New parish priest experienced miraculous escape from Communist Vietnam
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
Father Hien Nguyen (pronounced hin win), the new priest of Holy Family Parish in Marion County, is grateful to God for his family's escape from South Vietnam in 1985.
He said their escape solidified his belief in the existence of God and led to his decision to become a priest.
Hien Nguyen was born July 12, 1972, in a Catholic village of approximately 4,000. Hien's family attended 4:45 a.m. Mass every day.
At the end of the Vietnam War, the Communists took over South Vietnam and didn't allow anyone to leave.
Hien's parents, like the other villagers, were poor farmers. His grandparents and parents had come south in 1954 from North Vietnam, where they had nothing, and were given a tract of land by the South Vietnamese government.
Their primary crop was rice, along with fruits and vegetables. The family lived on what they produced. Wash water and fish came from the family pond, and rain water was collected for cooking and drinking.
Their house had a dirt floor and a roof of leaves. When a farmer got a job working for someone else, he received $1.50 a day in U.S. dollars, about 16,000 Vietnamese dollars known as dong.
Although wages were low, the price of beef and chicken was the same as in the United States. Fish was a little cheaper. A day's wages scarcely bought a pound or two of beef.
Hien was the third of eight children. One of the oldest two children died at age five, the other at one month, leaving Hien the oldest.
In 1984, the family left the village and moved to a small town close to the water. They began to make plans to escape.
"We couldn't survive in the village any more," Father Nguyen said.
Together with two other families, they bought an old ship and used the wood to build a small boat 21 feet long and five feet wide.
"Everybody thought it was for fishing because our boat was too small for 33 people to escape," Father Nguyen said.
During this time, Hien sold cigarettes by day and fished at night to support the family, so he couldn't go to school.
He finished third grade in the village and didn't go to school again until the family got to America.
They set off across the water on April 23, 1985. The boat was extremely crowded, and whenever anyone was hungry or thirsty, they could have just one spoonful of water.
"It was a miracle the boat was not destroyed by a thunderstorm in the middle of the ocean and none of us died from starvation," he said, "because we forgot to bring food."
"For me, it was our faith in Mary and in the Lord that we were saved from the storm," Father Hguyen said. "We prayed constantly during the storm in tears."
After six days on the boat, at midnight April 29, they landed on an island off the coast of Malaysia.
They were picked up by Malaysian fishermen. Afterward, their boat broke in two pieces right before their eyes as it was being battered by a much smaller storm.
The fishermen fed them rice and canned food. After living about a week on the beach to rest and recuperate, they were moved by ship to a refugee camp on the mainland of Malaysia.
There they filled out papers and contacted an aunt and uncle who lived in Wichita. The couple became their sponsors.
The family lived in two refugee camps in Malaysia and one in the Philippines before they were flown to America, flying to Philadelphia, San Francisco, then Wichita.
Hien's father was not with the group which included Nguyen, his mom, four sisters, two uncles, and an aunt.
His father had stayed behind on purpose.
"In case we were captured by the Communists, he would be the one to rescue us from the prison camp," Father Hguyen explained.
Two years later, after three failed escape attempts, his father got to Thailand. His family sponsored him and they were reunited in 1988 in Wichita.
The family lived in a rented two-bedroom house and grew their own vegetables until the government provided welfare and housing.
The entire family went back to school and everyone learned English.
Father Hguyen said he didn't enjoy his high school years. He said there was a lot of racism and fighting among gangs. He graduated in 1991, and began to pursue his goal of becoming a priest.
After attending college at Conception Seminary in Missouri for a short time, he transferred to Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Winona, Minn. After four years, he graduated with a degree in philosophy and theology.
He obtained a master's degree in theology from Josephinium, a college in Columbus, Ohio, and was ordained a priest on May 27, 2000, in Wichita.
Father Nguyen has been back to South Vietnam three times since his ordination. At least 100 relatives still live in his native village. He said conditions have improved somewhat. The government provided electricity about 10 years ago and the people are able to sell some of their rice crop.
Father Nguyen's first assignment as a priest was as associate pastor at Church of the Magdalene in Wichita.
After three years, he was transferred to Via Christi St. Joseph and St. Francis hospitals as priest chaplain.
Holy Family Parish is his first assignment as a parish priest. He has been serving the parish since June 29 but was installed Sunday.
"I have seen so many changes," he said. "From being in a village with everyone poor to other countries, America, and now even Marion County. Everything is different.
"I like the people in Marion County because they're similar to the people in my village because of their faith," he said.
In addition to his service in Marion County, Father Nguyen has other ministries in the Diocese of Wichita. He leads Catholic Engaged Encounters, is associate vocation director, and is moderator of the Vietnamese Catholics in the Diocese.
"I love being a priest," he said, "and I thank the Lord for calling me to love Him and serve Him through His people."
