Encounters with Angels
By Ai Hang*, ASAP Evangelist
The local police caught me praying and worshiping with a group of new believers. They tied me up and questioned me in front of all the onlookers. When I did not answer them, they hit me over and over again with bamboo poles. Then they dragged me over to a pickup truck and threw me in the back. They drove deep into the jungle. They must have thought I would be disoriented and have no chance of survival. Around midnight they tossed me out of the truck and drove off. 
The sounds of the forest and the darkness made my heart race. As I lay on the forest floor, I felt warm blood running down my back. I felt half alive and half dead. Thoughts of wild animals coming to feast on my body filled my mind. I closed my eyes tightly and cried to God, “Loving Father, please save me!”
Then an amazing thing happened. My body lifted from the ground and I sensed I was flying in the air. When I opened my eyes, I looked around bewilderingly and to my surprise, I discovered that I was sitting on a familiar downtown street in my own neighborhood. “Was this a dream?” I wondered. No, it was real. I believe I was carried on angels’ wings safely home that night. I went back to sharing Jesus as soon as I could after this incident. Those who witnessed me being beaten were amazed that I survived. They wanted to know more about this God who had the power to save my life through an angel.
In another area of Vietnam, where the authorities are also unfriendly to Christians, an ethnic people group resides, called the Montagnards. The government tightly controls the travel to this restricted area. An ASAP lay pastor who attempted to enter the area was caught and warned never to return. After making a second attempt to enter this area, he disappeared never to be seen again. After this, Pastor Isah Young, leader of the SDA house church movement, realized it is too risky to send workers in there. A point was made to begin a prayer campaign for the salvation of these ethnic people and for God to open a way to reach them.
About three years later, God opened the way for a couple to enter this area by crossing the border into a neighboring country and entering from there. They came back with the following report: A tall stranger with a radiant face had appeared to some village chiefs and had given them a radio. Furthermore, he gave the village chief instructions, not only on how to use the radio, but also how to find a particular program that he encouraged them to listen. Then he disappeared. That program turned out to be ASAP’s Peace and Happiness beamed in by Adventist World Radio. The people listened to Pastor Isah Young preach the Word of God and became Sabbath-keeping believers. This happened not just to one village, but to twenty villages in that region. These people know that the stranger was an angel sent by God because of earnest prayer for the Montagnards’ salvation.
*Name has been changed and photo blurred for the protection of God's worker.
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