The journey from non-believer to believer is seldom instantaneous. What starts as a planted seed needs constant attention, watering, care and sustenance, until the person accepts Christ. As Christians, we must be able to serve in all those capacities – wherever God directs. We might never know until we get to heaven the results of our efforts.
In Hanoi, Vietnam, our hearts were moved in 2015, when we were blessed with the opportunity to visit the Aquila Rehab Center. Run by Pastor Nam Quoc Trung (an ex-addict who found salvation and freedom from his addictions), he takes in drug addicts and women coming out of prison, and gives them hope. Started in 2009, his center now can house 60 men and 30 women, and is the only rehab center in Vietnam for women.
We met many of these young women and heard their stories. Women coming out of prison have an especially difficult time, as families generally shun them, not accepting them back after being on drugs, engaging in prostitution and having done prison time. After getting them off the addiction, the next very big problem is to get them jobs so they don’t have to go back to their old life. Pastor Truong said one area that he needed help with was teaching them some basic marketable skills, and English was one of the subjects that they were interested in. This was exciting and the type of development project we feel called to do.
We engaged with the masters program at California State University at Fullerton and had one group of students develop a curriculum specific for this population. Working with Pastor Truong and another non-profit TongueOut (www.tongueout.org), we funded their hiring of local teachers who could use the curriculum and teach simple conversational English to the women. This enabled them to have some additional skills and be more marketable.
After the first class graduated, another nonprofit purchased a car for the 10 women to share as Uber drivers. With their English this helped them serve the growing tourist industry in Hanoi. And the gig economy was an excellent re-entry point into the workforce.