Mr. Xa Hanh’s Amazing Conversion Story

An exerpt From Rev. I.R. Stebbins’s book, Chapter 15

“42 Years Serving The Lord with the Vietnamese Church in Vietnam, 1920-1961”

Introduction: The following is a narrative report by Rev. I.R. Stebbins about the amazing persistence of Mr. Xa Hanh in his search for the truth, his amazing conversion, his zeal and courage to serve the Lord from the start. The story was recorded in Rev. Stebbins’ book title: “42 Years Serving The Lord With The Vietnamese Alliance Church, 1920-1961” Chapter 15.

Mr. Xa Hanh (Xa was his title meaning Mayor, his real name was Doan My Hanh) was one of the earliest Christians in the South Vietnam and was the first who brought the Gospel to Cao-Lanh City and became the founder of the Church of Cao-Lanh over 80 years ago. After that, many ministers and church leaders came out from that Church, among them the families of Mrs. Pham Van Nam, Mrs. Chung Kham Loc, Rev. Nguyen Duy Xuan etc.  Many of his grandchildren and great grandchildren became faithful servants of God, such as Rev. Thach Ngoc Doan, Rev. An Doan Sauveur, pastor Peter Doan, Mrs. Tan D. Nguyen, Pastor Andrew Nguyen, Pastor David Nguyen, Mrs. Max Shelnutt. 

The story starts as follow:

One morning (year 1921) as I was busy witnessing to enquirers, I saw standing at our door a well dressed Vietnamese gentleman.  I invited him to come in, asked him to sit down, and told him I would talk with him just as soon as I finished with these other folk.  When they left, he stood up, introduced himself and said, “I come from Cao Lanh a town twenty-five miles from here, on the other side of the Mekong river.  My name is Ong Xa Hanh and I have just been to Saigon.  While there I visited your chapel and heard Mr. Olson preach.  My! He speaks the language so clearly, even better than you do.”  I knew that was true and Mr. Olsen was now working very hard on the translation of the Bible.  Mr. Xa Hanh continued, “I was greatly interested in all I heard and when I returned home I couldn’t forget it, in fact I was very much stirred.  Mr. Olsen informed me that a missionary lived in Sadec, not too far from my town and that he would be happy to have me call, so here I am.  Would you please explain to me more fully about Jesus Christ and this “Tin Lanh, Good News that you call it.”  I asked him to sit down and what a privilege to open the scriptures and to point this man to Jesus Christ.  After considerable discussion he stood up and with trembling lips said, “Honorable sir, I want to be a Christian, please help me.”  We knelt down together and he found the Lord.  Thank the Lord for this wonderful opportunity to deal with a hungry heart, seeking deliverance from sin and eternal hell.

After praying, he again stood up and said, “Mr. Stebbins, I thank you for the wonderful joy you have led me into but that’s not all I’ve come here for.  Now that I have been saved, I want you to come with me to my home and tell my family and my friends all about it.  I have just been saved and wouldn’t yet know how to explain the Gospel to them like you do.  Will you go with me?”  Here was a brand new opening and I was very interested but how could I leave my wife alone, leave her to care for the constant stream of enquirers that were coming daily?

She was soon to give birth to our second daughter Ruth.  If I went it also meant I would be away overnight and leave her alone in that house.  It was a bad time to leave her.  I couldn’t see that it would be possible to go yet, so I explained and he seemed to understand.  Before he left, however, he made me promise that I would very soon visit him.  A couple of weeks later he was back again, evidently very happy.  He told how he had been witnessing to his wife and family, to his many friends and he said, “They want you to come and tell them ore about the Lord Jesus.  I’m trying my best but I need your help.”  Again I had to tell him, “not yet” and to postpone my visit, but I could see he was indeed very disappointed.  What could I do and how could I keep up with all the demands that were coming to us?  He went off but promised he’d be back again.

Several weeks passed and I prayed for him fearing he had become discouraged and given up his new faith.  However, one early morning, there he stood at the door and this time in no uncertain way, he said,” Mr. Stebbins I’ve come to get you, back in my home everything is ready.  We have invited all my friends, the local government officials, and my family.  They will be at my home tomorrow night waiting for you.  Please say you’ll go.”

