HISTORY OF HANOI SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH

In 2010, Hanoi Adventist Church was officially established after receiving license for religious organization from Government Commitee. Initially, the church was located on Kim Giang street, Thanh Xuan district, Hanoi. During the first few years, from 2010 to 2013, the church's place of worship was a small room of only 15 square meters. In 2013, the church location had been moved to a larger room, about 25 square meters on the 4th floor of the house at 98 Kim Giang Street.

The one who led the church from the beginning days was Elder Hai. From 2010, the congregation only consisted of seniors, Elder's wife Thien Ly, their two little daughters, and a few members who were mostly middle-aged.

The early church had almost no young people. In 2013, the church started to have a few young members from other provinces of Vietnam who were studying and living in Hanoi. The members of the early church were faithful and regularly present at every Bible class, Sabbath worshipped service, and other events, especially the elderly women. These ladies were between 50 and 60 years old, and although each one of them had to face their own health’s, family’s, or financial difficulties, they always maintained a strong faith in God, always loved Him, and keep His commandments with all their heart, with all their mind, and with all their soul.

In 2014, Pastor Phuc and his wife moved from the South of Vietnam to Hanoi for Ministry’s Missionary. The participation of Pastor Phuc had helped the church to have more exciting activities and more members to participate, and also invited more friends to attend.

From 2014 to 2015, many evangelistic programs were held in Hanoi, with pastors came from other regions of Vietnam or from other countries, and many attendees were invited. Many of them were given Bibles and wanted to learn more about the church. Church members all contribute their talents such as playing the piano and singing hymns in every session of these programs.

In 2015, the youth volunteers association of Seventh-day Adventist Church, or was called OYIM, moved from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi to organize a number of voluntary activities such as giving porridge, distributing warm clothes to the homeless people, caring for the elders and holding cultural activities in nursing homes, as well as organizing picnics, outdoor camping, celebrating Thanksgiving, Easter and Christmas events. These activities took place throughout 2015 in Hanoi and attracted the participation of many college students.

From 2014 to 2015 was also a period of time when many members of Hanoi Seventh-day Adventist Church encountered many trials and tribulations in life, especially with elderly members and even young members. Ms. Quyen passed away from tetanus because she stepped on a nail but was not treated at the right time; Ms. Que had a tumor in cerebral blood vessel leading to unconsciousness and had to be hospitalized for a long time; Ms. Hoa had financial issues and her health was increasingly weak; Ms. Van had to take care of her adult son and daughter and grandchildren; Uncle Liem had a problem with his spine that made him unable to sit up; sister Ha’s father had a traffic accident and was seriously hospitalized, and her mother fell into a heavy debt.

Many members, due to disagreements with other members or leaders of the church, or due to personal events, are unable to continue to keep their faith or to worship God. Hanoi Seventh-day Adventist Church has gone through a very difficult time. During that time, Pastor Phuc and Elder Hai had held many fasting and prayer sessions on weeknights and called for the participation of all members, to pray for the health of the members, to pray that members will keep their faith strong in God and overcome any difficulties, as well as to pray for evangelistic programs and activities of the church.

TESTIMONY – MY LIFE IS NOT MY OWN
Hanoi SDA Church – June 2013 to December 2015
Following a belief that was different from my family’s tradition was not easy; being a decent Christian in Vietnam was not easy, and it was even harder for being an Adventist. My life was not my own; parts of it were contributed by the people who lived around me, as well as parts of my spiritual growth were contributed by other believers at my church.
I remembered the Sabbath I came to Hanoi SDA Church after having claimed my faith, there were only the Elder and his wife, four old ladies and me. The space and the people in this church of my hometown was so different from El Monte SDA Church that I used to attend with constructions, beautiful sanctuary and many members from children, teenagers, young adults to adults and elders. Nonetheless, this place brought an unexplainable peacefulness to my heart – the feeling of being at home. I looked at the people who sat around me, the Elder was a middle-aged man with his eyes blind; his wife was a small woman, and four ladies all had some problems with their health and background. It didn’t seem like a church at all, but God didn’t look at the outside appearance like the way we see, He saw deep inside the hearts of people.

Later my contemplation told me that this was the place I belonged to. The 60 year-old ladies here were really role models of being believers for me to look up. Some of them didn’t even know how to read and write for most of their life, but because of loving God so much, they eventually learn reading Bible and writing verses. Their lives were overwhelmed by all kinds of obstacles: being abandoned by loved ones, having troubled children and even grandchildren to take care, having financial difficulty, being in poor health for so long without any cure. However, every Sabbath day I saw them climbing from the first to the top floor so they can be on time for Bible study, I saw them talking to other people about Jesus Christ, I saw them praying really long and hard not only for themselves but also for their children and the people they witnessed, I saw them helping to clean the room even they weren’t strong to do it. Sometimes, a young person like me had to look back to myself if I really had a faith like that, a faith that helped you to overcome anything.

My church was built on the foundation of these ladies. I know it will be a big one in the future with more young and strong members, but I couldn’t forget the lessons they taught me about faith in Jesus; I was blessed to know and be with them. Unfortunately, one of them passed away in loneliness, one is in coma for more than a year, and one is going down hill with her health. I hope they have the chance to see new church we had prayed for so long, their children giving up on harmful lifestyle and the people they witnessed claiming their faith. I wanted to tell stories about them to many visitors and believers who later come to Hanoi SDA church, the stories about “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty” (1 Corinthians 1:27).

TESTIMONY – FULL MOON
In August 2015, It was the first time my local church held a Moon Festival for a number of children selected around the neighborhood. I was so moved when seeing nearly thirty children came on time, far from our expectation. A grandfather and a mother even took their kids to our church an hour earlier than the time we started. We planned this event only a week before, but thanks to the strength the Most High gave us, we completed it successfully.
Within a small room and some activities like singing, telling stories, answering quiz questions and playing games, we hoped to bring the children joy and good memories about Mid-Autumn Festival this year. If it was two years ago, I didn’t think we could organize something like this due to the lack of young people. Two years ago when I first came to Hanoi SDA church, I was the only young person there with very few members, mostly were old ladies with difficult backgrounds. Then another sister came made me so thankful to God that I at least had a companionship; we lifted each other up about keeping the faith, overcoming obstacles and temptations, sharing what we learned from the Bible and praying together. In two years, I kept praying about having more young people at church especially the males so they would help to complete certain tasks. But the most important thing was, I hope there will be a future pastor for our next generation at church because we never had a SDA pastor from the North where I was living in.

Half year ago, my only sister at church travelled to the South of Vietnam for a mission. In the meantime, I really struggled with my life. I felt very discouraged in praying for more young people because of seeing no result. I didn’t go to church for more than a month as I worried too much about the earthly things. Right at the point of giving up what I had prayed, a lady at church called me and excitedly told me she had found that future pastor during the month I had been absence from church. My eyes busted in tears, I almost forgot what I had prayed for a long time and thinking about going back to the house of the Lord made me so embarrassed about myself.

I finally took the confidence to step out and the day I came back for a Bible study after long time of being absence, I also met this young brother. He seemed very simple at heart and had ability to remember verses very well. Even I didn’t speak it out loud, but the hope about my prayer came back to me made me so happy for waiting all that long. This Moon Festival event, besides he and me were the young members of the local church, we were supported by two more people: a brother and a sister both from other parts of Vietnam are staying in my city for their studies.

I am so grateful to God that He always provides us what we need at the right moment, as well as knows how to bring things back to where they suppose to be.