“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.” - Ephesians 5:26-28 (NIV)

I came home one day and my grandparents said you are getting married. The first time I saw my wife was on our wedding day, I was only 12 years old. My wife ran away twice after we got married. Her parents brought her back to me against her will. For several years during the beginning of our marriage, I had gambling problems and was unfaithful to Laai. My family bought Laai with two silver bracelet, a silver necklace, and a silver bar strap. I stole Laai’s strap and gambled her keepsake away. During those times, I was comparing Laai with other women. I didn’t sleep with Lai on the same bed for years.

Laai: “As a bought wife, I had no choice. I was told to live with his family because my parents said that they seem to be wealthy, they had land for farming. I didn’t want to go but had to obey my parents. At that time, I couldn’t say no. I didn’t have very high expectations of him being a good husband. Yao didn’t start showing characters of a husband until about two years into our marriage when he started going farming with me.”

Prior to becoming a Christian, we heard sermons in Vietnamese that the world would end in Y2K. Stating, “Anyone who are non-Christians will not enter God’s Kingdom”. I heard the Gospel but did not understand it. I knew at the time, I wanted to go to Heaven but I chose to accept. Blessed is the Lord, He is merciful. Jesus found another way to allow not just me but Lai to hear him again. About a year and a half later I heard a similar sermon through the radio and Lai heard from others that if we convert, there is someone that can heal us from all of our pains and sufferings without needing to do any of the Taoist ceremonies. After hearing this, our entire family converted. We were fearful of Jesus but still not fully understanding who Jesus was.

For the first two years, we walked two hours one way every week to a brother’s house to hear the Word of God. The local authorities noticed we were doing this and became very suppressing. We stopped going to the brother’s house but we continued to learn by ourselves and decided to attend Seminary School. I am now a Pastor at my village.

I have not attended this types of conference before. I really wanted to understand more of what my marriage could be. This conference taught us how to show love to each other. God revealed to me that my wife was the most beautiful person in the world and no one in this world can compare. She really loves me. I have to admit, this is the first time, I said, “I love you” to Lai. The message and this conference is really powerful. I read it in the Bible but didn’t really know how to live it. This conference helps me understand how I can live it with my wife. Lai supports me and does everything for our family. I truly love her. We look forward to setting an example for others to see in our village. It was so worth the motorcycle ride for eight hours and three and a half hours to airplane ride to Chiang Rai, Thailand.

Laai: “Since my husband started working for God, I had no worries that he will be unfaithful to me. I love Yauz-Baaux because he is a man of God and helps me do the things I don’t know or can’t do”.

Prayer Request

Pray that our children will come to Christ and eventually will do God’s work. Allow us to be used by God and to love each other even more.