In 1974 when we were living in Pleiku in the central highlands of Viet Nam, there were many attacks on the villages in the area, particularly between Pleiku and the Cambodian border. As a result, the South Vietnamese government began evacuating people from the villages under threat and moving them to a large open area just south of Pleiku.
We learned these villagers were in dire need of help, so, taking many sacks of rice, oatmeal, noodles, tinned fish, and other staples, we went out to the campsite. On arrival, we learned the camp was divided into Jarai and Bahnar. I went into the Jarai section and the Flemings to the Bahnar. I found the tent of the leader of the group, who immediately came out to welcome me, exclaiming they knew I would come. He proceeded to bow at my feet, proclaiming to everyone the angel with the message had arrived. I pulled him to his feet, assuring him I was not an angel. Fortunately, I had Ilana, our three-year-old daughter, with me and explained I was just a human and she was my daughter. He insisted they knew I was coming because they had a dream, and I looked like the angel in the dream. I was the first white person these people had seen, and I suppose my fair skin and blond hair helped them draw this conclusion. He also insisted I had a Book with an important message. I agreed with him on that point.
He then sent the children to call all the people to come to hear the story from the Book. While the children were running around, he told me, at one time, they knew the story from the Book, but it had been passed down for so many years they no longer had the story correct. But he knew I had the story written down in the Book, so I could tell them the true story. I marvelled at how the Holy Spirit had prepared these people to hear the message of salvation through Jesus Christ.
They all gathered around me; they told me I had to start at the beginning and tell the whole story of the Book. I started with Creation, the fall, God’s promises, the prophecies, the birth of Jesus, His life, His death, His resurrection, the good news of how through Jesus’ death and resurrection we can be cleansed from our sin, made pure in God’s eyes, and can have eternal life.
In summary, I told them the story of the Book from Genesis to Revelation. I was about to ask if any of them wanted to repent from their sin and turn to Jesus when the headman stood up and said they must believe what I was telling them because he knew it was the truth. That day I had the privilege of leading forty-four people to Christ. A week later, I returned with more supplies and some fifty people were waiting for me; they wanted to know Jesus as their Saviour too. We began regular meetings, and almost the whole camp came to profess Christ as Lord and Saviour, all except that headman, who repeatedly explained to me it was too late for him and he had sinned too much to be forgiven. I wept and prayed for him, but ultimately, I had to leave him in God’s hands. Yes, many came to Christ, but we were always aware of the fact that we were in a very real battle for the souls of men and women, boys and girls (Ephesians 6:12).
From the Beginning
I had the privilege of being raised in a godly home. I came to know Jesus as my Saviour on Good Friday, just before I turned five. At the age of seven, I heard God’s call to missions; it was a distinctive call, which to my young ears sounded like God was talking to me in an audible voice. At the age of thirteen, I asked God to confirm my call, and He spoke to me powerfully from Isaiah 61:1-3. I thank God for keeping the call ever before me throughout my schooling.
In 1961, John graduated from Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College and came to Ottawa to practice. Although his mother had sent him to Sunday school at the United Church when he was young, he had never been challenged to make a decision to follow Jesus Christ as Lord. Nevertheless, on looking back, he can see how God had His hand on his life. After coming to Ottawa, he was invited to the Alliance church, where he heard the Gospel. At the time, he had been dating a girl who was in training to be a Jehovah’s Witness. He had been to the Kingdom Hall with her, but after opening his heart to Christ and claiming Him as Lord and Saviour, he saw what was going on in the Kingdom Hall was more like organized compulsion rather than a message of saving grace.
John continued to attend the Alliance church and grew rapidly in his faith. It was at the church where we met and I, along with my Dad, had the privilege of discipling John. We began dating, but our dates were marked by discussions centred on the Word of God. John put me to shame by his eagerness to learn God’s Word and his enthusiasm to understand how to apply the Scripture to his life.
The first time he proposed marriage to me, I said, “No.” I knew God had not called him to missions, so how could I agree to marry him. However, some months later, during our missionary convention, John heard the Lord’s call from John 20:21, “…As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” I knew His call was genuine, and God had given me a partner who shared my purpose in life to follow God’s calling. So we were married in May 1964.
