Living For Higher Purpose: Story of a City Boy Who Survived the Vietnam War by Living for Jesus and Others

Living For A Higher Purpose is an account of surviving the Vietnam War and living as a refugee after the war. The story chronicles Viet’s life under the watchful eye of the communist dictatorship in Vietnam, along with his harrowing escape to the US. Like many refugees’ stories, Viet’s story was touching, heart-breaking, and fascinating at the same time. Viet goes into detail about how miserable his life is under the communist government. While all of Vietnam’s citizens suffered at the hands of their own government, the Communist Party and its officials confiscated everyone’s possessions and used their power to control everyone’s beliefs and actions. Throughout his horrible living conditions and near death experiences, Viet felt his ancestors and God were helping him and watching over him. There were numerous times in Viet’s life that he witnessed so much greed, cruelty, and injustice that he almost lost his confidence in humanity and in God. Just when Viet almost gave up his faith, he felt God would send a message, a sign, or an angel his way to help him through the difficult times. One instance was when Viet and his family were starving and were running out of rice. Viet said that God showed him mercy when the next day, the communist government increased the rationing, and they were able to receive rice. Some of the difficult experiences in Viet’s life cemented his belief and faith in God, and he wanted to devote his life to God by attending seminary school to become a priest.

I highly recommend Viet’s story to anyone interested in learning about a refugee’s story of survival and those who enjoy books with religious components. While, at times, the book sounded preachy (the author is a reverend) due to the extensive quotes and references to the Bible, I found the section about the problems and hypocrisy of the Church to be honest and truthful.