The Mennonite Church in Vietnam is asking Christians worldwide to join them in fasting and prayer prior to the appeal hearing for two of its imprisoned church leaders. The office of the defence attorney has announced that the appeal will be heard by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court on Tuesday 12th April 2005.
Le Thi Phu Dung, wife of imprisoned pastor Nguyen Hong Quang, called on Christians to fast and pray from the evening of 10th April through the morning of 12th April (Vietnam time).
Representing the Vietnam Mennonite Church, Le requested prayer for three of remaining six Mennonite church members convicted last November at the Ho Chi Minh City’s People’s Court for supposedly "inciting people to obstruct officials from carrying out their duties."
According to a report released last year by Calif.-based Compass Direct, those close to the situation said that the charges and trial were an artifice to take out of circulation Rev. Quang, the secretary general of the Mennonite Church in Vietnam. Quang, who also served as an active member of the Vietnamese Evangelical Fellowship, had actively campaigned against religious freedom and human rights abuses.
Sources say the appeal of Quang’s three-year sentence and fellow Mennonite pastor Pham Ngoc Thach’s nine-month sentence was cancelled without explanation just a day before it was to have originally taken place on 2nd February. Lawyers acting on behalf of Quang informed his wife last week that Quang’s appeal before the People’s Supreme Court of Vietnam had been rescheduled for 12th April.
"The church asks for prayer that God would work in the appeals hearing so that the judges would judge justly, that the imprisoned persons be released, that confiscated church materials be returned and for Christians who plan to attend the April 12 hearing," according to a statement released Thursday by the Mennonite World Conference (MWC).
"Further, prayer that Christians in all the churches will keep unswerving faith in difficult times and have freedom to worship God is requested," the group added.
Quang’s wife, in expressing thanks for the support and encouragement given to the church, the imprisoned leaders and their families, said that her husband is a "faithful servant of the Lord Jesus." She maintains that "Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang and the Mennonite evangelists...never acted to prevent officials from carrying out their duties, and never violated the laws of Vietnam in the 2nd March 2004 incident.
