The Rest of the Story _- as told by Corey Trenda of World Vision
The other night Janet and I watched a recording of a recent World Vision
weekly chapel service. It started with a faded documentary-style video,
circa 1979, chronicling a dramatic moment when World Vision’s ship
Seasweep rescued a floundering vessel crammed with Vietnamese boat
people. One four-year-old boy who was on that boat that day …then stood
up and spoke to the chapel crowd! Now in his mid-30’s, Vinh is a
graduate of Harvard Medical School and a skin cancer surgeon in
Colorado. He said, “Without a doubt, if it had it not been for World
Vision, the story of my life would have ended anonymously at the age of
4 in the South China Sea.”
Vinh’s parents had 11 children (he has only three of his own, thank you
very much), and of the 11, five have Masters’ degrees and five have
doctorates. The youngest recently graduated from Stanford and is on his
way to medical school at Penn. Dad worked every hour he could as a
laborer for a company that manufactures air conditioners, though the
plant was not air conditioned and he stood all day on the assembly line
through Arkansas summers. As Vinh told the audience, thanks to his
father’s commitment, today he and his siblings all sit in offices, make
their living based on their minds, and work in air conditioned
facilities.
All in one generation. It’s a great illustration of the incredible
opportunity possible in America—with sufficient parental sacrifice, a
strong work ethic cascading down to the children, (yes, let’s
acknowledge serious IQs and study habits!) …and the kindness of others,
especially the amazing church which sponsored them from the refugee
camp, helped them into an apartment, likely found the father a job, and
told them all about Jesus.
World Vision played but one tiny, yet also decisive, role…saving the
lives of 93 people that fateful day caught on film, including this
entire family. What an amazing privilege for our staff to hear “the
rest of the story” from Vinh and to have played a small yet critical
role in it.
Somewhere in here is a lesson on gratitude. Vinh was thanking “people I
will never meet”: not only the World Vision staff, but also the donors
who supported this risky, reckless and costly venture. WV put a ship on
the South China Sea to resupply Vietnamese refugee boats at a time when
no governments wanted to get involved. Then the crew superseded the
rules of the ship’s registration by following the law of their
conscience, dramatically hoisting these 93 people aboard the Seasweep
when their refugee boat was irreparable and had been floundering
helplessly for six days, now out of food. Vinh’s mother was so beside
herself at being unable to meet her children’s needs that “she would
have given her blood” to nourish them; she has since admitted that she
considered drowning the youngest ones to save them an agonizingly slow
death. Such was the desperation of their situation when Seasweep found
them.
How do we—you and I—get the privilege of being part of stories like
this, and of literally millions more we’ll never hear this side of
eternity? Rich Stearns went up to the podium to close chapel after Vinh
sat down, and he became emotional. He wondered if maybe this is what
the entertainment will be in heaven, hearing such testimonies.
In the meantime, it’s a huge blessing to savor the representative
gratitude of one young father, husband, doctor, and son. He was on his
way to becoming a statistic, simply a rounding error to add to the
estimated three hundred thousand souls who had by then already been lost
at sea as Vietnamese boat people.
Often, this is what life is like. We do our one part, we respond to an
inner prompting of the heart and provide a helping hand—a touch, a word,
a gift, and we have no idea how the story of that life ends. We never
learn the rest of the story. Granted, the story isn’t usually as
dramatic as Vinh’s—certainly my own story is not, though someone I’ll
never meet provided the scholarship which allowed me to finish college
summa cum laude and land a great corporate job that fed my young family
and gave me skills and clarity of purpose which I employ every day.
And perhaps I’ll even take a moment to thank God for those people like
Vinh, those I’ve personally or vicariously been able to somehow touch,
bless, and strengthen on their journey, often without even knowing them.
The apostle Paul encourages us, “Let us not grow weary in doing good,
for at the proper time we shall reap a harvest if we do not give
up.” (Gal 6:9)
Giving thanks isn’t just a way to honor God by recalling our own life’s
blessings, but also an opportunity to encourage ourselves by recalling
the privilege God has given us of helping others in our own outpourings
of time, talent and treasure. And what a great way to not grow weary in
doing good!
Who knows—maybe a long ago passerby or someone you or I haven’t even
met, like Vinh, will be thanking God this week for a decisive impact in
their life in which we had a hand.
Understanding that, Vinh’s story is a Thanksgiving gift to us all.
