No one can make you choose to pursue “goodness” as a lifestyle. The choice is all yours! But Oh! – what an absolute delight it is to observe someone who has decided to, on purpose, dedicate their life to such an extraordinary and revolutionary way of life!
I would like to take this opportunity to share with you one of my most favorite stories in the whole world regarding “goodness.” By the year 2004, Project C.U.R.E. was very well known and highly respected throughout the country of Vietnam. We had shipped hundreds of millions of dollars-worth of donated medical supplies and pieces of equipment into Vietnam’s needy medical system.
I had taken Anna Marie with me on this particular trip into Hanoi and the northern area of Vietnam. We were scheduled to meet with Thuong Tuong Vi, a Full Colonel in the Vietnamese Army, in the city of Tam Ky. We were taken in a van from our previous need’s assessment meeting at the main hospital in Nui Thanh Town, to the “Mercy Center” in Tam Ky.
You can only imagine how surprised we were when we were introduced to Colonel Vi – she was a very dignified and gracious lady! She was not only a Full Colonel, but was a past member of the Central Committee of the People’s Party and a high-profile citizen of the city of Hanoi. In her past, she had been one of Vietnam’s most renowned artistic performers. She was a professional singer and dancer and had been the recipient of many awards for her talents, and especially for her entertaining of the military and People’s Party members.
But several years before, someone had introduced her to the person of Jesus Christ and Thuong Tuong Vi had become a very devoted Christian. “My life changed dramatically,” she told me, “I no longer wanted fame and attention for myself, I only had a burning desire to help other people, especially young, disadvantaged children.”
Thuong Tuong Vi, in her dignified and attractive way, went on to explain to us, “I suddenly realized that one day I would no longer have my talents and my beautiful voice and that I should take those talents and transfer them into orphaned and homeless children, crippled children, and into children who otherwise would not have any hope at all of a good future.
So, the gifted and beautiful performer set out to collect abandoned and disadvantaged children, place them into a school she had carefully organized and train them in the performing arts.
The “turn-around” in Thuong Tuong Vi’s life had shocked the Communist Party elite of Vietnam. She had to be sensitive and discreet with her new-found Christian faith, but she was being given unheard of opportunities to live out the Christ-like life in front of all her old comrades from the military and People’s Party.
By the time we met Thuong Tuong Vi, she had already established a “Mercy Center” in Tam Ky City where she was housing and training 72 children. In Da Nang City her “Mercy Center” was taking care of 120 children, and in the city of Hanoi she was taking care of another 180 children.
Our visit with Thuong Tuong Vi took place at her center in Tam Ky. Following a meeting in her large conference room we were ushered upstairs to the small performing auditorium and stage where we were honored with a mini-concert performed by the artistic children.
The first song was a traditional Vietnamese folk song. It was performed beautifully and the music was accompanied by choreography and hand signing. Then the next song started with the words:
“In a moment like this, I think of a song
I think of a song about Jesus.”
It was phonetically sung in perfect English and there was no secret that the master performer had meticulously trained the young singers to communicate with smiles, warm and direct eye contact, body language and vibrant stage presence. But there was something so warm and genuine and overwhelming that occurred when they started into the words of the chorus:
“Singing, I love you Lord, I love you Lord
Singing I love you Lord, I love you.”
We were all in tears. I looked over in the direction of my dear friend, Dr. Vinh Ngoc Le -- he was sobbing like a baby. It was a performance and an unexpected time of true worship that I should never forget.
The mini-concert finished with the disadvantaged Vietnamese children singing, “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” and a couple of religious Christmas Carols.
When the performance was over, we were all once again directed to the conference room where they had prepared lovely dishes of hot Vietnamese snack foods and tea for us. There I had a good opportunity to talk with Thuong Tuong Vi about her needs at her “Mercy Centers.”
Her dream was to one day have a well-stocked, small medical clinic at each of her three school locations. I assured her that I would speak with Dr. Vinh Ngoc Le and assured her that Project C.U.R.E. would love to get involved with seeing her dream come true for being able to medically help her kids.
I asked her also about how she was getting by with openly teaching her kids about Jesus. She said, “One of my aims is to teach all the children to speak English fluently. The People’s Party and other government officials love that. So, I first teach the children to sing the songs about Jesus, phonetically. Once they have mastered the singing the proper sounds of the songs I need to go on and teach them the meaning of the lyrics. Of course, as with any other song, the children have lots of questions about what the lyrics of the songs mean. I just simply answer all their questions so that they can sing the songs with understanding and feeling. Strangely, they all fall in love with Jesus.”
Then, Colonel Vi confidently shared something with Anna Marie and me, that once again, brought tears to my eyes: I can’t go back and start a new beginning, but I can start today and make a new ending!”
“Madame Vi” had purposefully chosen to pursue goodness.
No one is big enough or tough enough to make you choose to pursue goodness as a lifestyle. It’s all up to you. But the rewards belong to you as well. Therefore, it is you that gets to set into motion the positive consequences of your choosing a life of pursuing goodness.
Recall our simple working definition of goodness:
Humans have a unique capacity to attain, through invitation and development, excellence of character, and based on that character they can choose to become involved in initiating attitudes and actions of kindness, generosity, fairness, sympathy, personal responsibility, virtue, justice and wisdom through their conduct. The genuine initiating and promoting of those attitudes and actions is what we will refer to as “goodness”.
Next Week: The Awesome Invitation