We are so thankful to the Lord for the special blessings we received during our experience at the recent LWMS Annual Convention in Denver.  What a whirlwind few days that became the culmination of our plans and dreams over a year in the making.

When we were informed that our congregation was chosen to be the recipient of the Kid’s C.A.R.E. offering, we were thrilled!   As a special expression of our thanks, I had the dream of bringing our church choir to sing at the LWMS convention.  After much planning and preparation, our group of 21 souls met at Peace In Jesus in Boise at 5:30 a.m. on Thursday, June 25th.  We all prayed together, asking God to be with us, protect us, and bless our proclamation of God’s praise at the convention.  We were on the road by 6, and pulled in to Denver thirteen hours later.  We were tired, but thankful and excited for what the next day might bring.

We met in the room of our choir director, Mr. Toan Doan.  We went to the morning devotion together and our group stood when the LWMS President introduced the first-time attendees.  We had our final practice in the room, then went on to our sound check at 12:30 p.m.  The choir members seemed more excited than nervous.  Everyone looked great—men in white shirt and tie and each of the ladies wore and “áo dài” (pronounced “ow zai”), which is the traditional Vietnamese dress and a symbol of Vietnamese culture.  We were thrilled to share a taste of the Vietnamese culture, dress, language, and song with many who perhaps have never encountered them before.

We were blessed with an opportunity to share some of the wonderful things the Lord is doing among the Vietnamese community in our area and beyond.  Through a 15-minute PowerPoint presentation, we gave all glory to God for the blessings of connecting Vietnamese folks with the powerful Word of God.  We told the people about our members growing in areas of service, actively reaching out with the Gospel, and becoming more aggressive in our activities as a congregation.

Cross-cultural mission work is challenging.  Yet I believe it is important to also share joys and victories the Lord pours out—in our experience, tremendous displays of Asian fruits of faith.  One example was the first adult baptism at our church—Mr. Giao Van Nguyen.  He was baptized on Palm Sunday in the year 2000.  Exactly nine Palm Sundays later,   Mr. Giao’s son, Nghia Trung Nguyen was baptized in the same spot.  For this and many other blessings, we gave thanks and all glory to God, asking the people attending the LWMS convention to join us in thanksgiving to God.

As a special thank you to those who participated in the Kid’s C.A.R.E. offering, I invited our choir to come forward.  I introduced our choir director, who introduced the members of the choir.  We began to sing our first song, entitled “Lo Gì” which means “What are you worrying about?”  During the time our choir was singing, several slides explaining the meaning of the song were shown.  One verse says, “The flock of birds in the sky—neither harvesting or sowing; the fields of flowers don’t knit or sew.  Yet daily the singing birds fly down to the flowers; the birds are full and the flowers are more beautiful than king’s robes . . . Know the value of your needs met, Friend; worrying is beneath you.”

When our song concluded, the people began to applaud.  Then they began to stand.  As the heart-felt standing ovation swept through the auditorium, our choir became overwhelmed.  Several members of our group had a teary eye.  We sang another song, then invited the people to sing “My Peace” with us.  While a few brave souls sang the Vietnamese verses with us, everyone joined us to sing the English verses conveying the peace that God gives to those from every nation. We left the stage, humbled by the acceptance of our brothers and sisters in the faith who gave us such an incredible response.  We were thrilled that we had such an opportunity.

Following the choir singing, the Kid’s C.A.R.E. offering was given to Thao Nguyen and Thao Vi, who are kids from our congregation.  Along with that gift, we also received a second gift of matching funds from the Antioch Foundation.  We are so thankful for these tremendous gifts from the Lord.  More pictures are available on our website