Vinh Chung graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BA in Biology from Harvard University and received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He is now a board-certified dermatologist in Colorado Springs, specializing in treating skin cancer using the Mohs surgical technique.
In 1979, Vinh was four years old and floating adrift on a derelict fishing boat off the coast of Malaysia with 92 others including his mother, father and siblings. Vinh was one of the 300,000 boat people forced to flee Vietnam under the threat of persecution and death. On one of the last days that he was on the boat, Vinh saw his father fall to his knees and pray to his creator for the first time. His father was praying for rain that might save them from dehydration and allow them to live a few more days. Almost immediately, the skies turned dark and the rains came.
That same year, Stan Mooneyham was the president of World Vision, a Christian humanitarian aid organization bringing relief to those in need. Knowing of the crisis in Vietnam, World Vision purchased a WWII service boat and had it reconditioned into a rescue boat. The mission was to try to bring aid to any of the refugees that were lost at sea, and was named Operation Seasweep . After days at sea, and finding no refugee boats, Seasweep was almost out of fuel and water and was preparing to return to port, but in the distance they saw a small fishing boat filled with refugees bobbing in the sea. On that day Vinh and 92 others were saved.
Vinh is now on the board at World Vision and has published his memoir, Where the Wind Leads, detailing the story. Click here for a preview of the book, and if you have more time, click here for the full story of Seasweep including footage of the actual rescue.
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