Vietnamese pastor makes home country a priority

By Dianna L. Cagle

BR Editorial Assistant

With more than 82 million people living in Vietnam, it might surprise North Carolina Baptists that less than one percent know Jesus Christ.

Hoa Duc Vo prepares to baptize a new convert in Vietnam. (Photo contibuted by Hoa Duc Vo)

"God has opened the doors in Vietnam, allowing the gospel to be shared, and there have been many lost souls who now embrace the Lord," said Vo, who is from Vietnam, and who tries to make at least two trips a year to his home country.

Vo was raised Roman Catholic. He left Vietnam in 1975 with his wife and three-day-old daughter as "boat" people after the fall of South Vietnam.

"With a weak and sick wife and child on the vast ocean, I prayed to whatever god to save us and vowed that whatever god or religion that rescued my family then that was the religion I was to dedicate my life to," he said. "It was then a Christian family from Salisbury sponsored our family and brought us to the United States."

Vo came to America and began to work, putting his promise out of his mind. His family expanded to include two more daughters and a son. They moved to Charlotte and opened an ethnic food store and fish market.

"We were living the 'American dream,'" Vo said. "However, I never had any peace, and I then remembered my promise of 1975. It was then that I sold everything and dedicated my life to be the Lord's servant."

Southside Baptist Church brought the Vo family to Greensboro and established the Vietnamese Baptist Mission.

"When I first came to Greensboro in 1986, there were only about eight or nine families with a total Vietnamese population of about 70 people," Vo said. "I began the mission with my family as the only members, then I readily went out witnessing to the Vietnamese people in Greensboro. Steadily God opened the doors allowing many refugees to immigrate to North Carolina, and from there the Lord's work began to grow."

Then in 1991, Southside helped build a facility to house the growing church.

Vo said the debt for the building was paid off in seven years, which opened financial means for him to go to Vietnam to minister to people in his country.

From 1986 to the present, Vo has been serving as a church planter as well, helping open at least seven new missions in North Carolina.

As for the Vietnamese Baptist Church, about 100 members gather on a weekly basis to worship and attend Sunday School.

Vo does not leave his church unattended. For several years, Vo drove eight to 10 members to attend theological classes in Atlanta to train and equip them to lead the congregation while he is away. In fact, Vo said his trips have brought his congregation closer together.

"The members of our church take great joy when I go back to Vietnam because the church members are closer and more unified when I am away especially through prayer," he said.

Vo's most recent trip to Vietnam was in the fall from September to November.

"I visited churches throughout Vietnam from the North to the South, with the purpose of encouraging, having revivals, training, leadership, discipleship conferences so that the new believers and leaders are adequately equipped so that they can go out and witness to the people of Vietnam," he said. "I was able to baptize 520 new believers on my latest trip."

Vo typically baptizes about 500 new believers each trip to his home country.

"God has given me a vision of 1 million lost souls to the Lord and for that reason my sole agenda is to bring the gospel to the lost before I am called home to be with our Savior," Vo said.

The majority of the Vietnamese population are Buddhist, he said, but the Great Commission is his driving force.

"It is His word, our Lord Jesus Christ's Great Commission," he said. "Every time that I return to Vietnam, it seems that the servants in Vietnam find great encouragement that someone cares for them."

Currently, Vo's next trip is scheduled for March 15, but he said he's waiting on God to provide the needed funds.

"I know if He opens the door, then He will make a way and provide the financial assistance that is needed," said Vo. "Over the last 10 years, it has been by this faith that I have worked."

His trips have been financially supported through Southside, the Piedmont Baptist Association and the Baptist State Convention, as well as individual donations.

Vo was also part of the June 2006 Southern Baptist Convention in Greensboro.

He baptized seven members of his congregation as part of the "Everyone Can" campaign created by then-president Bobby Welch.

"In Vietnam, I have to baptize in wells or in creeks infested with leeches," Vo said, in a Baptist Press article.

If you would like to help with Pastor Vo's next trip, you may call (336) 272-1582.