility.
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But our
tranquility was cut short
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when we were order
back to Phnom Penh.
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So you went back and you served
there for how much longer?
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For about a year more,
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then the situation
went from bad to worse.
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And so the union
at that time said,
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"There is no hope for Cambodia.
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We want you to go
back to Singapore,
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where we will reassign you."
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So there was a second evacuation
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the following
year, which was 1974.
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So we stayed there for about
three to four weeks, you know,
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relatively longer than
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our period of the
evacuation here in Vietnam.
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After that
things have calmed down.
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And so they said,
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"Cambodia is
still there on the map,
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you return to Phnom Penh."
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So we were shipped
back to the Phnom Penh
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where we continue
serving for another,
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maybe six to seven months
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when we were finally
evacuated for the last time,
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that was March, 1975.
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It must have been
difficult to say goodbye
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to Cambodia under
those circumstances?
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Yes, we had a 33
church members at that time,
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most of them were baptized
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during our two
years program in Cambodia.
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It was very difficult
to say goodbye to them.
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You're right.
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Because many of them will ask us
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with tears in their eyes,
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you know, "When
are you returning?
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When are you returning?
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We need a pastor here
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to continue to try
to sing us the Bible.
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We need somebody to
pray for us and with us.
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When are you coming back?"
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I said, "We
would like to come back
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as soon as possible.
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As soon as the
situation come down.
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We do not control our destiny.
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It's the Services Youth
Union that calls us out.
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As soon as they see
the situation calms down,
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we will surely return."
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But looking back, it
was only empty promises
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because we did not
know the situation.
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That will be so bad that
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it was
impossible for us to return
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because right after
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our evacuation in
the month of March,
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the following month,
only a few weeks later,
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Pol Pot took over the country.
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So he began a reign
of terror from 1975,
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all the way till 1979,
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in which 1.4 to 1.7
million people were killed.
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So it was a very dark chapter
in a history of Cambodia.
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Dr. Ng, thank you so much
for sharing with us today.
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It's our pleasure. Yeah.
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And God has never left His work.
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Even at the time
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when we thought the
work was being cut short,
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when church
members were decimated,
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God has His
people being baptized
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and train at the border
of Cambodia and Thailand.
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And so there was a rebirth
of our church in Thailand
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and many of them
returned to Cambodia
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to begin a new work.
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So we just praise
God for His oversight
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and over His
leadership over the situation
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here in Cambodia and Vietnam.
00:12:01.15\00:12:03.08
Thank you very much.
00:12:03.12\00:12:04.92
Viewers at home,
00:12:04.95\00:12:06.29
we're actually
right in the heart
00:12:06.32\00:12:07.66
of the 10/40 Window
here, Cambodia, Vietnam.
00:12:07.69\00:12:10.99
And I want you to please
continue to pray for mission.
00:12:11.03\00:12:14.30
I was talking
with Dr. Ng earlier
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and he's talking
about the greatest need that
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we have is workers,
people who are prepared
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to serve in very
challenging circumstances.
00:12:20.37\00:12:23.07
But we thank God for His leading
00:12:23.10\00:12:25.11
and we know that the
future is sure in His hands.
00:12:25.14\00:12:27.81
We'll be right
back after this break.
00:12:27.84\00:12:29.64