Strategies to Do Mission and Evangelization to the Vietnamese Migrant Workers and Cross-Border Marriages in Korea

Strategies to Do Mission and Evangelization to the Vietnamese Migrant Workers and Cross-Border Marriages in Korea
(Bài Viết Này Thuyết Trình Tại Consultation on Migrant Workers and Cross-border Marriage Issue. Council for World Mission East Asia Region. January 22-25, 2008.Venue: PCK Assembly Hall).
Outline
Introduction
1. A Brief Overview of People, Culture, Society and Christianity of Vietnam
a. The People
b. Culture and Religion
c. Society
d. Christianity
2. The Vietnamese In the New Context
a. The Migrant Workers
b. The Cross-border Marriages
3. Mission and Evangelism among the Vietnamese in the Past and Present
a. The Mission Work by Korea Churches
b. The Vietnamese Church in Korea
4. Strategies to Do Mission and Evangelization to the Vietnamese Migrant Workers and Cross-border Marriages
a. Building Relationship
b. Verbal Witness
c. Meeting their Felt Needs
c. Church Service
d. Pray and Intercession
e. Raising Korea Missionary
f. Effective Discipleship
Conclusion

Introduction
The communists have governed Vietnam since 1954. Its overall policy towards religions, especially Christianity, can be regarded as hostile. The combination of traditional rituals, promotion of Marxism, and suppression of religious practices by the government has given the average Vietnamese little opportunity to come into contact with the gospel. In particular, government specifically targeted at Christianity in a negative light. All these make the work of evangelism in Vietnam challenging.
Despite that God is always at work. By this way or another, He always opens many opportunities for the Vietnamese to get to know Him. Lately, many Vietnamese are allowed by the government to go out to work in different countries in the world. Mr Tran a journalist wrote:
Unlike its Southeast Asian neighbours the Philippines and Indonesia, Vietnam is a relative latecomer to the idea of exporting its workers overseas to rake badly needed foreign exchange. The government plans to send about 500,000 Vietnamese workers overseas by 2005, which it says will earn the economy some $2 billion in annual remittances.

In the new environment of a foreign country, these Vietnamese have a chance to hear the Gospel and to know Jesus. This is a good opportunity for evangelism.
This evangelistic opportunity is not only significant but also a matter of great urgency because these workers will go back to Vietnam after a three to five year work contract. So far, Vietnam has sent 30,000 guest workers to Korea working mostly in industrial zones, factories and small and big plants in most of the country states, and 33,000 brides to Korean family and other different groups such as students and business add to total of 68.900 in 2007. This number is expected to increase to 80,000 over the next year.
Projecting forward, if the work of evangelism is successful in Korea, in a short time, this group of people who soon will go back to Vietnam will be a great witness for Jesus and help to develop the Church of Vietnam in the future.
However, this evangelism for the Vietnamese still has many difficulties ahead. Although the context of evangelism is new and more open, it does not mean the work of reaching out and conversion is easy. Therefore, in order to be successful in this work, there should be a study in order to understand the people, their culture and religions; moreover, the tactful and effective strategies in reaching them shall be analysed shortly in this paper.