We began to seek the Lord’s leading for our lives but kept meeting with closed doors. Then, in The Alliance Witness magazine, we read a plea for teachers for the Dalat School. The Ellisons were on furlough from Viet Nam, and we talked to them about this need. As I was teaching at the time, they encouraged us to apply. So, in October of 1965, we sent in our letter of application. In November, we went to New York City for an interview and were appointed to the Dalat School. We arrived in Tanah Rata, Malaysia, in May 1966 to take the place of the teachers who were on furlough for the following academic year.
Ministry in Viet Nam
In June 1967, we attended the field conference in Viet Nam, and as the teachers whom we had replaced were returning, we were asked if we would be willing to be reassigned to Viet Nam under special assignment. We agreed immediately and moved to Dalat, Viet Nam, for language study in July 1967.
God was very gracious to me and gave me facility with the Vietnamese language very quickly, so I was able to finish the two-year course in three months. This, indeed, was a blessing because, by December, I ended up in bed due to problems with my pregnancy. John kept studying in class, and I began to memorize Scriptures in Vietnamese and read classical Vietnamese literature. This went on until Tét 1968 when there was an abrupt escalation in the attacks all over South Viet Nam. We had to leave our house and go up to the school buildings. The following night our compound was being showered with rockets exploding in the air and scattering shrapnel all over. While running for shelter in an underground storeroom, I began to haemorrhage. When we reached the storeroom, our colleagues gathered around me and prayed; the bleeding stopped while praying. All thirty-four of us knew God was with us. We were at peace even though we knew soldiers were searching for us. The next day, after what seemed like an interminable wait, the American military came for us and took us to the signal corps base. After spending two weeks on the American base on Cam Ranh Bay, we were flown to Thailand, where later in the year, our daughter Ilana, 1 our miracle baby, was born.
Eventually, we returned to Viet Nam and settled in Saigon, where John began working with Garth Hunt in evangelism among the South Vietnamese military. As for myself, I started writing a fifteen-year series of graded Sunday school lessons for the Vietnamese church and running teacher training classes for Sunday school teachers and child evangelism clubs. I managed to complete the Sunday school series before coming back to Canada for home assignment. During these years in Saigon, we saw many men and women, boys and girls, come to faith in Jesus Christ. In particular, many were patients in the military hospital where we held evangelistic services every Sunday evening. We were also involved in city-wide campaigns and outreach to the prisons.
While living in Saigon, through one particular incident, we were reminded the Lord is constantly watching over us (Psalm 121), even to the extent of providing the answer to our prayers before we even asked (Philippians 4:19).
In 1968, a very turbulent year in South Viet Nam, we were living in Saigon quite near the airport. For several days we had been under stringent curfew rules, only allowing people to move about the city for a couple of hours each day. The markets were all closed, and food was running short.
Some Alliance visitors were supposed to arrive by air, and because we were close to the airport, John was asked to go to pick them up. When he got there, he discovered three American businessmen who had been bumped from the plane and were going to have to spend the night in the Saigon Airport, which at the time was a small terminal building with no facilities for food or lodging. John also learned the expected visitors were not going to arrive that day. He called me from the airport to tell me he was bringing these three businessmen home. I agreed, provided he told them we were down to tinned tuna and rice, but we would be happy to share what we had with them. I prayed, asking the Lord to give me some creative ideas for fixing dinner for our visitors.
I had just sent my prayer heavenward when I heard a honking horn at our gate. I rushed out to see the chaplain’s assistant from the American base nearby. He said, “Some of the freezers on the base have conked out, and we have extra food that we thought you could use. I have it here; can I give it to you?”
“You are an answer to prayer,” I told him. He then proceeded to empty the cartons from the jeep, including a carton of T-bone steaks, a box of fresh salad vegetables, a carton of various frozen vegetables, a box of fresh fruit, and a huge bag of potatoes and six gallons of milk. The food had been on its way to us, even before I prayed. By the time John arrived with the businessmen, I had the steaks under the broiler, potatoes cooking, and a salad ready to serve.
