Pastor Trung has a passion to preach the Gospel to Vietnam’s tribal people. In 1996, while on
an evangelism trip to the highlands of Vietnam, Trung was arrested by the police.

The police said, “If you deny your faith, we will release you straight away. If not, you will be put
in prison for three years.” Trung chose the dangerous road of obeying Jesus – he was willing
to suffer for his faith.

From this moment on, Trung decided “I am willing to die for Christ!” He no longer worried
about his life, but he committed to sharing the Gospel with every person he met in prison
whatever the cost.

He truly understood Philippians 1:21, “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Of the 200 inmates, 40 people became Christians because of Trung’s bold witness. The
authorities were furious. They doubled Trung’s sentence to six years and they wouldn’t let his
family visit him.

One day, a guard asked him, “You are prepared to go to prison, you are repeatedly beaten
and at times you are more dead than alive, and you will not renounce your faith. Why don’t
you give up?”

I have dedicated my life to Christ. I die with him every day.
I only want to please my Lord.

After Pastor Trung was released from prison, I met him in a hotel room in Ho Chi Minh City – it
was too dangerous to meet him anywhere else. This passionate evangelist blew me away! He told
us about his six years in prison. He told us about being beaten for his faith. He told us that he was
near death many times.

Despite all the persecution, Trung told us, “Sometimes I miss prison, because God was
so near to me at that time. He taught me many things through my suffering.”

What shocked me was Trung said all these things with a smile! Trung had hope and joy through
this terrible suffering because God gave him a stronger, deeper faith and used him to lead
others to Christ.

Meeting Pastor Trung challenged me to pursue the same radical faith that many persecuted
Christians have, to take risks to tell people about Jesus in my local community, and to realise that
it is better to lose my life for Christ than to gain the whole world but lose my soul.