Vietnam – Hmong Outreach

In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace.

Colossians 1:6

God’s grace has opened doors to an unprecedented mission opportunity in communist Vietnam.

It all started when Zang Lou, a leader within the Hmong Fellowship Church (HFC) in Vietnam, viewed an online sermon by WELS Pastor Bounkeo Lor in 2011. The clear proclamation of law and gospel and the message of pure grace through Jesus Christ was something he had never heard before . . . and he wanted to learn more. That same year, Zang Lou invited Lor to come to Vietnam to train the HFC in the truth of the gospel. Lor made his first training visit in 2012. Since that time, Lor has made over 24 different trips to Hanoi, Vietnam. To assist in his training, members of the Pastoral Studies Institute (PSI) began to accompany him on some of these trips starting in 2016.

With every visit Lor has made to conduct training in Hanoi, approximately 60 church leaders have attended to learn more about the truths of the Bible. These same 60 leaders have been taking the message back to their rural congregations, preaching the message of salvation by faith, not by works – something the members had never heard before. The HFC was a church body of 55,000 members when Zang Lou first reached out to WELS. In the years WELS has provided training, the HFC has grown from 55,000 to over 100,000 members and formed many new churches. HFC leaders have seen the growth and the joy that Lutheran teaching has brought to their congregations and have expressed a desire to become a confessional Lutheran church body. Learn more about WELS mission history in Vietnam.

The Opportunity

The message of free grace received from Jesus Christ has replaced their old law-based preaching: Grace has brought peace to the Hmong Fellowship Church, and church leadership has stabilized as a result. The communist government in Vietnam has noticed this positive change.

The Vietnamese government has invited WELS to build a theological training facility in the capital city of Hanoi.

This is an incredible, unprecedented opportunity for our synod. WELS is currently the only protestant church with official government permission to work with the Hmong in Vietnam. The Lord is opening a door to reach the more than two million Hmong people who live in Vietnam and the surrounding countries. However, this door can close at any time. Our WELS World Missions team is working quickly to ensure WELS is taking full advantage of the time the lord has provided.

WELS is collecting a special offering through June 2019, with the goal of raising $2 million to purchase land, construct the campus, and cover the initial two years of operational costs.