The men came in, and one of them noted he could smell meat cooking. He said, “I thought you were low on food, and we were to eat tuna and rice tonight, but I am smelling steaks cooking.”
“Yes,” I said, “Apparently, the Lord knew that you were hungry, and He has provided a feast for you and for us. I asked Him for some creative ideas to prepare food for you from what I had on hand, but He supplied an abundance of food instead.” I explained what had happened after John’s telephone call. We had a wonderful opportunity to share some food during the evening, the concrete evidence of God’s goodness, as well as the gospel message to these who were both physically and spiritually hungry.
Towards the end of our first term, the field leaders began talking to us about moving to the central highlands when we returned after our year at home. John was very interested in the work with the patients of Hansen’s disease (leprosy) because of one of the men, Dr. Robert Thompson, who had been instrumental in leading him to Christ. He was a chiropractor who had been a missionary in Ethiopia, where he had done considerable work among those suffering from this dreadful disease. The mission was planning to increase the work of the three leprosy clinics in the central highlands; so, they approached John about getting involved in this effort. They also suggested that on our way back to Canada, John could take some training in India at the hospital in Karigiri, where Dr. Paul Brand had had a remarkable ministry and pioneered rehabilitation surgery for leprosy patients and we could visit the leprosy treatment centres in Ethiopia. In addition, there were opportunities for me to get involved in the work on the translation of the Bible into Jarai were we to settle in Pleiku on our return.
Arrangements were made following this plan; on our way back to Canada, we spent a month in India and a month in Ethiopia, where John was able to work in some of the leading leprosy treatment centres. He learned a lot about rehabilitation for these patients after reconstructive surgery. He also learned strategies for preventing deformities and secondary infection, the leading causes of deformity and disfigurement in people suffering from Hansen’s disease. Also, during our year at home, we went to the leprosy treatment and research centre in Carville, Louisiana, where we had the privilege of meeting Dr. Paul Brand and his wife, Dr. Margaret Brand, an ophthalmic surgeon. John spent most of the time in Carville working with Paul, and I spent some time with Margaret, who coached me in diagnostic techniques and in some simple procedures for the prevention of damage to the eyes of leprosy patients. We were able to attend some fascinating lectures on research progress into treatments for this insidious disease. I spent some time in the diagnostic laboratory and received training to later train laboratory technicians in Pleiku.
While we were at home, we both had many opportunities to share the news about some of the marvellous things God was doing in Viet Nam. We also had occasions of challenging young people in the Alliance churches to consider committing their lives to the Lord to minister to the needy people of this world and give them the glorious message of salvation in Jesus Christ.
When we returned to Southeast Asia, we spent the first few months in Chiang Mai, Thailand, at the Presbyterian hospital leprosy treatment centre, where John received further training in preventative and rehabilitation procedures. Then we moved to Pleiku to begin our study of the Jarai language. Even while studying the language, John started doing some work in the Pleiku clinic. Eventually, he had oversight of prevention and rehabilitation in the three leprosy clinics run by the Alliance mission in the central highlands—Pleiku, Cheo Reo, and Banmethuot.
Once again, the Lord graciously gave me facility with the Jarai language. After consulting with the team working on the Jarai translation of the Bible, it became evident they needed someone to do the exegetical checking for the already translated New Testament texts. When they learned I had a working knowledge of both Greek and Hebrew, it seemed sensible for me to do the work while at the same time beginning work on the Old Testament. I assembled a team of Jarai translation helpers, including a school teacher who read Vietnamese, a lab technician whose schooling had been in French, and a young man who was proficient in his own language and eager to serve the Lord.
When we first arrived in Pleiku, we learned there were about four hundred baptized believers among the Jarai. A few pastors had received training at the Bible school in Nhatrang, and a few more were studying in Nhatrang at the time. There were, however, many more active laypeople who were regularly going out from the church in Pleiku on Sunday afternoons to spread the Gospel in the surrounding villages. My three translation helpers were among those who were faithful in this outreach ministry. Each week we heard reports of people who had come to Christ; the church began to multiply among the Jarai, to the extent of there being more than six thousand baptized Jarai believers when we were evacuated from Pleiku four years later in 1975.
