Vital Links Ministry

In addition to operating her clinic and leading ALWM’s Vital Links volunteer medical outreach teams, Dr. Hang and her husband raise more than a dozen children here! As a follower of Christ since 1984, all of this is simply and profoundly their call as disciples, living out their faith in a country where more than 51% of the population is Buddhist, and just 2% evangelical Christian.

In addition to operating her clinic and leading ALWM’s Vital Links volunteer medical outreach teams, Dr. Hang and her husband raise more than a dozen children here! As a follower of Christ since 1984, all of this is simply and profoundly their call as disciples, living out their faith in a country where more than 51% of the population is Buddhist, and just 2% evangelical Christian.

Dr. Hang is the heart of ALWM’s Vital Links medical evangelism ministry in Vietnam. Born into Buddhism like most Vietnamese people, she became a follower of Christ in 1984.

In 1990, when Dr. Hang came to Saigon for medical training, she was in a bad car accident and suffered from a traumatic brain injury. She was treated at the Cho Ray Hospital for two months.

Because of a complication from her treatment, her face became severely distorted. She fervently prayed to God for healing over the following months, and promised to serve God for the rest of her life with the gifts and skills He had given her. Over several months, her face was totally healed!

The following year, in 1991, she began to do medical outreach clinics in rural Vietnam in thankfulness to God for His working in her life. In 2005, Dr. Hang met the founders of Vital Links, Tom and Carol Miles. Vital Links began to partner with her in the medical/evangelism ministry, providing much-needed funds to support the work. She organizes volunteer teams of medical professionals that offer check-ups, medication and more, hosted in partnership with rural congregations where medical care is often unavailable and/or unaffordable.

In 2018 Vital Links became a part of ALWM, expanding the ministry to meet more needs as the Lord continues to open many doors. Pastors hosting the outreaches testify that these events not only touch people at their point of need, as Jesus did, but are also their most effective evangelistic outreach year after year! Relationships are established and the love of Christ is shown to the literally hundreds who attend, as follow up continues after the outreach ends and the team returns to HCMC.

In addition to the medical/evangelism outreaches, the Gospel House children’s ministry provides homes for more than 40 children, most rescued from abortion. This began in 2005, when Dr. Hang started the project Protecting Living Seeds after attending a workshop on psychology and reproductive health counseling with foreign Christian doctors.

“Protecting living seeds” is a program that approaches and helps unwed mothers who intend to have an abortion; and to provide shelter and support until delivery for pregnant women with special circumstances and helplessness.

Dr. Hang said that when she opened a new pediatric clinic in 2003, the small-scale private clinic occasionally received special patients who weren’t sick. They were quite young girls, mostly students. They stopped by to have a health-check and consult to see if they were pregnant or not. Although Dr. Hang had no expertise in obstetrics, she agreed to help. When the patients found out they were pregnant, most of them wanted to have an abortion. With the medical ethics of a Christian doctor, she didn’t perform abortions and wholeheartedly advised against them.

“After the ultrasound procedure, I happily confirmed that she was pregnant. However, she was crying and extremely bewildered because she didn’t expect this to happen and asked for an abortion. I patiently explained to her that having an abortion isn’t safe. It will lead to many consequences later on, such as infection, infertility or the high risk of miscarriage of the next baby. But the girl seemed not to pay attention to that, always begging for help because the pregnancy would never be accepted by her family.

“I knew that if I refused her request, she would find another clinic to solve her problem. Therefore, I decided to support the girl until she gave birth” said Dr. Hang. Finally, this student understood the dangers, became a believer, and agreed to stay with Dr. Hang until the baby was delivered. She delightedly treated their home as her home, and the doctor as her second mother.

Dr. Hang has devoted her whole heart to building this home for unwed mothers and children. Over the past 17 years, their home and the three other full-time Gospel Houses have been home to nearly 275 mothers, which means nearly 275 children have been given the gift of life! She named their house Gospel (Phuc Am in Vietnamese).

According to Dr. Hang, Phuc means happiness, and Am means sound. The Gospel is not only gentle, loving words to soothe people’s hearts with the Good News about Jesus Christ, but is also a place to help and protect young women after wrong steps in life bring the unexpected.

Over the years some birth mothers, unable to keep the babies they birthed, left their babies with Dr. Hang and her husband. Later another family member, and then a dear Christian friend, answered the call to take in children as well. In addition, there are volunteer “nannies” who are dedicated to helping the kids with learning, singing, having nice meals and good sleep every day.

From time to time, Dr. Hang and Mr. Hai’s Gospel House will have one or two pregnant women with them, along with the 12 children they raise as their own. In all, there are now more than 40 Gospel House children!

In 2019, at an ALWM outreach with our summer team two hours north of Ho Chi Minh City, one young mom recognized the Vital Links logo on Pastor Bill’s shirt. She said, “Do you know Dr. Hang and Ms. _____?” (Dr. Hang’s co-worker’s name withheld for security reasons).

Pastor Bill said, “Yes, I  do!”

She proceeded to share with him that 10 years earlier, she had been single, pregnant, and wanted an abortion. Dr. Hang and Ms. ______ shared the Gospel with her, she became a believer, and decided to give birth. She kept her baby! She pointed to a girl and said, “That’s her right there, making one of the crafts your team has brought! Her name is ‘Agape’! I am forever grateful!”

She went on to say that she was now married, had another child, and was a member of the church hosting the outreach on that hot Saturday in June 2019.

(Click on the link to watch the video “The Day We Met Agape” on YouTube)

Dr. Hang, Mr. Hai, and the other ALWM Vital Links volunteers continued the ministry during the pandemic with several outreaches. It all began with one conversion to Christ in 1984, a miraculous healing along the way, and faithful discipleship over the years as God opened doors for ministry!