the Glocal Trekker Blog

Article by Mark Agee
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER - SPECIAL TO THE STAR-TELEGRAM/EMILY HUGHES

Tran Dzung, left, a Vietnamese diplomat, and NorthWood Church pastor Bob Roberts have joined with a nonprofit to help provide aid to the people of Vietnam, including building schools and clinics and improving water supplies.

KELLER -- Former Marine Chris Seiple acknowledged the strange situation in which he found himself in the pulpit of NorthWood Church in Keller on Sunday morning.

"What are a former jarhead, a minister and a card-carrying Communist doing working together to help the people of Vietnam?" Seiple said. "It's a story only God could write."

Seiple is president of the Institute for Global Engagement, which advocates religious freedom around the world. He joined Vietnamese Deputy Ambassador Tran Dzung and NorthWood's pastor, Bob Roberts, to tell the 2,500-member congregation of their partnership.
NorthWood has been performing humanitarian missions in the Communist nation for more than a decade, including building schools and clinics, and improving freshwater supplies. Vietnam is officially atheist.

"We're not allowed to proselytize," Roberts said. "We don't need to. We don't hide our Christianity. The people there see what we're doing and they see what we're about. ... People don't just want to hear about your faith. They want to see it in action."

The nonprofit institute works with governments to promote religious freedom through diplomacy. Seiple said the institute is promoting the "NorthWood method" -- "people-to-people grassroots diplomacy, from the bottom up" -- to other churches.

Dzung, who says he doesn't believe in God, said he didn't know what to expect at an American church. He said he was pleased to see many of the congregation dressed in traditional Vietnamese garb they brought home from mission trips.

"I feel very comfortable to see all of these friendly faces," Dzung said. "What they have been doing is great. It's really helping the people."

NorthWood Church is trying to raise $450,000 by Dec. 31 to fund a permanent office in Hanoi.
The institute, with help from Dzung, entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Vietnamese government this year that Seiple said will allow the NorthWood method to be spread to cities and villages throughout Vietnam.

"What we're doing is very transparent. We're coming through the front door," Seiple said.
"It's a part of the natural evolution that Vietnam is going through towards religious freedom," he said. "What we have done is just the beginning. We are just getting started."

ONLINE: http://www.northwoodchurch.org/
http://www.globalengage.org/