With so many people coming to faith in Christ, the need to have the Scriptures in the Jarai language became increasingly urgent. Charlie Long and Mr. Sang, a Vietnamese missionary to the Jarai, had done most of the New Testament translation. Charlie moved to Saigon to oversee the typesetting of the manuscripts, which were to be sent by the United Bible Societies to Hong Kong for printing. We kept working on the exegetical checking, while at the same time, we began to work on the principal stories from the Old Testament first, then gradually moved to work on the books of the Old Testament.
In the summer of 1974, the New Testament manuscript was nearing completion when I received an urgent note from Charlie asking me where the Book of Hebrews was. I immediately went to see Mr. Sang to ask him about Hebrews, only to learn he had not translated the book and he did not remember ever seeing any of it in Jarai. I asked my helpers, and no one knew anything about the translation of Hebrews. Shortly after, I received another note, this time from Dick Phillips, who was the Alliance missionary overseeing all the translation work being done by the Alliance in Viet Nam. The message simply said, “Penny, translate Hebrews!”
I sent a quick letter home to my parents asking them to pray and spread the word in the churches for prayer, letting them know there would be no more letters until we finished translating the Book of Hebrews. Meanwhile, Charlie, Dick, and the head of the Bible Society in Viet Nam began to make contingency plans. They would send what had been completed to Hong Kong with instructions to start printing, making allowances for the inclusion of the Book of Hebrews once it was translated, typeset, and sent to them.
I earnestly prayed for the Lord’s help; then, I called my helpers to come, and we prayed together. They were sent away with the Vietnamese text and the French text while I opened my Greek text and began translating Hebrews. We had agreed to meet a week later to compare the work we had done and start working on a first draft. Miraculously, all three of us managed to translate the Book of Hebrews in one week. The school teacher found a substitute teacher, whom he would have to pay out of his own pocket; the lab technician took leave without pay, even though his wife was expecting their seventh child. I told them I did not have any extra money to give them, but they were convinced this was important to God, and He would provide. Thus, within two weeks, we had a first draft of the Book of Hebrews.
What a blessing when, at the end of the year, the Bible Society office in Saigon had a surplus on their books; the money they sent to Pleiku covered all the expenses we had, plus both the teacher and the lab technician received double what they would have earned during the time they had taken off. Philippians 4:19 rang true for them!
The following week was a scheduled week’s intensive training for lay leaders, as part of the short-term Bible school we ran in Pleiku, where we gave classes for a week every six weeks to train leaders for the rapidly growing church among the Jarai. My young helper typed up the draft copy and mimeographed enough documents to send one home with each student attending that week. In this way, we were able to quickly distribute nearly fifty copies for the people to read. We urged them to read through it with other members in their churches and get their comments back to us as soon as possible, praying they would be able to do so, all the while remembering it had taken months to get comments back on Philemon. God wonderfully answered our prayers, and the comments started to come back within a week, some comments bringing tears to our eyes. The translation was easily understood, whether people read it by themselves or had it read to them. Only a few dialectic idiomatic expressions were suggested as substitutes in two or three places. How great is our God! He answered above and beyond anything we could have asked or thought! The Book of Hebrews was sent to Hong Kong with the rest of the type-set manuscripts.
The finished printed copies of the New Testament and Psalms arrived in Saigon just before the lunar new year’s celebration; so, they were quickly cleared off the docks. The trucks arrived in Pleiku, and we celebrated this milestone in the life of the Jarai church with a joyous praise service in the Pleiku church just two weeks before we were evacuated from Pleiku at the beginning of March 1975. I was airlifted out the day before the province was lost, and John was brought out by the Control Commission, which was there to oversee the transfer of Pleiku and Kontum provinces to the North Vietnamese. God’s timing was perfect! What a privilege to be part of the Holy Spirit’s work, preparing His people for what lay ahead of them!
