HANOI, Vietnam – Although Christians still face persecution in Vietnam, churches thrive because of leaders who endured suffering to spread the gospel in the communist country. They include 95-year-old Pastor Duong Thi, also known as Mrs. Ly, who helped start Vietnam’s house church movement.
When CBN News visited Mrs. Ly, she was well enough to write a favorite verse and read it aloud: Romans 12:21 which says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
The 95-year-old pastor reminisced about hardships she and other Christians endured, such as being imprisoned five times. When asked how she felt during the ordeal, she answered in Vietnamese, “I was not afraid because God was with me.”
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One of the prisons where she was jailed, the Hoa Lo Prison, is now a popular tourist spot in the heart of Hanoi. Mrs. Ly’s children shared that Bibles were not allowed in the prison but their mother was able to have access to some of its pages which her church members used to wrap the sticky rice they sent her. Even inside the prison,
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