The other night Janet and I watched a recording of a recent World Vision
weekly chapel service. It started with a faded documentary-style video,
circa 1979, chronicling a dramatic moment when World Vision’s ship
Seasweep rescued a floundering vessel crammed with Vietnamese boat
people. One four-year-old boy who was on that boat that day …then stood
up and spoke to the chapel crowd! Now in his mid-30’s, Vinh is a
graduate of Harvard Medical School and a skin cancer surgeon in
Colorado. He said, “Without a doubt, if it had it not been for World
Vision, the story of my life would have ended anonymously at the age of
4 in the South China Sea.”
Vinh’s parents had 11 children (he has only three of his own, thank you
very much), and of the 11, five have Masters’ degrees and five have
doctorates. The youngest recently graduated from Stanford and is on his
way to medical school at Penn. Dad worked every hour he could as a
laborer for a company that manufactures air conditioners, though the
plant was not air conditioned and he stood all day on the assembly line
through Arkansas summers. As Vinh told the audience, thanks to his
father’s commitment, today he and his siblings all sit in offices, make
their living based on their minds, and work in air conditioned
facilities.
All in one generation. It’s a great illustration of the incredible
opportunity possible in America—with sufficient parental sacrifice, a
strong work ethic cascading down to the children, (yes, let’s
acknowledge serious IQs and study habits!) …and the kindness of others,
especially the amazing church which sponsored them from the refugee
camp, helped them into an apartment, likely found the father a job, and
told them all about Jesus.
World Vision played but one tiny, yet also decisive, role…saving the
lives of 93 people that fateful day caught on film, including this
entire family. What an amazing privilege for our staff to hear “the
rest of the story” from Vinh and to have played a small yet critical
role in it.
Somewhere in here is a lesson on gratitude. Vinh was thanking “people I
will never meet”: not only the World Vision staff, but also the donors
who supported this risky, reckless and costly venture. WV put a ship on
the South China Sea to resupply Vietnamese refugee boats at a time when
no governments wanted to get involved. Then the crew superseded the
rules of the ship’s registration by following the law of their
conscience, dramatically hoisting these 93 people aboard the Seasweep
when their refugee boat was irreparable and had been floundering
helplessly for six days, now out of food. Vinh’s mother was so beside
herself at being unable to meet her children’s needs that “she would
have given her blood” to nourish them; she has since admitted that she
considered drowning the youngest ones to save them an agonizingly slow
death. Such was the desperation of their situation when Seasweep found
them.
How do we—you and I—get the privilege of being part of stories like
this, and of literally millions more we’ll never hear this side of
eternity? Rich Stearns went up to the podium to close chapel after Vinh
sat down, and he became emotional. He wondered if maybe this is what
the entertainment will be in heaven, hearing such testimonies.
In the meantime, it’s a huge blessing to savor the representative
gratitude of one young father, husband, doctor, and son. He was on his
way to becoming a statistic, simply a rounding error to add to the
estimated three hundred thousand souls who had by then already been lost
at sea as Vietnamese boat people.
Often, this is what life is like. We do our one part, we respond to an
inner prompting of the heart and provide a helping hand—a touch, a word,
a gift, and we have no idea how the story of that life ends. We never
learn the rest of the story. Granted, the story isn’t usually as
dramatic as Vinh’s—certainly my own story is not, though someone I’ll
never meet provided the scholarship which allowed me to finish college
summa cum laude and land a great corporate job that fed my young family
and gave me skills and clarity of purpose which I employ every day.
And perhaps I’ll even take a moment to thank God for those people like
Vinh, those I’ve personally or vicariously been able to somehow touch,
bless, and strengthen on their journey, often without even knowing them.
The apostle Paul encourages us, “Let us not grow weary in doing good,
for at the proper time we shall reap a harvest if we do not give
up.” (Gal 6:9)
Giving thanks isn’t just a way to honor God by recalling our own life’s
blessings, but also an opportunity to encourage ourselves by recalling
the privilege God has given us of helping others in our own outpourings
of time, talent and treasure. And what a great way to not grow weary in
doing good!
Who knows—maybe a long ago passerby or someone you or I haven’t even
met, like Vinh, will be thanking God this week for a decisive impact in
their life in which we had a hand.
Understanding that, Vinh’s story is a Thanksgiving gift to us all.
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