Thank you, dear Reverend Father Vang, for giving us students an image of a dear and generous father. You are a father, who has taken many arduous and laborious efforts. You are a father, who is always worried about the mission that promotes our ethnic minority youths. You are both a father and a second mother of the youth in the Central Highlands during the 25 years of the Viet Toc journey. The past 25 years have been a gift of grace and a blessing from heaven. How can we repay and share it all?

Dear Father Vang and dear friends. We know that our life has many aspects to be weighed, measured, and counted. Yet, our gratitude to you, Father Vang, and our benefactors cannot be measured by any reckoning or method. We believe that only God can measure it. The testament is that Viet Toc has always been quietly expanding. Despite many challenges, Father Vang, you are still healthy, even though you are in your 70 years old and has already been 40 years in your graceful priesthood.

You are a priest, who is slender, but your accomplishments and good deeds are so great and high as Mount Thai Son. This mountain has always been quietly, calmly, and patiently carried us on his shoulder, to the vast shores of knowledge.

After 25 years, younger generations have graduated from one school after another. Some have stable jobs. Some are out of work. Some have waited for a job. Some have returned to their village to serve. And some entered the seminary. Many professions that used to be uncommon and extravagant to the villages are now finding their way back to the villages, such as doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers, etc.

Dear Father Vang and our benefactors!

Whether we succeed or fail, have a job or not, because of Viet Toc, we have abundant knowledge, strength, and courage. Wherever we live, we will be more or less closer to Kinh people. However, we are not easily bullied, abused, or exploited any more.

“The Spirit of the Lord sent me to bring good news to the poor.” (Isaiah 61:1)

This is a favorite Bible verse of you, our dear Reverend old Father. It is a verse that you have been and are living through your priestly life. This verse also reminds us that receiving is giving, just as you were sent. If we bring the good news to the poor in the Highlands and Central Highlands, we also want to give it all to the villages and our village. May the Spirit of the Lord bless us.

We thank the Holy Spirit, for sharing his fellowship with you and blessing you, our benefactors, and the Viet Toc Foundation during the past 25 years. May God’s love continues to accompany you, protect you, and bless you. Amen.

Mưng Pet & Courtesy Translated by: Diệu Trâm