Ngan's Report

 Pictured here are Thuan and his little brother, Truong. About 6 am on a recent  Sunday morning, my mother noticed Thuan picking up empty bottles and plastic bags from the trash can in front of our church building. She invited him in for breakfast and he stayed for worship. Later that week, my mother, our preacher Hai, myself and three others visited his home about 25 minutes from the church building. He lives with his parents, 70 year old grandmother, little brother and sister. His parents earn $5 a day working in a restaurant while the grandmother watches the children. Thuan picks up bottles and other items that he can sell to earn a little money for the family. We took them a gift of rice, soy sauce and clothing from the church. He and his brother are becoming regular worshipers with us.

It is important for the church to do good deeds to help others and we have regular  visitation efforts several times a week to meet with our students and others we come into contact with. It lets people know we are interested in them. The little girl pictured here is Huynh Nguyen. She is eight years old and one of our Tom's Kids. Her parents are very poor and could not afford to send her to school without the help from Amazing Grace. She is one of three children. Though she lives an hour away from our church building, her father brings her to worship every Sunday.

The little boy in the white shirt in this picture is Minh and behind him is his brother  An. They lost their father two years ago and their mother is not in good health. She makes her living by picking up green vegetables in the countryside and selling them at the market. Often they have no food to eat and Minh goes through the neighborhood begging for food. The church gave her rice and some clothing for the boys. Water for their home is collected when it rains in buckets. When it doesn't rain, she walks fifteen minutes to the river for water.  

The road to their house was flooded as you can see from the picture here, but we made it just fine. They welcomed us into their house and we saw the bed where they sleep. The mattress was just deteriorating foam and the blankets were made of used clothes. The following Sunday, Minh and his mother and brother walked to church. It was their first time to meet with us. The mother sat with me in Bible class and I tried to show her the chapter in Matthew we were studying from. She told me however she couldn't read. She had never been to school. Her boys are the first in her family to receive an education, thanks to Amazing Grace and your generous contributions.

New English Class 

Through your contributions, Amazing Grace International makes it possible for children who would not otherwise have the chance, to get an education. These students study English in school, but the instruction is not that good -- or sometimes so difficult that the students need extra help. So through our English classes we help get students get further along. Everyone knows they must know English to succeed.

The church in Can Tho visits these students in their homes. We learn more about them and help them as we can. Though we are forbidden to teach the Bible in their homes, we can tell them we are from the Church of Christ and we can tell them that we are helping them because Jesus helped us. Then, we can invite them to learn more by coming to church.

Your donations make the financial part of this a success.

* Introduction to Christianity (and why it is important).

* Introduction to the Old Testament

* Introduction to the New Testament

* The Life of Christ

* Salvation

* The Church

* Life as a Child of God

* Worship

This course is offered free through the newspaper USA Today. When we began, that was the largest circulation newspaper in the United States (since surpassed by the Wall Street Journal). Our ad appears twice a week in that paper.

Through September of this year we enrolled 928 students (compared to 946 in all of 2012) graded 2529 Bible lessons, and graduated 192.

It is shaping up to be our best year ever!

It costs $1080 a month to advertise in USA TODAY, plus printing, mailing and postage costs. All our grading and administration is handled by volunteers. Currently, we just make ends meet. We would like to advertise more, but it requires an annual contractual commitment with USA TODAY. We can only do what we know we can pay for. Would you consider making an annual commitment to help us increase this tool to teach? In the memo field mark your contributions "Bible Course Project."

Advertising our Bible course in USA TODAY has brought more than its share of surprises. It is, of course, an American newspaper. But Americans take the paper all over the world (yes, USA TODAY has an international edition but we do not advertise in that one). People pick up the paper and read it and pass it on. The result is that we have had students in nine countries besides our own to take the course.

Another surprise is the number of incarcerated people who come into contact with the newspaper and ask for the course. Without ever planning it, our Bible course program has become a national prison ministry and with that surprise comes another one.

We get lots of mail from students, and sometimes (though we do not solicit contributions from students), we get donations. Even prisoners have been known to send us a dollar or two from their prison earnings.

Imagine then my surprise when I received a check, in May of this year, from a prisoner, for $200. More of a surprise, he had not taken our course, nor did he want to. His name is James Adams and he is imprisoned in Huntsville, Texas. Originally from North Carolina, Mr. Adams is a veteran of World War II as well as the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, retiring from the military in 1969. He would not tell me why he was in prison, but he went to prison at the age of 83. In September, he sent us another check for $200. With these donations, we have created a special fund to supply the poorest of prisoners with their own Bibles.

Oregon                 2   Pennsylvania        52   Rhode Island         3

South Carolina      13 South Dakota      1     Tennessee              23

Texas                    97 Utah                    1     Virginia                  114

Washington           11  Wisconsin           17    West Virginia         25

Wyoming               1