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\u201cKneel! Kneel!\u201d shouted a village thug. Unfazed by the threats, Pastor Vinh* stood his ground. In Vinh\u2019s culture, kneeling is seen as an admission of guilt. Although authorities prohibited planting of new churches, Vinh would not allow their threats to stop him from spreading the gospel message.<\/p>\n
The leader of the gang began battering Vinh\u2019s knee with a lead pipe in an attempt to force the pastor to his knees. The tall and well-built, 24-year-old Bible school student endured the series of blows and still refused to kneel. Seething with anger that the young man remained standing, the gang leader violently struck Vinh twice on the jaw with the lead pipe. As the lead pipe connected with Vinh\u2019s jaw in a sickening crack, the pastor pitched forward, falling face forward into a gutter.<\/p>\n
Vinh had come under the scrutiny of watchful eyes earlier this year when the church that he planted had grown to a hundred believers in just six months! The police\u2014who often perceive organized meetings as a threat to national security\u2014began to take notice and mark Vinh\u2019s movements. Authorities in Vietnam\u2019s tribal villages often hire local gangsters to harass and discourage Christian pastors as a way to prevent new churches from mushrooming. Vinh had become a prime target for such attacks.<\/p>\n
Vinh\u2019s jaw was broken in four parts in the July 2012 incident. Unable to eat solid food for a several weeks, he had to eat his meals through a straw. According to an Open Doors worker, after spending weeks in the hospital, \u201cHe is on the road recovery. He has begun preparing to head back to the church he started and to continue his ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Please consider sending a letter of encouragement to this young pastor as he heals form his injuries and prepares to go back to the field share the gospel message.<\/p>\n
*His real name has been changed to protect his identity.<\/p>\n
Source >> http:\/\/opendoorsusa.org\/<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cKneel! Kneel!\u201d shouted a village thug. Unfazed by the threats, Pastor Vinh* stood his ground. In Vinh\u2019s culture, kneeling is seen as an admission of guilt. Although authorities prohibited planting… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[666,75],"class_list":["post-2799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-persecuted","tag-5-5-5-challenge","tag-vietnam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/martianuswb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/martianuswb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/martianuswb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/martianuswb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/martianuswb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2799"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/martianuswb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2801,"href":"http:\/\/martianuswb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799\/revisions\/2801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/martianuswb.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/martianuswb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/martianuswb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/martianuswb.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}