The pain of a mother whose son is the leader of the "Church of God" group

Bad past

At 5:00 p.m. on May 3, 2018, the Security Team (Thuy Nguyen District Police, Hai Phong) received information from a phone repairman in Village 1 (Tan Duong Commune) about a young man carrying his 5-year-old nephew to his house to propagate and persuade him to join the "Church of God".

Immediately, Lieutenant Colonel Trinh Thanh Son, the commanding officer, went to the area to coordinate with Tan Duong Commune Police to request this young man to come to the Commune People's Committee headquarters for questioning. Surprisingly, this subject was Nguyen Van Hieu (31 years old, living in Hamlet 7, Hong Thai Tay Commune, Dong Trieu Town, Quang Ninh Province). Hieu had been detected by the District Police three times to prevent illegal religious propaganda activities in the area.

Most recently, at the end of March 2018, Hieu and Tran Huu Nghi (40 years old, living in group 8, Lam Ha ward, Kien An district, a drug addict, were administratively punished by the People's Court of Kien An district and sent to a compulsory drug rehabilitation facility) together acted as "group leaders" to propagate and entice people to participate in illegal religions in Lap Le commune. All three times, Hieu admitted that propagating the religion "Church of God" was a violation of the law and committed to ending the activities. However, Hieu continued to rent a house and secretly operate.

On the evening of May 3, 2018, Dong Trieu Town Police, Quang Ninh Province informed that in June 2011, Hieu was sentenced by Dong Trieu Town People's Court to 15 months in prison for "Theft of property", and was released from prison in September 2012.

Through verification, Thuy Nguyen District Police also discovered that Nguyen Van Hieu was the “Leader of the Church of God” of Do Xuan Hieu (29 years old, residing at 17/347 Hung Vuong Ward, Hong Bang District). This subject was discovered and arrested by Hong Bang District Police on May 2, 2018 for the acts of storing and illegally using drugs, growing marijuana plants and organizing illegal religious activities at home.

Nguyen Van Hieu confessed that he often went to Do Xuan Hieu's house to practice illegal religion, and that he had organized illegal religious propaganda with this person and Chu Quoc Cuong (from Hanoi) for several years in many provinces, even in Kon Tum province. Hieu also confessed that he had divorced his wife, and recently, Hieu often took his 5-year-old son to school, not allowing him to go to school, and wandered around to spread illegal religious propaganda.

Mother's Tears

On the evening of May 3, after receiving a notice from the Thuy Nguyen District Police, Ms. Hoang Thi Thinh (63 years old, residing in Hamlet 7, Hong Thai Tay Commune, Dong Trieu Town, Quang Ninh Province, mother of Nguyen Van Hieu) and Mr. Hoang Tung Giang, Chief of Hong Thai Tay Commune Police, immediately went to the Tan Duong Commune People's Committee with the purpose of picking up her grandson (Hieu's son) to take care of. As soon as she arrived, she rushed to hug her grandson tightly and choked up with tears.

Mrs. Thinh said: I have 4 children, Hieu is the only son and the youngest, since he grew up until now he has caused the family a lot of suffering, I don't know how many times I cried because of him. During the 3 years he was in high school, many days I had to force him to go to school and then sit at the school gate to watch him or he would skip school... After playing billiards, gambling and spending a lot of family money, Hieu followed his friends to steal and had to go to jail. When he got out of prison, I tried to send him to vocational school, but after a while he quit. I thought that getting married would help him work hard, but since his wife gave birth (the baby was premature), he didn't care about anything, then his wife couldn't stand it and had to divorce, the court ruled that he would have custody of the child. I had to take care of everything because I loved my grandchild.

Then he followed the "Church of God", came home and smashed all the incense burners, when my family reacted, he said "don't worship ghosts, if your ancestors die, I will cremate them and throw the ashes in Bai Chay". It was so heartbreaking, guys... He left home to wander, no matter how the family tried to persuade him, it was useless, when he ran out of money, he came home and made up stories to ask his mother for a few million, sometimes a few tens of millions, just last month he asked for 200 million but I didn't give it to him because the pension for both of us is only a few million/month, where can we get it from.

So he turned to persuade the whole family to follow the religion. He said there was nothing like this "Church of God", parents just follow me, mom just need to sell the "Piggy Bank" and I will go preach, "God" will take care of everything... Many times he came home and tricked me, climbed the wall into the kindergarten and took the child away. One time it was almost 9 months before he was brought home.

Once I sat all night at the door of the house he rented to preach (in Hoa Dong commune - Thuy Nguyen, 2017) hoping to see my grandchild, but he ignored me, even sent someone to chase me away and said that not everyone can enter God's place. You must have some kind of faith to enter, so I had to leave dejectedly. Once when he brought his grandchild home, I kept him at home to let him go to school, but he filed a lawsuit against my husband and I everywhere, even in court because we were guilty of... taking care of his child. My whole family was heartbroken...

Today, luckily, the police helped me find my child, I brought him back to school, I thank you very much. As for that unruly son, I hope the authorities will put him in jail so he won’t cause suffering to other families. I don’t understand what that church gives people, I just see it applied right to my family, destroying our family… Saying that, Mrs. Thinh hugged her grandson and cried bitterly.

When asked if he wanted to go back to his grandparents, Nguyen An Binh, 5 years old, Hieu's son, said, "Dad doesn't let me go to school. Dad says just going out with him is enough. I'm scared. When Dad preaches, he makes me sit in a corner of the house. Many days, he takes me around. I miss my grandparents and my friends so much. I want to go back to my grandparents and go to school with my friends. I'm scared that I won't be able to go with Dad anymore..."

Although only 5 years old, Binh remembered his grandmother's phone number very accurately, thanks to which the district police were able to contact Mrs. Thinh so that she could pick him up. Hieu, on the other hand, resolutely refused to give the police the phone number of Mrs. Thinh and her family.

After the authorities completed the required procedures, Nguyen Van Hieu acknowledged that the above religious propaganda activities were illegal and pledged to stop these activities in the area. Thuy Nguyen District Police handed Nguyen Xuan Hieu over to Hong Thai Tay Commune Police and his family for management and education.

Mr. Hoang Tung Giang, Chief of Hong Thai Tay Commune Police, said that after Hieu was released from prison and often absent from the locality, in 2015, the local authorities learned that Hieu had shown signs of propagating and mobilizing local people to follow the heretical religion "Church of God".

The locality has taken measures to prevent and warn people to be vigilant and not to listen. Therefore, no one in the commune has been infected. Through investigation, the commune police also knew that Hieu went to propagate religion in Ha Long, Van Don... The commune police have sent a document to Dong Trieu town police to take measures to prevent it.