Those who have followed this site for some time will be aware that I have been traveling in Vietnam since 1999. Those trips have seen us travel along the immediate borders with Vietnam (Loas, Cambodia, China) and meet multiple people groups who need Jesus. In recent days, since coming for a longer stay in August, I have been made aware of a group of people I had not heard about before. Unregsitered Vietnamese.

I will let my friend, Pastor Le Minh Dat, describe their situation.

Vietnam borders with Cambodia. Vietnam has a history of centuries of conflicts with Cambodia. In fact, 1/3 of the southern territory of modern Vietnam came from Cambodia, the former invaded the latter. Most recently, Vietnam occupied Cambodia in 1978 and didn’t mean to withdraw until the international pressure became a matter of life and death for the nation as embargoes got stricter and stricter. That’s why Cambodian government and people never have a good stance towards Vietnam. Thousands of Vietnamese people, generations after generations, live in the “lake sea” – a big lake in the territory of Cambodia. Most of them live on simple small boats. They earn their living by fishing. They are Vietnamese by ethnic. The Cambodian government does not recognize them. For generations, these people are neither recognized by Vietnamese nor Cambodian government. They are Vietname diaspora, speaking Vietnamese language, keeping Vietnamese culture, living in the soil of Cambodia. Unrecognized by both governments, these people are undocumented. They don’t have any “identification cards/numbers.” They don’t have any address. The “lake sea” is where they live, the boat is their house. Undocumented, they cannot seek education and employment. They only do simple jobs where the employers don’t ask for documentation. They are poor. Some of them return Vietnam, of course, undocumented and un-recognized by the government.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet Pastor Truong Thien Tin. Pastor Tin leads a church in Tay Ninh province where Vietnam and Cambodia share the border. Pastor Tin has a heart for these Vietnam diaspora. So he traveled the three hours by motorbike up to Ho Chi Minh City to have breakfast and share his idea. He had known that Clear & Simple Media had had material publish in Vietnamese since 2006. His idea is to assist the poorest of the “unrecognized” by repairing roofs and floors in many of the houses and digging at least three wells to provide safe water for portions of the community. This, he believes, will help pave the way for the Gospel.

Pastor Tin has a reputaion as a church planter (planting five churches in Tay Ninh Province thus far). He is a man of deep Biblical conviction and is active in evangelism. The endgame is to see people in this community come to faith, plant a church, and use the Vietnamese version of Simple Truths for the New Believer (TÍN  LÝ  ĐƠN  GIẢN   cho TÂN  TÍN  HỮU) to help in their discipleship.

This is news item #1 for this project. Anticipate many more in the days ahead.

If we can work through some logistics challenges, work will begin before December 1, 2025 and evangelistic efforts in the weeks that follow.