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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Rebecca Wong

Not Home Yet

It's good to see you all here today, many familiar faces and many new faces.

Just as a quick word of introduction, my name is Rebecca.

I am from over yonder north in Northern California, a little town called Colfax, which is just 2 exits down from Weimar.

I see some familiar faces here from the Weimar area.

I'm an ESL professor at American River College, and I also am an artist.

So in between my semesters, I started an art company where I'm teaching pop-up art workshops, art classes for kids, summer art camps, and also I use this art company to fuel and to support overseas mission work.

So I actually literally just got back a couple days ago from Bolivia, where I was serving at an orphanage and teaching art classes for kids, which has been so much fun.

I'm honestly still in recovery from my last trip.

There was a little bit of jet lag and a little bit of exhaustion.

It's funny because this is my first time to South America, and I was like, it's not that far away, right?

It's really not that far, but the actual routes of travel there were not very direct.

So my journey back to California took me a span of 2 and a half days from going from a bus ride from 1 city to the next city, then after the bus ride, then had to take another shuttle.

And when we were taking the shuttle, they decided to shut down the entire highway due to the protesters.

They were blockading the main highway that took you from 1 city to the next.

I was like, dear Lord, help us to get through.

Finally made it through, and then another 3 flights from Bolivia to Panama, Panama to LA, and then LA to Sacramento.

When I was finally on my last leg of the trip, my last flight, I can't tell you how much I just wanted to be home, To crash in my own bed and just knock out and sleep and I was just like, Lord, I want to be home.

That longing was so intense and yet I said, God, gotta stay up.

I don't know if you've ever been like that, in a place where you were stuck.

You weren't home yet, but you really wished you were.

Maybe you were stuck somewhere in between.

The message that I will be sharing with you today is entitled, Not Home Yet.

Let's have a quick word of prayer before we dive in.

Father in heaven, Lord, I come before you this morning not with the words of human eloquence or persuasive speech.

No, Lord, in simple humility, fear and trembling, I come before you asking that you will speak through me through the power of your Spirit, God.

Let it not be I, but you, Christ, exalted, glorified, and lifted, Father.

Remove every distraction here, and may we hear your voice speak.

The story starts With a young man named Roland Howlett, in 1937 he graduated from then called Emmanuel Missionary College, which is our well-known Andrews University, and he accepted the call to serve as a missionary in Vietnam.

In the first couple of years he arrived to Vietnam, he had a heart of industry and missions.

He established the first Adventist training school, the first publishing house, the first clinic, and a church in Saigon, which is the capital of South Vietnam.

1 of the first students that he made was a young man by the name of Ly Ba Huy.

Roland Howlett, this amazing and incredible man and missionary of God, had such a great influence upon my grandfather that through his influence, my grandfather, my grandmother, and all 8 children were baptized into the Adventist Church by God's grace.

Coming from a completely Buddhist background, no concept of who God was, to coming to know the Lord and Savior, our Jesus Christ.

My grandfather, my grandmother, all 8 children here, And my beloved mother is on the left.

But very soon, World War II took place, which shook the world.

Unfortunately, Roland Hallett, the missionary, he was forced to leave the country.

But the work was not abandoned or left in vain.

Roland's students continued the pioneer work that had began in Vietnam, including my grandfather who stepped up to serve as the treasurer for the fledgling conference.

My grandmother became the ladies dean of the Adventist school, and they actually moved on to the Adventist compound that had been built.

And there we saw as the years passed that the Adventist community grew by leaps and bounds as the gospel continued to spread.

But after World War II, then came the Vietnamese Civil War.

The Communist forces of the North were marching down to take over the South, And they came closer and closer and closer to the capital of Saigon.

When US troops withdrew their support of the South, all of the Vietnamese civilians knew the end was coming.

The remaining Adventist volunteers who were there on the compound began to evacuate and return back to the United States.

The reason being, Adventists were known as the quote-unquote American religion.

So as soon as the communists come in, they would be the first target.

So evacuations were happening as the Aventists were fleeing Vietnam.

At this time, my grandmother and grandfather had moved off of the Adventist compound.

They had another place that they were living, but it was close by.

And in the middle of the night, there was a knock on the door.

My grandfather and grandmother awakened, went to check and see who it was.

There was a young lad there, and this young lad said, you go tonight or you will never get out.

She said, listen, my son is fighting on the front lines of the war right now.

The family was already divided and she said, If we leave tonight, how will we keep track of our family?

How will we know that we'll ever be reunited again?

But again, the message was, you go tonight or you may never get out.

It was an agonizing decision, but my grandfather and grandmother finally yielded and said, we go.

So my mother remembers all she had was a bag of clothes.

Her siblings grabbed whatever they could and in the night they crept into the darkness.

With war curfew, you don't want to be out after dark.

If you are out after the curfew time, you are liable to be shot and killed.

But here they were, sneaking in the middle of the night.

Quietly, they went over to the Aventus compound, where the Aventus had gotten ambulances.

They smuggled my family into the ambulances, and the ambulances then went to the airport.

From the airport, my family boarded a plane.

And this was the start of a new journey for them.

For them, this was all in 1 night, losing everything they ever had, losing their home.

They didn't know what it was before them, but they took the next step.

And interestingly, they didn't know this at the time, but literally just days later, after my family fled, Saigon surrendered to the communist forces.

The armies quickly took over, captured the Adventist campus.

And today, where the compound was, is now a communist school, sadly.

The refugee journey was long and difficult.

From 1 plane to 1 refugee camp to another refugee camp.

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Not Home Yet

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