I Will Build My Church On This Rock
by Rev. Kenny Khanh Nguyen
"Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest." Revelation 15:3-4
I was there before the storm, during the storm, and after the storm. And I am the one taking pictures and recording videos during that time. I thank God for letting me witness first hand His miraculous powers so that my lips can recount these wonders to everyone, and so that all nations praise Him.
I came to Aquila Center last week, and just finished three days training of Spiritual Discipline (from July 26-27, 2016) for the brethren from 4 different drug rehab centers. On Thursday, July 28, 2016, according to the schedule I was supposed to go and preach for Celebrate Recovery class in Ba Vi. Early that morning, however, a category 1 typhoon blew into Phu Man Centre. Very heavy rain and very powerful wind disturbed my sleep. I woke up and went out to take pictures and record videos.
Below are the video clips and a number of pictures I took and recorded. The date and time stamps still mark the pictures and length of time of the videos.
6.35 am: Powerful storm, while I noticed the gate of the Centre still stood firmly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY5RrptM5JA
7:35 am: I saw the sign of the Centre fell down:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMDWlcJ0T48
8:35am: I was surprised to see the sign had been resurrected while the rain was still loud and the wind still strong:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxb9M7VUSd8
Honestly, while video recording and seeing the sign already resurrected, I thought the brethren of the Center went out to put it up again. But when I came down to ask them, none has done that. They said there is no way to put it up again while still raining. And to put up that sign again, a lone person could not have done it, but many must have joined in to raise it up and reinstall it. None of the brethren did that. None of the neighbors could have done that for us. Who did that? Only God. Yes, God used a powerful wind to put that Church sign back into its former place.
That morning, I saw the church sign already resurrected on two posts, one so twisted, the other totally uprooted, surrounded by a pile of rubble as a result of the storm. I thought to myself: Could it be that God wanted to send to the Aquila Church, a church made up mainly of former drug addicts, a message: “Dear children (Church), No matter how twisted and uprooted your lives have been due to the storms and the rains, I am the One Almighty, the One reigning over the storms. I can restore and resurrect your lives from the place of ruin.”
The next day, Nam Quoc Trung posted these pictures on Facebook with the title “I will build MY CHURCH on this rock. The gate of hell cannot prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).
Thank God for He is being with and protecting the Church that He bought with His own blood.
Written on August 1, 2016