"My Mission to Viet Nam - How It Began"

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Although I grew up and entered the Gospel Ministry at Roger Heights Missionary Baptist Church in Nashville, TN, I became acquainted with Vietnam Mission Outreach work in 2013, via my home church in Antioch, Tennessee, U. S. - The Blessed Baptist Church - Korean, where I have served as a Youth Minister and Bassist for the past 11+ years. Each year there is a mission trip to Vietnam and South Korea. However, we have since expanded God’s Outreach Mission work to the Haitian peoples of the Dominican Republic since 2022.

My first Vietnam Mission Trip was in 2014. We traveled to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam, and several other cities and provinces. While touring Vietnam, we were exposed to much of the culture. Notwithstanding, experiencing the culture shock of moving about in a Communist – Buddhist country, where the people lacked knowledge of Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior, was amazing to me! Especially when it came to the youth and young adults. (Mark 10:14) This hurt me! However, thanks to our translators, we were able to interact with the people with a rather personable and humble approach, especially the youth.

As we traveled throughout the country, I became interested in breaking through the language barrier. It was through these travelling experiences that my heart was blessed with the idea of sharing the love of Christ Jesus, (Mark 1:17), through teaching English.

Moreover, the Lord God fixed it whereby I, as a foreign Black Man from a totally different background, would begin teaching in Vietnamese households! This is unheard of! But they heard of how much I loved their children and the teenagers that they put trust in this “foreigner” and allowed me to share my talent to their children.

My landlord was the first person to arrange two families for me to tutor. This then grew to three families and soon after, there was a total of five families involved with a total of eleven families between four households! I knew who was ultimately expanding this Ministry whereby I was exposing the Christian Lifestyle to these households. (I Cor. 3:7)

Three years later, in 2016, December, this same desire led me to become involved with a small Learning Center, (BLCS), where I volunteered for 3 weeks as a Mathematics and English teacher. However, during my first week of volunteer service, there was a teacher that got married and decided to return to her home province. I was asked if I could continue on through the remainder of the school year - another five months! I said yes, (Luke 2.49) and I remained there at the Blessed Learning Center Saigon.

After the school year ended at the Learning Center, I was asked to privately tutor a couple of young Vietnamese students. Thus began my venture of private tutoring in English and Mathematics. This is due, mostly in part, to the fact that many people prefer to have a native speaker of the English language as their teacher. I was later blessed to gain more students by word - of - mouth. I still enjoy this experience of teaching and I am very thankful to God for this unique opportunity. Especially since this has become a Ministry to share God's Love through some sacrifice and patience. (I Thess. 1:3 and I Tim. 1:14.)

The reason I mention sacrifice and patience is because there were many times that I had to deal with receiving payment after providing the tuition sessions. Many of the people in Vietnam are very likely to wait a few extra days to pay for services. I learned that it was a normal practice and it was not always a “happy” experience for me, as I had my apartment and motorcycle rent to pay out. Due to the slow payment of some households, I would be a few days late on paying my expenses. But I often figured, “Why don’t I take this opportunity to practice Gal. 5.22,23?”

So, I began living with this in mind, and I knew it would be of a good report for me, mostly because I was living the Mission as a representative of Christ Jesus and the Power of God the Father. This was a daily grind – and I began to Glorify the Father within the first 3 months of doing this work. For it was work that was “…unto the Lord…” I also knew that my neighbors were finding out that the “foreigner” was not some sorry joker that was in the country to run drugs (as I had been told about) or start a prostitution ring. But they learned that I was a teacher that stayed to himself and showed kindness every chance that I got the opportunity to do so.

Having said all of this, I am hurt that there are not nearly enough of “us” that try to connect and make a mark in our lives, whether it be, “Oh, yeah. I went over there before.” Or something like, “I am so glad that the Lord God used me to travel to Tim Buk Tu!”. I feel that it is nothing more than actually having that desire to carry out Matt. 28.19.

Nevertheless, as a family of Black Americans, I/you/he/she may not see the aforementioned Scripture applying to ourselves within a congregation, but there should be some type of “desire” or “wonderment” of visiting another non-Christian nation, even if it is for nothing but to try out the food or hear the language up close-and-personal, yes? And there are ways to “plant seeds” of finances so that we are capable of making such happen.

This is a do-able thing! So, may we focus on it and try our best? (I have tried and continue to try to get “us” involved even within our own U. S. of A. hometowns) to PRAY for the enlarging of territory. I Chronicles 4.10. It will take Faith and Prayer and Fasting!

This is how God moves within our Mission Outreach and how we carry out HIS Plans at Blessed Baptist Church - Korean!

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Rev. Cecil Wayne Allen currently serves The Blessed Baptist Church – Korean in Antioch, TN.
Having served in the Armed Forces for some 25 years, he is retiring from the military,
and currently teaches Special Education in Murfreesboro, TN.

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