1. A Brief Overview of People, Culture, Society and Christianity of Vietnam
a. The People
The Vietnamese people consist of 54 ethnic groups. Việt or Kinh (mainly in the plains), the majority people take up 88 per cent of the country’s population 86 millions. The Vietnamese have three separate regional groupings, each with its distinctive character: northerners, southerners and centrists.
The characteristics of the Vietnamese generally are open, easy to mix with people, hospitable, gentle, trusting people and sometimes even credulous. A natural smile is a distinctiveness of the people. Their smiles make people feel cosy and pleasing. However, people’s smile does not always express their happiness because they can even smile at any situations, sometimes without any reasons. The Vietnamese are clever in a petty way; though cannot create things originally but mimicking, adapting and integrating very skillfully. Most Vietnamese like singing, especially folk songs and traditional music; singing is often the popular activity at any particular informal meeting, family or friends. Spiritually, they pay much and serious attention to religious life, have faith but do not believe blindly and also not absolutely.
b. Culture and Religion
The Vietnamese religious culture reflects a strong Chinese influence, which came through from the Chinese dominion and through active borrowing and adaptation during period of national independence. Together with the foundation of nearly two thousand years of adapted Chinese culture, there is a supra-culture of Western culture brought by almost one century of interaction with the French. Therefore, the culture’s values that can be found are primarily from Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, ancestor worship, animism, and local custom beliefs.
Among them, the concept of Dao Lam Nguoi (Proper Behaviour) is most popular among the Vietnamese, which related totally to the local culture and its religions. In which, the “Love for Family” (Filial Piety) is the basic virtue. According to Confucius ethics, filial piety is considered the first of all virtues. Vietnamese parents are treated with great respect. Children not only obey their parents in this life but also revered with religious observance after their death.
c. Society
The Vietnamese society is socialist oriented. Theoretically, it is the society of the people, by the people and for the people. It is a just and civilised society. In some respects, Vietnam under Communist rule has made impressive advances. The society has rapidly changed and the life of the people became better as compare with five years ago. Education had rapidly expanded. Health and sanitation are markedly improved over the colonial period. Progress has been made in racial and sexual equality as well. However, Vietnam continues to face massive problems in its effort to build an advanced egalitarian and socialist oriented society. The degenerated administration system is the present problem that the country has to face. Subsequently, the trust of the people to the system is decreasing. Many became doubting the socialist system and do not trust them any longer. When the social develops, social problems are also increasing rapidly. The society has been struggling with many violent and unethical acts which happened daily. The quest of ethics and better education voices up. The government seems unable to solve the problems. Many people in fact quest about the ethical of the communist ideologies and systems. Therefore, the people become awareness of a better society as they compare with the neighbouring countries.
d. Christianity
The Vietnamese communist has a very abnormal view about Christianity, especially the Evangelical. They identify the evangelical faith is the American religion. Therefore as soon as the war with the America ended, the communist by all means drove out all that belongs to America, including people. The communist in fact wanted to end the so called American faith which called “Dao My”. However they failed to do it. Therefore as the Church grows up, the government becomes aware and afraid of the Church. Vietnam government in the past thirty years has been trying to educate the children, students, workers, businessmen, and all the people in society that the evangelical faith is the enemies of the country.
Subsequently, this made the dark time of Christianity in Vietnam, especially the northern region. As mentioned earlier, the context now is slightly better. When people have contacts with the world outside, they can see what the evangelical faith or the protestant really is. Through many other reasons, God has changed slowly their attitude towards Christianity. There have been many communist after hearing the gospel, they accepted Christ and resign their position as a communist party member. The worldview of the people also has changed though not totally but this is a good opportunity for the Church to create the friendship and build bridges to share the gospel to them.
Vietnamese protestant churches have about 1.5 percent of the country’s population. Most of the Christians are from the South of Vietnam. At the moment, by the grace of God, the churches are developing rapidly in the nationwide, especially the North.

2. The Vietnamese In the New Context
a. The Migrant Workers
i. The Identity of the People
The Vietnamese people have been working in Korea since 1990. This people including man and women are mostly from the working class with considered better education. The majority people are from the Northern part of Vietnam. Recently, there are many of them coming from the military training centers; they are called ‘people after the military duty’. This group of people is young, strong and well educated with the Mark-Lenin philosophy and ideology, which strongly support and believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution and believe in no gods. Most of the workers share the same purpose that is to earn money. Their ultimate aim is to make money as much as possible to support the family back home and to prepare for a better future.



ii. The Problems in the New Context
There are countless problems faced by the migrant workers in Korea. They face human right violations, exploitation, physical and even sexual abuse, and unfair labor laws and practices. There are internal problems and external problems. Internally, the workers face the problems relate to their health due to different weather and they could not speak the language which causes conflicts with others. Externally, the workers are forced to work overtime, bad accommodation and slow payment. Some small factories have no work so the workers have low payment for a long time. Because of the good income salary, this people do not mind to work at any conditions. Since 1990, the Viet people have worked at 3D fields (Dangerous, Difficult and Dirty). Therefore, in the consequences, there have been many people died, disabled, and physically damages after a few years of working. Amnesty International has written about the human rights for migrant workers in Korea as follow:
The Republic of Korea became the first labor importing country in Asia to seek to protect the rights of migrant workers when it passed the Act Concerning the Employment Permit for Migrant Workers (EPS Act). However, Amnesty International is concerned that migrant workers remain at risk of a range of serious human rights violations. Migrant workers in South Korea, in reality, continue to have limited protection against discrimination and abuse. The report ends with recommendations to the South Korean government and other concerned stakeholders to address these violations and protect the rights of migrant workers in the future

More problems happen related closely to the illegal workers. These illegal people are ill-treated in many aspects including not paying salary, overtime working, no bonus and easy to be fired. They face problems in health insurance and hospitalization. Thus, the need to get in touch with some locals for their help and protection is greatly important.
iii. Mission and Evangelism Opportunity
The work of evangelism for the Vietnamese in this context is much easier. The mindset of the people has changed as they live in a different environment. If they used to think that Christianity was bad, now they can see the benefits of it. They can see the love of many Christians when they are in troubles and in needs. Without much persecutions or pressures on them, many have decided to believe Jesus as Lord and Savior. Therefore, this is a good opportunity to evangelize the Vietnamese workers.

