Horizons of hope in Vietnam
Diligent work at Precious Blood Vietnam mission nourishes spirituality
It can be daunting to go to the other side of the globe.
It takes more than 24 hours of flight time to get to Vietnam, and once you arrive, your senses are working overtime to take it all in: the sights, the sounds, the smells, the rhythm of life that is new to you. I was nervous about visiting the Missionaries of the Precious Blood’s mission in Vietnam for an eight-day trip in November 2024, and I was sometimes overwhelmed when I was there, and I will forever be grateful that I went.
Grateful, too, to have been accompanied by my old friend and mentor, Fr. Denny Kinderman, C.PP.S., who has seen and said “yes” to the movement of the Spirit throughout his life as a priest. Grateful for the welcome we received from the Missionaries there, who carry out their prodigious work from a Precious Blood point of view. Grateful for the daily help from Sr. Hung Pham, an Adorer of the Blood of Christ who served as an able translator and guide throughout our trip.
I went as a representative of the Missionaries’ mission advancement office, which promotes the congregation’s spirituality and ministries to the many people who support us with their prayers and their financial support.
The Missionaries have been in ministry in Vietnam for nearly 30 years. After a period of exploration as to what might be possible, they established their mission in 2007. Currently, nine Missionaries (eight priests and one religious brother), plus those in formation, are in ministry there, all of them Vietnamese by birth.
We traveled to their ministry sites in Saigon, where Missionaries help in parishes and in rural Vietnam. It is always inspirational to see stout-hearted, compassionate Christians working hard to build the Kingdom on Earth, and even more so in Vietnam, where Missionaries must be careful not to cross boundaries set by the government. They are a relatively new religious entity in the country, so they do not have the cultural cushion of traditional sites and support. They have had to carve out their own identity and footholds.
The ministry at the Charitable House of Song Trau, two hours from Saigon, provides a home for at-risk population of people who were living on the streets. Currently they are serving 32 adult male residents, many of them elderly — but they want to grow that number to 200. They live in a modern, clean building that was constructed with the help of donors eager to help in Vietnam, who were brought into the ministry by our Missionaries.
The ministry at the Tan Thanh Community was established in 2017 near the Cambodian border. It includes a retreat center and guest rooms in a peaceful, welcoming setting. This location was also built with the help of friends of the congregation.
Missionaries there reach out to the indigenous Xtieng (also spelled Steing) tribe, who face oppression. The Missionaries operate a mobile soup kitchen, serving hundreds of families, and are building simple metal shelters that provide protection for the weather. Their goal is always to serve more people, as time and resources allow.
Missionaries are also in ministry in Vietnam’s central highlands in the Dak Nong Province. The center there has a chapel and buildings and more than six acres of farmland, where they grow black pepper from 900 vines, as well as taro, passionfruit, bananas, and other cash crops. Seminarians help with crop production in the summer months, contributing to the cash flow that supports the mission. Missionaries minister to indigenous people in the region, providing them with food and shelter.
Everywhere on our trip, we saw our Missionaries hard at work but never working on their own. They are building more than just sites; they are building support among the people they serve and people who believe in the mission — people who believe in the Precious Blood of Jesus as a source of healing and strength for our world.