International Student Track Reports
A former refugee, now IST delegate
Greg Steward
Devan was only four years old when he found himself an involuntary refugee
from Vietnam along with his father and three friends. The five were caught in
a storm in a fishing boat off the coast of Vietnam in 1983. A Viet Cong military
ship thought they were trying to escape and fired shots. One young man was hit
in the eye and Devan was shot in the head. In fear of their lives, they stayed
out at sea. After they were out of fuel they had no choice but to drift, which
they did for over a month.
A French vessel passed by, but didn't stop. Soon a U. S. vessel passed by and the five were on their way to the Philippines leaving behind Devan's mother and two-year old sister. After six months, they were taken to Modesto, California, where Bruce and Florence Hunnicutt, members of First Baptist Church, Modesto, befriended them. The Hunnicutts, who already had the practice of taking twenty to thirty neighborhood children to church, helped them get needed items for their new life in the United States.
Devan became a regular attendee at First Baptist but later dropped out. Then after a three-year absence he became involved in the Junior High ministry and gave his life to Christ. Shortly after his graduation from high school in 1997, Devan heard this call as the church was praying for a short-term mission team about to head out: Go back to Vietnam.
Claude Terry began to mentor him and helped Devan set some goals and map out a plan of action. For the first time, Devan attended a conference of Vietnamese Baptists, where he was able to learn more about the state of the church in Vietnam. His nation needed prayer and they needed people to come to Vietnam. He said, "It is hard for missionaries to go, but these are my people and I speak the language."
Devan came to Urbana wanting to hear what God is doing around the world. He is hoping to attend seminars about what it is involved in returning to the homeland as a missionary and to learn more about Buddhism and Taoism. Being in the International Student Track, he has enjoyed meeting students from other cultures. He was able to be with six other Vietnamese Saturday evening as country groups gathered for prayer. He was moved by Saturday's testimony of how so many children are dying around the world. He asked himself, "Are we going to go out and help them or just be selfish?"
He was awed to the see the children of God worshipping in oneness and was struck by the statement that we are not here to meet God but that we are here for God to meet us. Like Joseph, Devan came to be where he is not by choices he made, but definitely under the loving and guiding hand of a God that cares for us and is enlisting us in the establishing of his kingdom.
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