b. The Cross-border Marriages
i. The Identity of the People
Spousal migration has a somewhat longer history; during the Vietnam War, some of the more than 300,000 South Korean soldiers and civilian support staff stationed in Vietnam. Many of them married Vietnamese women and brought them back to Korea; however, many of these marriages ended in divorce. Spousal migration would not become a large-scale phenomenon until the 1990s, when South Korean men unable to attract wives locally began to turn to marriage agencies to seek brides in overseas countries, including Vietnam; as of 2006, 5,000 Vietnamese brides immigrated to South Korea every year.
Who are these beautiful brides and what is the identity of this group of people? The story of cross border marriages does not happen in Vietnam until the 1990s; and the image of Korean man was not at first. Due to the problem of poverty and poor living condition, many Vietnamese ladies sought ways to help their family out of their destiny. At first, these people married to Taiwanese man however, the marriage did not turn out to be good. Korean husbands became the next in this picture.
Most of the Vietnamese brides come from the South of Vietnam. The majority of them are less educated and very poor. They come from the rural areas such as the Mekong delta area where the work is farming and the productions are from rice, fruits and vegetables. VietnamNet reports that “Many girls in the Mekong Delta region consider getting married with foreigners as chances to change their lives. But many of them have to divorce and return home in pains.”
The society on the one hand does not seem to improve both the family and their life. On the other hand, these ladies dare not to marry the Vietnamese boys because they will end up the same destiny as of their parents. Taking the risk by marrying a foreigner will help their family temporarily and in the future. This is what they called “sacrifice”. Therefore, the primary reason to marry a Korean man is nothing more than money. What a pity!

ii. The Problems in the New Context
The Vietnamese brides encounter countless problems at the very beginning of their life in Korea. Different with migrant workers, every single person of this group of people faces serious problems. The problems can be sorted by three aspects such as cultural, social, and economic.
Culturally, the most popular problem of these brides is language. Since they cannot communicate to the husband and the family, problems occur. Misunderstanding and wrong interpretation may cause dangerous problems such as the husband beat the wife and then she ran away from the family. Saying something impolite in Korea can cause serious problem too.
Moreover, the bride in a Korean family is expected to cook and serve three meals a day and to do the house works. This is something unusual to the Vietnamese ladies to serve the family as maids. A bride who unfortunately married to disabled husband or physical and mental problems person was in a dark fortune. She had to bear all the work in the house especially in the rural side. She is the main labor in the house to take care of her husband and his family members. In this sense, a bride is none other than a twenty four hour worker.
In addition, the requirement of having baby right after the marriage is something very unfair. These women have not adapted themselves yet into the family, culture and life in Korea; it is difficult for them to deal with all kinds of difficulties and problems at the same time.
Socially, the society looks at these people in a different view. They are considered as house maid and low class rather than a normal Korean. In some cases, the Vietnamese bride is a little better than a maid however they cannot avoid from the social predetermination. Moreover, the relatives of the family also bring much pressure on them by the way of their behaviors. It is hard to become a part of the community; therefore, these people are isolated in their own world. Vietnamnet reports:
The online ohmynews newspaper reported that recently there were many maltreatment cases related to Vietnamese brides in Korea. They are badly treated, cast out from their husbands’ houses, forced to divorce, etc., which shows an alarming situation when Vietnamese girls go to Korea to get married.

Economically, these people do not have what they expect. The purpose of this group as mentioned above is to have money to send back home. However, majority of them struggle much with this issue. They have a limited amount to spend and some even do not have any money. They are not allowed to work outside, therefore there is no income. When their felt needs are not met, problems happen. The reason for running away from the family that is to have chance to earn money to help their family back home.

iii. Mission and Evangelism Opportunity
The mission work and evangelism to this group of people is never easy. The opportunity to share the Gospel to them is less not to say impossible. They are locked by the husband and the family. Chances to go out and to have friends outside are difficult. Even then, there are still many ways to get in touch with them. In certain places, however, there are many Vietnamese brides who have chances to go to church and believed in God. By God’s grace, their lives become better and they have a good and happy family.

