Slowly the ship steamed out of sight, and those on the small fishing boat stopped waving frantically to get its attention. Ai-My Chau, her five-year-old son Fun and the others crowded on the small boat sat down again. This was not the first ship that had passed by them without stopping ... and it would not be the last.
These people were “boat people,” fleeing Vietnam when Communism took over their country. Ai-My had made secret arrangements for herself and her son to escape. They were to meet a small boat at a certain place on the coast. This small boat, called a sampan, would pick them up and take them to a larger (50-foot) fishing boat which would take them on to Malaysia.
Even meeting the sampan was dangerous. To avoid being discovered, the passengers would be taken out to the fishing boats in the dark, between 10:00 at night and 5:00 in the morning. They couldn’t take any luggage with them.
Ai-My and her son ended up waiting on the shore until after midnight before the sampan finally picked them up. Then, after much difficulty, they reached the fishing boat where along with 46 other people they started for Malaysia.
Why were these people willing to face so many dangers and leave everything behind? Because they valued their freedom more than their things or even their lives. For them it was worth losing everything else in order to have freedom.
Some days later, serious problems came to the people on the fishing boat. The boat’s engine quit. They had to use a make-shift sail as their only way to get anywhere. Then their food and water ran out. Ai-My decided she would do something she had done when she had been standing on the shore waiting for the sampan to come ... she prayed. She did not know the Lord Jesus Christ as her Savior. In fact, she had never even heard of Him. Yet she knew that there must be a God and that it was only God who could help them now. She prayed for rain. God answered that prayer and it rained that night, enough so that using the sail to catch the rain they filled two large water cans. “Yes,” thought Ai-My, “there is Someone watching over me.”
Those on the small boat endured many more hard days. For 30 days they drifted wherever the winds and tides carried them, and for 20 of those days they had no food. At least 30 ships passed by them, either not willing to help them or not able to help them. But finally help did come to the watching people. A ship stopped that was willing and able to pick up all of them.
The ship that picked up Ai-My and the other “boat people” took them to Hong Kong. There they were placed in a refugee camp, and it was there that Ai-My first heard about the Lord Jesus. A missionary told her about God and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to earth to save sinners. “Jesus Christ loves you and He was the one taking care of you,” the missionary told her.
“That’s the God I was praying to,” said Ai-My. “I knew He was there answering my prayers, but I didn’t know His name.”
“Listen to what God is saying to you,” the missionary continued, reading from his Bible. “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else”
(Isaiah 45:2222Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:22)).
The missionary read more from the Bible, explaining to Ai-My about God’s perfect creation, how sin came in and spoiled it, and how all of us are sinners as a result of one man’s sin. Then he continued, “The good news is that God’s Son Jesus took the punishment for the sins of all who would accept Him as their Savior. When Jesus was dying on the cross, He was dying for sinners just like Ai-My. If you just accept Him, then you, too, can have the everlasting life that only He can give.”
Ai-My was saved right there in the refugee camp. Her son Fun was later saved, too. Now they had gained something worth far more than everything they had left behind, because the Bible says, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
(Mark 8:3636For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Mark 8:36)).
I hope that you have made the decision that Ai-My and Fun made to be saved. You may not know it, but you are also in danger if you don’t know the Lord Jesus as your Savior. You belong to a cruel master, called Satan. But the good news that Ai-My heard is also true for you. The Lord Jesus came to save you from that cruel master, by paying the penalty for your sins.
Ai-My loved to tell others about the God who loves the “boat people.” He loves you, too. Won’t you accept His Son as your Savior? No one is saved by doing good works or going to Sunday school or anything else we can do. The Bible says it is “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us” (Titus 3:55Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; (Titus 3:5)). That means that we are saved not because of what we do, but because of what He has done for us because of His great love for us. He is so great that He doesn’t need us to do anything for Him, but He is also so full of love that He wants our hearts, to make them full of love, joy and peace, and so we can love
Him back.
Messages of God’s Love 10/30/2022