Crashing Through Walls in Vietnam

Driving Through a Wall

Welcome to ​“Ron’s Adventures,” the podcast that highlights the adventures Ron Pearce has experienced over the course of 30 years following God around the world. With me in the studio is Ron and Charis Pearce. Hi guys! Great to be back again and I can’t wait to hear what story you have for us today.

Ron-Well today, Joy, we are going to be going to Vietnam. Charis, what year was this?

Charis- Oh, I think I was about 1996?

Ron- So somewhere around mid-90s. So Vietnam in 1975 fell to the communists. They came from the north, South Vietnam fell and the American forces went home earlier than that, but it was a rough period from ​’75 when Vietnam fell up until about 1989. It was a closed country and there was a lot of persecution of the Christians. Many of the leaders and strong Christians were either killed or they went to concentration camps, re-education camps I think they called them. Therefore, it was a rough period of time. There were certain parts though of Vietnam that suffered worse than anywhere else. Some areas that they really found that the church was strong and they wanted to eliminate the church thinking it was a Western religion. One of those areas was in the Central Highlands around a city called Dalat. It’s a beautiful area, up in the mountains you might say, the highlands. A lot of forest and a lot of trees and jungle areas where it was thick, thick jungle with just paths going through. We were there to visit some of the churches because this was where God was pouring out His Spirit in a powerful, powerful way and a lot of the tribal people were accepting the Lord. So Charis and I were there together and they wanted us to go in and meet some of the pastors and it would have to be in the middle of the night because this was a very dangerous zone for us to go into and for them to entertain us in. So we went in on motorcycle but it started to rain. It was raining and the trail was dirt and it was greasy and slippery. They had these little motorcycles, probably 150 CC motorcycles, that they were riding and they were a lot lighter as a people group than Westerners, let’s put it that way. We pulled up in a van, got out and got on behind these two young men, Charis was on one motorcycle and I was on another. Charis led the way and she was the first Western woman to go into this area since the Vietnam War, since 1975. So she was on the first one, holding on tight going through the jungle. Now this was a jungle path that was basically overgrown and was just enough room for a motorcycle going about 30 miles an hour to zip along this path and get in but you were getting hit all the time by branches and wet vines and everything like that. So you hung on tight. So I was on the second motorcycle and I’m a little bit heavier and I’m on with this young pastor and I’m holding on to him, holding on to my camera bag and we’re zipping through the jungle. Well, Charis got there first and came into the village but there was nobody there. We got into the village and it was quiet except for the motorcycle coming in. She stopped outside of the little village hut. This was a hut that was made of bamboo, thatch roof, and it was very quaint and very small but it was an area where the pastor lived. So she pulled up, got off, and went inside. Well, my driver had a bit more of a problem and the problem was this; it was wet, it was slippery on the ground and I was a little bit heavier than he anticipated for stopping. Therefore, we came in and all the pastors were there lined up under the edge of the roof of the house and Charis was there, and here are all these pastors lined up to greet me. Here we are charging in and the pastor tried to put his brakes on and they wouldn’t stop in time. Actually, we went through a wall! We took down a whole wall of his house going through on the motorcycle. I still remember looking to my right and there are all these pastors waving to us and as we went through, they are still waving and I was waving back as we went right through a wall. We ended up probably about 30 or 40 feet on the other side of the house and I was still on the motorcycle, the pastor was there very embarrassed. So I said, ​“Should I get off?” He said, ​“No, no, no, stay on!” So he backed me up slowly, back into the house and everybody waved again. I got off the bike and we had our meeting there. That was an adventure like no other!

Joy- Did the motorcycle back through the house over the fallen wall or were you around the house at this point?

Ron- No, we went right over the wall.

Joy- And Charis, you were on the back of a motorcycle, were you prepared to get on this motorcycle? Were you excited to get on this motorcycle?

Charis- No, it was raining and it was really slippery and I held on really tight and I just did what I was told. So we got to the house and he pointed for me to hop off and I hopped off.

Joy- And fortunately you stopped when you were supposed to.

Charis- We did stop yes, so I hopped off and waited and saw dad go right through the house!

Joy- Yes, and when you see your dad not stopping and continuing on through a wall, what’s the first thing that pops into your head?

Charis- The first thing I thought of was, boy, am I glad that’s just a bamboo wall. Cause that could have hurt a lot more!

Ron- If that had been a 2×4 wall with drywall on it we could have been in trouble but no, it was simple to go through. When we got inside all the pastors were there and they were all telling us their stories and without getting into too much of the details, which we will probably talk about at other times, let me tell you this; it was wall to wall (now that we’re talking about walls), wall to wall stories of miracles, of healings, of deliverances and everything like that. It was just going from one pastor to another, to another how they pray for people and God just blesses and opens up opportunity for people to accept Christ after He does a miracle. I still remember this one brother that was there, it was sad, he had just lost his wife. He was away in prison and they tortured him in prison when they took him trying to make him stop talking about Jesus. He went through an awful ordeal and this was just days before we got there. His wife had died while he was in prison and they wouldn’t let him go out and visit. He was quietly crying about the whole ordeal and they took everything that he had. They took his water buffalo, they took his cows, they took everything that he owned and they destroyed it. They ate the animals, destroyed everything else and he and the children were left both homeless, without a wife, and with nothing. I still remember asking him about what he was going to do and if this was going to stop him and he gave me sort of a stunned look as if to say, well of course not. He said I have a village full of people who want to know more about Jesus. All the other villages all around are hungry to know more about God. I met him years after that, I still remember him well. In fact, I see him periodically now when I’m in Vietnam. He’s remarried now. His children are all grown up and he has started over 50 churches in that whole region and into the Dalat region in the highlands. So nothing could stop him and that is the whole story of Vietnam. They can do whatever they want to. They can torture, they can break, they can destroy, they can prevent them from having malaria medication, I’m talking about the Christians, the government can stop all salt, and they can stop them from using water wells. Nothing will stop the church in Vietnam from growing. That is really the essence of this story. We can laugh about going through a wall but they don’t look at anything as a problem. It is just an opportunity in Vietnam.

Joy- Well, thanks guys! Once again that was ​“Ron’s Adventures,” the podcast that reminds us that following God is exciting and interesting and a reminder that He not only opens doors but He can knock down walls!