file: /pub/resources/text/reformed: nr94-055.txt ------------------------------------------------ Reformed Believers Press Service An independent source of news on developments in the Reformed and Presbyterian world Sponsored by Reformed Believers United News Release For Immediate Release October 24, 1994 Release #1994-55 For Further Information Contact: Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer Reformed Believers Press Service Voice: (616) 674-8446 FAX: (616) 674-8454 E-Mail: Darrell128@AOL.com PO Box 691, Lawrence, MI 49064-0691 Vietnamese Alliance Pastor to Set Record for Longest Trip to Chicago Meeting of Alliance of Reformed Churches by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer Reformed Believers Press Service (October 20, 1994) RBPS - In past years, delegates to the Alliance of Reformed Churches have booked travel from as far away as British Columbia, California, Florida, and Vermont. This year, however, one delegate is almost certain to be travelling farther than anyone else: Dr. Nguyen X. Bao will be flying to the Alliance from a guest professorship in the Philippines and leaving early to speak at a church conference in Indonesia. Bao's flight to Chicago for the Alliance of Reformed Churches will add a round trip of 22,000 miles to an itinerary that already meant a 16,000-mile round trip from Los Angeles to the far east and a 1500-mile flight between the Philippines and Indonesia. Bao's first trip is at the request of Dr. Timothy Park, president of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in the Philippines, an institution that includes Dr. John E. Kim of Los Angeles Christian Presbyterian Church and two Westminster faculty members on its board of reference. The seminary largely serves students from southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, and Myanmar. "Share with us and our students about mission history (preferably Presbyterian/Reformed church history)," wrote Park. "We believe that we and our students will be greatly blessed by your messages and lectures." Bao said he first met Park while Park was teaching as a visiting professor at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. "He wanted his students to know about mission work in the United States and to have a concern for the Vietnamese, for that reason he invited me," said Bao. "I will teach for two weeks, come to the Alliance of Reformed Churches, and then go to the Asia Church Consultation sponsored by the Indonesia Evangelical Fellowship." Bao's invitation to the Asia Church Consultation dates back to connections he made almost twenty years ago as the founding moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Vietnam. After graduating from Presbyterian General Assembly Theological Seminary in Korea, Bao had returned to his native Vietnam and founded a Presbyterian denomination in a country whose only large Protestant denomination was the Christian and Missionary Alliance. While serving as moderator of the small Presbyterian Church in Vietnam, Bao had participated in fellowships of various evangelical denominations in Asia. After the Communist takeover of South Vietnam, Bao's churches were closed and he was forced to flee to a refugee camp. "We had been disconnected with them for a long time, but now we have become reconnected with churches in Asia, Singapore, and Taiwan," said Bao. "For the first time in twenty years they invited some of us to attend their meetings." Bao will represent the Vietnamese Christian Council of Churches, a California-based interdenominational organization he chairs which works to promote evangelical Christian work in Vietnam. "There are 292 churches still shut down by the Communists from all denominations in Vietnam, but there are about 7000 house churches in South Vietnam and 3000 in North Vietnam," said Bao, who has been working to compile a listing of Protestant works in the country. "There were about 75,000 Protestant Christians in South Vietnam before the communist takeover in 1975, but now without missionaries, without help, under persecution, there are today 750,000 Protestant Christians in the south, 75,000 in the north." According to Bao, out of a total Vietnamese population of 73,000,000, there are 7,100,000 Roman Catholics. Less than one percent of the Vietnamese population belongs to Protestant denominations. Bao said he hoped reconnecting with other Asian denominations would assist in the re-establishment of the Presbyterian Church in Vietnam. "We had a license of recognition from the South Vietnamese government, and hopefully we can be recognized by the Communists so we can begin our work again," said Bao. Bao, whose ministry in California largely focuses on refugee resettlement and relief, also hoped to raise funds to aid victims of the Mekong Delta flooding in Vietnam. "Fifty-five churches were affected by the flood; many thousands of Christian families are living in near starvation now because the rice fields were destroyed by the flood," said Bao. "I hope I can raise some funds so I can go to Indonesia and give them to Vietnamese pastors in order so they can go home to buy food, blankets, and other things to help the Christian community in the Mekong delta in this very short time," said Bao. "It's difficult to bring money in now so we need to work with somebody inside to bring money back to the country." Contact List: Rev. Bao Xuan Nguyen, Pastor, Saigon Reformed Presbyterian Church PO Box 813, Garden Grove, CA 92642 * H/O: (714) 638-9619 * FAX: (714) 636-0285 Dr. Timothy K. Park, President, Presbyterian Theological Seminary PO Box 1, Dasmarinas, Cavite, 4114 Philippines * O: 63-90-302-5931 * FAX: 63-912-306-7941 Rev. S.J. Mesach, General Secretary, Indonesia Evangelical Fellowship Jl. Tanjungduren Kompleks, Green Ville Blok AW/57, Jakarta, 11510 Indonesia * O: 62-21-5673452 ---