Christians in Vietnam Unite Under Banner of Love

By   •   November 21, 2024

A volunteer invites a local woman to the Franklin Graham Festival in Cần Thơ, Vietnam, on Dec. 3–4.

In the last few years, opportunities to share the Gospel have been increasing in Vietnam—including evangelistic outreaches with Franklin Graham in 2017 and 2023.

The Love Hanoi Festival in 2017 was a historic event—the first evangelistic outreach of its size in the nation.

At the invitation of local churches, Graham is once again in Vietnam to proclaim the Good News—this time in the fourth-largest city, Cần Thơ.

The Season of Love Festival will feature special musical guests including Charity Gayle, The Afters, and Vietnamese artists—followed by a Gospel message from Graham.

“We’re there to share the love of Christ,” said Festival Director Derek Forbes.

You can equip new Vietnamese Christians with the Word of God. Share hope today.

Forbes has seen firsthand how God continues to make a way for His truth to be proclaimed in this communist country.

“They just keep opening the door,” Forbes said in reference to government leaders in Vietnam. “We really have been given a lot of freedom.”

Located in the Mekong River Delta, Cần Thơ consists of 13 sprawling provinces full of rice fields and rural farm land, which makes outreach more difficult. Many residents are Buddhist or atheist.

“It makes it a bit different environment than last year in Ho Chi Minh,” he continued. “There are churches, but they are smaller and fewer in number.”

For months, local Christian leaders throughout Vietnam have been working together to equip local churches for the upcoming Franklin Graham Festival in Cần Thơ. Over 750 believers recently gathered in the city to pray and worship—readying their hearts for what God will do in their region.

In the months leading up to the two-day Festival, over 200 local churches have come together to pray and prepare to disciple new believers.

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has led more than 2,300 locals in the Christian Life and Witness Course—training that helps Christians grow stronger in their faith and learn to share it with others.

“They are excited to come together,” Forbes said of local believers from various backgrounds.

This unity among believers makes future opportunities for the Gospel even more promising, he added.

Buses will be available to transport people to the events, and Christians in the area are working to invite their friends and family members who don’t know Jesus.

“The bus for us is more than just a ride,” said Forbes. “We encourage them to share the Gospel on the way there and the way home.”

“[We are] focused on trying to help them have a lifestyle of evangelism and discipleship that goes beyond the Festival outreach.”

Forbes, along with countless other Christians, is excited that this Festival could be another doorway to more evangelistic efforts like it.

Please pray that Christians across the region will bring their friends and neighbors to the Festival—and that many will find new life in Jesus Christ.