The rest of the story....

As a young girl,  my association with Vietnam was always this horrific picture.  The girl, my own age in 1972, was badly burned by the napalm bombs that exploded in her village.  I didn't know her name or whatever happened to her, until I went to Vietnam.

Kim Puch was with her entire family hiding in a Buddhist temple.  They heard the airplanes and mistakenly thought that the temple would be bombed. Which led to a fatal mistake by the pilots, thinking it was enemy soldiers running from the temple, they dropped four napalm bombs on the terrified family.   Kim's baby cousin was killed instantly.  Kim experienced such severe burns that she spent 14 months in a hospital in Saigon having seventeen surgeries while there.

Soon after Kim was done convalescing,  the Vietnamese government used her to propagate all the evils of America..  She became the poster child of anti-war, anti-America.  Later, a disillusioned and confused seventeen year-old Kim, found  a bible in a library and began reading it.  She read of a savior that went to the cross for her and then accepted his gift of salvation.  Her prayers began for her family that they too would become Christians.  One by one they all came to the Lord.  Except her older brother (in the foreground of the picture)  He became a bitter, angry man.  For thirty years Kim prayed.  Finally,  10 years ago,  her prayers were answered.

Now the joy is very visible the moment you meet Kim's brother,Phan.  When asked if it was difficult to forgive. Phan gave a startled look, as if to say " lady, don't you know the same gospel I do?"  Then he said,  "when you accept Christ's total love and forgiveness,  you can't help but give others total love and forgiveness."