In a similar way, John had trained the people who worked at the leprosy clinic to make special shoes to prevent deformity in the patients’ feet, to construct braces to help those who suffered from foot drop, to apply casts to promote healing in limbs with severe ulcers, and to lead people in exercises to delay paralysis. He did this while teaching them about Jesus, discipling them, and serving as a mentor as they reached out to win others and disciple them. These Christian patients began to reach out to other leprosy patients exiled from their home villages and to healthy people in the area.
In August 1974, we began a Bible study in Plei Br∂i at the request of eight women who were new believers. Within two months, the Bible study attendance had increased to over 30 men and women. After an impressive demonstration of God’s mighty power, the sorceress who was the head of the village came to Christ. By January, we were privileged to baptize 153 people in that village; they were building a church for the village when we suddenly were obliged to leave Pleiku.
Today the church among the Jarai in Viet Nam has grown to close to one million believers, for the Spirit of God continues to move among these people as Jesus builds His church in the central highlands of Southeast Asia. The Jarai living in Cambodia have also been touched by this movement, and the church there is growing too. As the four hundred voice Jarai choir sang the Hallelujah Chorus on the last day of the centennial celebration in 2011, we wept with joy as we marvelled at what God has done and continues to do. God did so many great things in Viet Nam, and we were highly honoured to witness.
Further Ministries
Space does not allow me to cover our years of ministry in Canada, helping the Vietnamese boat people (refugees) settle and establish Vietnamese churches in Ottawa and Montreal. This was followed by ten years of ministry in the northeast corner of Ecuador in the upper Amazon region working among the Spanish-speaking peoples, the lowland Quichua (the north-eastern tribes of the former Quechua empire), and the Guarani (better known as Auca). Our ministry in South America culminated in establishing and building a church in Lago Agrio, Ecuador, in a previously unreached area of the upper Amazon. In addition, we trained a couple of leaders for that church. Again, I was privileged to do exegetical checking for several translations done by both Wycliffe missionaries and the Bible Society translators.
Ecuador
Just before we were to leave Ecuador for our home assignment, Lago Agrio was hit by a massive earthquake. A large section of the only road leading into the jungle was swept away, along with several villages on the lower skirts of a volcano. John was in Quito when the earthquake occurred and thankfully was not on the area of the road swept away. He had planned to drive back home with supplies for the construction of the church, but in the morning, when he went to leave, the car would not start; God preserved his life. The Texaco company eventually flew him to their base in Lago Agrio. A few months later, a Missionary Aviation Fellowship pilot airlifted us out as we began our trip back to Canada.
Canada
After our years of working in Ecuador, we were unable to return to overseas ministry because of health concerns. However, God continued to show us He still had work for us to do. John became involved in ministry in various churches in Ottawa and eventually was called to begin an English language ministry at the Kanata Chinese Alliance Church, now the Emmanuel Alliance Church of Ottawa. He spent seven years building up the English ministry as a bi-vocational worker as he picked up his chiropractic practice. Then, seeing a need in other ethnic churches in the city, we helped another Chinese church and the Vietnamese church start English language ministries and lent a hand in establishing a Spanish language congregation at East Gate Alliance Church. Finally, we returned to Emmanuel to continue to help build up the church, both of us serving as interim pastors when there has been no English pastor. I have served for over 20 years as a consultant for theological training globally, travelling extensively all over the world in connection with this ministry.
Abundantly Blessed
Not only did God have work for us, but He also had His hand upon our daughter. After the perilous night in Dalat, Viet Nam, when our compound was under attack, and God touched me, preserving the life of our child, Ilana, we knew God had a purpose for her. Ilana and her husband Bill Lobbezoo have been serving with the Alliance as international workers in Cambodia since 1996. We praise God for the honour He gave to us to raise a daughter who continues to carry on the missionary legacy in our family and indeed, in turn, is passing it on to her daughters. What a blessing God has bestowed on us!
God has blessed us abundantly, and we feel a very close identification with the Apostle John when he writes:
This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true.
Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written (John 21:24-25).
This is an excerpt from the book, On Mission Volume 3. Download your free copy today.
- Ilana, is now Ilana Lobbezoo, who has served in Cambodia with the Alliance since 1996.