PREFACE
The following Account of the Vietnam
Division was compiled by Cherie Kropp from statements made during
the years 2013 and 2014 by Nguyễn
Huu Bau, his daughter Nguyễn Thị Minh
Thanh and her husband Nguyễn
Xuân Hoŕn, who all reside in Saigon/HCMC and Nguyễn
Thanh Hoa, a Brother Worker, who is no relation to the others.
My name is Nguyễn Huu
Bau, and I am 84 years old, and my wife is 81. We met the
Workers in 1956 through Uncle Châu’s family at the Protestant
Church.
Both of us professed the same night in
1961. We’re the first couple in the way in Vietnam. Our home also
is the first place for Fellowship Meeting in Vietnam times. We had
7 children, 11 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren. Four of my
children opened their houses for Fellowship Meeting and bread & cup.
All 7 children professed and three have passed away.
View Early
Family Photo.
My name is Nguyễn Thị Minh Thanh
(aka Minh Thanh or MT).
I'm the third child of Mr. & Mrs. Bau, the second generation in this
Way. I professed when I was twelve years old. My family used to
welcome the Workers coming to have meals at my home or stay. We used
to have Sunday morning and midweek meetings at our house for thirty
years. We had wonderful fellowship with Workers and Friends. MT
was six years old when her parents professed in 1961, and she is now
60 years old. She and Xuân Hoŕn met at Convention,
married in February, 1979 and lived in Dalat for more than 20 years
before moving to Saigon. They have two grown professing children, a
daughter and a son, and 3 grandsons. Unless noted otherwise, most
of the quotes below in italics are by Minh
Thanh.
My name Xuân Hoŕn. I'm Minh Thanh's husband. All my
family and relatives are Catholic. I am the only one in the Way. I
am happy to have my wife and two children accompanying me in this
way. I was born and raised in Catholic. I was very zealous with my
belief. Since my childhood, I studied and lived in a school
belonging to Catholic with many priests as teachers. My mother and
seven brothers and sisters went to church every day. In 1973 I was
studying at the University of Dalat. As I was leaving, two ladies
were by the gate distributing invitations to Gospel Meetings and to
a Bible class in English. I went to the Bible class to learn
English. The teachers were Bonnie Dahlin and Phyllis Munn,
and both spoke Vietnamese fluently. The students each read one
phrase in the Book Luke and then she explained the meaning. For the
first time, I began to understand the Bible. I went to their Gospel
Meetings and I professed. Only a few months later the Liberation Day
came, and all the foreign Workers had to leave the country. I was
the only believer in Dalat which is 300 km from Saigon. Before
Auntie Bonnie left, she wrote me a letter saying, "Don't be afraid
of death but be afraid that whether we will still keep our faith to
the end." (read full story in Appendix)
Nguyễn Thanh Hoa professed in 1961 in the Gospel Meetings
of Phyllis Munn and Bonnie Dahlin held in Saigon. He
was from Saigon, South Vietnam, was 21 years old and worked in an
imprint factory. He was the first native to profess and the first
native to go in the work. He was drawn to follow the Way the workers
preached because: The deepest impression I received from Fred's
meetings was ‘the letter kills, but the Sprit makes alive.’
He wrote: My younger brother brought me to Phyllis Munn and
Bonnie Dahlin's batch in order to study English. They used the
English Gospel text to teach in their classes. Before I met with the
Gospel, my family was just like the great crowd of Vietnamese, who
practise the worship of our ancestors and grandparents. In fact I
never called myself a Buddhist. My widowed mother felt sad at first
as my brother and I professed; but she professed 1 year before her
death at the age of 86. Besides, one of my elder sisters and a niece
[belongs to the other sister] professed. Phyllis and Bonnie
brought me to Fred Allen, who had many English classes and Gospel
Meetings
Nguyễn Thanh Hoa was the first person to profess in VN
and the first native worker to enter the work, in April, 1967. After
43 years in the work, he stopped cooperating with the Canadian
Overseers and has continued his ministry independent of them. He is
a worker among the Golden Friends.
