I want to take a moment to share a bit of something about Vietnam that some of you may remember, and some may have never known. It involves Vietnamese Route 1. A coastal road that runs like the nation’s backbone from its north to its south. I took that road on the way out of Da Nang, and the emotional response it caused was unexpected. For my fellow Christians back home, this, I feel, is a story you should know. Can’t imagine the members of my congregation, the Ben Browns, Al Martins, James Townsend, and others, aren’t at least aware of part of this story.
Before I came to Vietnam, I read two books. The first was The Quiet American by Graham Green, and the second was Fire Road: a Memoir of Hope by Kim Phúc Phan Thi. The Quiet American is one of the most iconic books ever written about Vietnam in the dying days of colonialism, just before the U.S. committed troops. It’s a great read if you haven’t had the chance, but I won’t spend more time on it here.
Fire Road is where I found more value in understanding how the people were dealing with the throws of war. Kim Phúc is the little girl in the famous Pulitzer Prize-winning picture taken during the war as she ran down rt. 1 after a napalm raid struck a temple where women and their children were sheltering. The picture was taken by a wartime photographer who happened to be walking down the road nearby. She is without clothes because the light silk local garments incinerated off of her body almost instantaneously. 
, shortly after the photo was taken, collapsed into a coma. She was expected to die, and her family searched for her for days. She was unconscious and in terrible trouble, helped by the photographer and ultimately kept alive by his efforts as the hospitals were desperate at the time, allowing people to die if it was felt the resources were better served elsewhere. Miracle does not describe her salvation as through her experience, pain, brush with death, and decades of what has never been a complete recovery. She found and accepted Christ. She may have never been exposed to Christianity without the fire on that road. Her story is moving and emotionally thought-provoking. It’s a testament to faith and the healing power of Christ, and everyone should read it. I tell you about it now because as I travel down rt. 1. the book’s images come flooding back, and I try really hard now to hold back the tears of sadness at what I know happened on this road all those years ago.
Purchase The Quiet American Here
Purchase Fire Road Here
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