Of course I had to go, there was no appeal from such a hearty invitation.  The next morning we climbed aboard a small river steamer, double decker, seemingly top heavy.  There were many passengers on this tiny craft.  We were on our way and whenever we stopped to disembark passengers, I would grab the ship’s rail, heart in my mouth, as the boat would almost capsize.

It was a long trip up the Mekong River with the strong current which impeded fast progress.  When the tide pushed back up the river, then we made excellent time, but with the swift current and a receding tide, the steamer’s small engines labored.  However, toward evening we saw the town ahead and as we came to the small pier and stopped ashore we were met by a large group of people.  I saw at once that Ong Xa Hanh was no insignificant personage and learned that he was actually the Mayor of the town.

It didn’t take long to rech his home which was nearby and as we entered the door of his house, everyone inside stood up.  I was intrigued to observe a long table, and upon it a feast all prepared.  Bowls of steaming hot rice, the very best kind of Vietnamese food, chicken, pork, shrimp, fish, native soups, tasty dishes of vegetables, vermicelli dishes well seasoned with their fish sauce. There was also meat and plenty of onions.  It smelled wonderful and I knew I was to have a very delicious feast.  Ong Xa Hanh and I were hungry.  Before we ate, he stood up and officially welcomed me to his nice home.  I asked permission to pray before we ate.  The numerous guests then sat down at the sides of this long table and such nice fellowship I enjoyed with these cordial people.

When we were finished, the table was cleared except for large cups of native tea.  Again Ong Xa Hanh stood up and turning to me said, “Mr. Stebbins, I want first to thank you for coming this long journey to visit my family and me.  Now I want to present to you all the officials of the town.”  I bowed to them, then he said, “On this side are many of my business friends and over there is my family, my wife and daughters.”  I greeted them too and then he said, “We are all here and ready to hear what you have to tell us about the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Immediately that flashed to my mind the experience Peter must have enjoyed when visiting the house of Cornelius.  Silently I said, “thank you Lord.”  Who couldn’t preach to a crowd like that and I had been praying much about this visit that the Lord would be pleased to help and glorify His name.  For perhaps one hour I poured out the message of the Cross.  It stirred me greatly as I beheld their keen interest and rapt attention.  Truly the Lord touched my lips and came down upon that fine group of people.

When I was through, I gave the invitation and said to them, “Now, is there anyone in this room who would like to become a Christian?”  To my great joy, five well dressed Vietnamese men stood up and signified their desire to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.  They kneeled down and it was soul stirring indeed to behold these five representative business men of the town seeking salvation.  God did a work of grace in their hearts and here was the beginning of the church at Cao Lanh.

I spent the night in this place and profited by the opportunity to witness further to the town officials, also to his family.  A French police officer came over to check my passport and found it in order, so he left me alone.

The steamer left very early the next morning so I was up in plenty of time.  Ong Xa Hanh was so solicitous that I have proper refreshment before leaving for the steamer.  He brought me a cup with a concoction, which was new to me.  Later I learned that it was made of an egg that had been buried in the ground for long months.  It was supposed to be a super-tonic, containing great nourishment.  He had put sugar in it, then had beaten it into a liquid, making a drink that somehow I managed to gulp down, though I almost gagged.  How could I say “no” to this hospitable, heart warming Christian?  From that day, every time I visited his home, he gave me this tonic.  It didn’t harm me and it even may have been something that helped me, but I hated it.  One of the courtesies you must observe with the Vietnamese is never to be rude and shock their finer sense of hospitality.  Often they do better than we Americans.  This visit was but a beginning at Cao Lanh and how thankful I was to have Mr. Dinh, a student preacher.  He was available and could go up there regularly to hold services in this man’s home.  Of course this special visit clearly indicated that the Lord would have us start an outstation at Cao Lanh right away.  We planned at once for weekly visits and regular preaching services.  From the start God blessed us greatly and on every visit many souls were saved./