Contact: Bob Fetherlin, Vice President for International Ministries, The Christian and Missionary Alliance, 719-265-2020, fetherlinb@cmalliance.org
DA NANG, Vietnam, July 14, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) -- related Evangelical Church of Vietnam (also known as Tin Lanh) had its largest-ever gathering to celebrate 100 years of ministry, June 14–16, 2011. Held in Da Nang's large indoor stadium, the event drew an estimated 15,000 people, with an overflow of about 1,000 in the outer halls.
The Dan Nang celebration was the first of four 2011 celebrations to mark 100 years since the beginning of Alliance outreach to Vietnam. The second celebration was held in Hanoi on June 20, with about 4,000 in attendance, the third in Ho Chi Minh City on June 23-24, and the final celebration took place July 2 in Garden Grove, California, at the Crystal Cathedral.
During the Ho Chi Minh City celebration, retired international worker Tom Stebbins preached an evangelistic message in Vietnamese on the prodigal son to a packed house of 15,000 people. Nearly 1,000 responded to become followers of Jesus Christ.
In 1911, a team of three Alliance international workers, led by Robert A. Jaffray, entered Vietnam, then known as French Indochina, with the purpose of establishing the country's first evangelical church. When Vietnam fell to Communist control in 1975, The Alliance had established a national church with a membership of 53,000. Today, there are 1.2 million believers in Vietnam, most of them Alliance.
The Christian and Missionary Alliance is a worldwide family of Christians mobilized to fulfill the Great Commission by living out the fullness of Jesus Christ in personal experience and building His Church worldwide. Today, there are more than 2,000 Alliance churches in the United States and more than 20,000 fellowships in 81 countries around the world, where nearly 5 million Christians call themselves "Alliance," united by an unquenchable passion to reach our communities for Christ and provide access to the gospel where no access yet exists.