## Statements in italics by the family members listed
above were made in personal emails to Cherie Kropp and Edgar Massey
and in posts made on the Truth Meetings Forum in a thread started by
Edgar Massey on May 23, 2013 titled Vietnam. LINK:
http://professing.proboards.com/thread/20852/vietnam
Note about Vietnam Name sequence: Their surname or last name is
given first, then their middle name, and their first name is given
last. For Example, Mr. Bau’s full name is written: Nguyễn Huu Bau.
In English, it would be written as: Bau Huu Nguyễn. It is respectful
to refer to older people as “Mr. Bau” or “Uncle Bau.” Married women
retain their maiden names and do not take the name of their husband.
Please understand that some people in this Account who are
called “Uncle” or “Aunt” may not be blood relatives!
Liberation Day was April 30, 1975, the End of the Vietnam
War, also known as Reunification Day.
Certain terminology has been capitalized to emphasize that these
words should be understood in the 2x2 context. Permission was given
to Cherie Kropp to edit original quotes for English, grammar and
spelling. Original quotations were retained as much as possible.
Mission Statement of the Nguyễn Family for this Account:
We only want the Workers and Friends to know the truth about what
has happened in Vietnam, especially the Vietnamese Friends around
the world. We have written this Account so others can examine the
situation and understand things as they really are. Things that even
the Vietnamese Friends and Workers never knew about--evil things
that were hidden and covered up with a beautiful outer surface! It
is our sincere hope that the Overseers and Workers do not repeat
this behavior again in another place as they have done in the past
at Alberta, Canada and more recently in Vietnam.
We thank God for opening a way for us through the internet so we
could understand and be comforted by our Friends in many other
places throughout the world who have had similar experiences. Our
only purpose is to tell the truth so no one can continue to destroy
the peace of God any more!
We value the Fellowship with each other and with God very much.
We were very satisfied in God’s Way until the Canadian Workers (Dale
Shultz, Lyle Shultz and Darrel Turner) came to VN and caused trouble
and changed many things. We only desire to have the Fellowship, love
and unity that we had for many years previously before all the
unnecessary changes were made. Throughout our lives, nearly 50 years
of following God, we have felt that our lives have been far richer
than we could ever have imagined. We wanted and prayed that a
miracle would be done to correct everything back to the right. But
finally, we gave up. Sad to say, the Golden Time wasn’t allowed to
continue as it should have! What has happened in Vietnam has pained
us deeply and made us very sad.
We all talked to and wrote many letters to ask the Canadian Workers
to make things right as Jesus had taught. It seemed that the
Canadian Overseers just didn’t care about solving the many issues.
We waited for a long time believing a solution would open up…but it
was hopeless! We learned that the solution is to keep the truth and
go on. Surely, we want to obey what the Lord teaches us in the
Bible, even if that means we disagree with the Overseers’ leading.
Dale Shultz even warned the Friends in a letter: “… this
effort requires your full cooperation. We appeal to all of you
to work closely and cooperatively with Lyle and Lloyd. This is the
order that our great teacher honors and blesses and is the only
hope of unity and joy being restored in fullest measure.
We miss the sweet Fellowship that we had a long time ago in the
Golden Time, but we have not written this Account because we want to
have Fellowship with them again (although there are many good
Friends still there.) Right now we are leaning on what the Spirit
spoke to the Church at Thyratira in Revelation 2:25 “Only hold fast
to what you have until I come.”
Our family did not leave the 2x2 Fellowship in VN because we read
the TTT website or any other similar websites. We left because we
saw that the new Overseers in our country were leading the folks
without the Spirit of God. We did not see the love and unity among
the Workers, and did not find the truth in their words. Many other
bad works we have seen and heard about how they have treated the
Friends and Workers who didn't obey or bow down to their rule. We
also didn’t agree with the Overseers saying the Workers should be
given the highest place of respect. (While our Lord Jesus gave us a
big example in the Bible in cleaning his disciples’ feet. How humble
HE IS). That’s the reason our family decided to leave Meetings.
We are holding much information, material, letters and even
recordings concerning the troubling things that took place
throughout the past three years, 2010 thru 2013 which we are sharing
with you here. (see Appendix)
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