3. Strategies to Evangelize the Vietnamese Migrant Workers and Cross-border Marriages
From the brief analysis of the migrant workers and cross-border marriage people, strategies to approach this people should be built around (1) Friendship, (2) Help to meet the basic needs, and (3) The Gospel. They are Building Relationship, Meeting their Felt Needs, Church Service, Prayer and Intercession, and Raise Korea Missionary.
a. Building Relationship
Building relationship or friendship is the first and crucial step in evangelism. This strategy is suitable and workable because the workers really need to have some local friends to help them in time of need. This is also crucial to those who involve in marriage for they too need friends to share their problems.
Implementation: We can meet Vietnamese workers at public places, subway station or markets and make friends with them. Creating friendship by giving and sharing gifts or things, outing or having dinner together are very useful activities. The Vietnamese are easy to be friend with. As for the cross border marriage people, ladies from the church are the most helpful for the task. They can have friendship with the family at the same time with the young foreign ladies.
b. Meeting their Felt Needs
From the above survey, we know that the Vietnamese workers and marriage people are in time of great needs. Their felt needs include physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. This strategy helps to meet the workers’ real needs, which includes many aspect of a person’s life. The way to reach the real needs, whatever they are, is through the felt needs.
Implementation: In order to meet the felt needs of the workers the following suggestions may be helpful: (1) helpdesk: medical and legal help: The worker may need medical helps and health care. Many of them look for works or transfer from one factory to another. In case of illegal people, we may help them to look for better job. (2) Educational help: learning Korean, learning computer or playing musical instruments. Many Vietnamese workers really want to learn Korean seriously. They like to take exam for language certificate. Therefore, centers for teaching Korean and issuing value language certificate are the most helpful method to attract many.
c. Church Service
Vietnamese worship service is important to reach out to this people. Many are encouraged through the time of worshiping God, listening to the Word, and fellowship with one another. By listening to the Word of God, many lives have changed. This is a new community that binds all of them together as a family. In some places, this strategy is helpful for cross border marriage people.
Implementation: we can set up a worship service for these Korean-Vietnamese families. The community of people who share the same identity may create a sense of confidence and well protected. Through this service, the marriage people may learn how to have a happy family from the Biblical principles. This kind of church should be built up in the future.
d. Pray and Intercession
Prayer is the key to the success of the ministry. It is in, through, and by prayer, many problems are solved. The church should pray for the ministry, for the evangelists, for the workers, and for the Vietnamese brides. We need to pray that God would show us ways of meeting their felt needs in a practical way.
Implementation: If this strategy is important, we should suggest not only one local church but Korean churches in nationwide to know and pray for this ministry. Information about the Vietnamese workers and Vietnamese brides should be shared among the churches to pray. This prayer does not for the Vietnamese alone but also for the Korea society in which a great number of Vietnamese people including man, women, and their children are living and working in it.


e. Raise Korea Missionary
Korean churches are known by her sending missionaries into the world. However, the mission work among the countries becomes more difficult. God has bestowed upon the Korean Church a wonderful privilege of reaching the Vietnamese at her very doorstep. Doing mission no longer is a geographical or political issue but cross cultural one. It does not depend on one or two missionaries but now the whole local church can involve in it.
Implementation: the churches may choose some Korean to learn Vietnamese and they may start a ministry for Vietnamese in their church. Many Vietnamese are able to communicate in Korean therefore the problem of language can be solved easily. If Korea churches in nationwide really concern for this ministry, many Vietnamese will have chance to hear the Gospel and be saved.
Challenges for Korean Churches:
The Vietnamese migrant workers and brides are people in need. This is an enormous task but when the Church responds to the leading of the Holy Spirit to move from her comfort zone to address the needs of the marginalized in their midst, her action or her existence is meaningful. My concern is, why not challenge Koreans to take up the wonderful privilege to embark into this worthy mission, to reach out to the Vietnamese in their midst. What the Korean Christian imparts to them by way of words and deeds is what these new Christians would take back as they in turn try to impart their community. Through the good works and deeds, the Korean people may say to the Vietnamese family that their daughters are safe and well cared in this peaceful land.

Conclusion
In conclusion, the mission and evangelism strategies are identified and developed based on the study from the reality of facts and experiences of the researcher throughout some years serving in this ministry. In this huge area of research, there are many things yet to be studied. This paper only presents the researcher’s attempt to explore some of them. Ultimately, at this point of time, chances for the Vietnamese to believe in Jesus depend very much on the Korean churches. What the Korean churches do for the Vietnamese workers and the brides today will affect and determine the changes and development of Vietnam spiritually, economically, and socially in the future. Like the man of Macedonia in Paul’s vision called out for help, on behalf of the Vietnamese, the researcher beseeches the Korea churches to “Come and help us.” May God bless the churches abundantly as they fulfill the Great Commission! Amen.
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