By: Cameron L. Stephens
Imagine fleeing government detention camps on a rickety boat. Pirates circle your family. Your little brother dies in a refugee camp from hunger. Where most see only trauma, Rico Nguyen saw the first whispers of a spiritual calling. His memoir, Faith in The Lord, isn’t just a survival story. It’s the astonishing journey of a man who believes his suffering prepared him to become a spiritual visionary tasked with uniting our fractured world.
Rico’s childhood reads like an epic of pain. Born in Vietnam during the war, his father and grandfather were jailed in political “re-education” camps. His family escaped by boat in 1979, hiding gold on young Rico’s body to bribe guards. Pirates attacked. Hunger gnawed. Thirst tortured. Then, in a Malaysian refugee camp, Rico lost his baby brother Kevin to malnutrition. “I looked up at the sky and asked, Why?” he writes.
These horrors didn’t break him. They became his compass. He realized: “I felt how other refugees felt… this would guide me later when I had sympathy for all the pain in the world.”
Decades later, living in Canada, Rico faced a different kind of chaos: the September 11th attacks. While the world reeled in shock and anger, Rico saw something deeper. The collapse of the World Trade Center felt like “a stake through the heart” of prevailing global systems. Then, workers found a cross-shaped steel beam in the rubble.
For Rico, it was a lightning bolt. “My inner voice told me,” he shares in Faith in The Lord. “It said, ‘The Cross will rise,’ showing me I was called to rise amid humanity’s crises.” That twisted metal became his personal symbol. He believed he was being summoned to offer healing.
But Rico’s mission isn’t about starting a new religion. It’s about weaving ancient ones together. Haunted by spiritual experiences, he spent years studying Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Indigenous traditions. He discovered a stunning truth: “GOD had planted His seed in all these faiths.” His “Message of PEACE” proposes fusing their core strengths:
- Christianity’s focus on love, law, and forgiveness
- Islam’s teaching that “religion is science, science is religion”
- Buddhism’s paths to inner peace and enlightenment
- Indigenous reverence for Mother Earth
“Using things that had too much in common might not work,” Rico realized. “These differences were important.” He saw this fusion as the only way to fulfill humanity’s spiritual needs and end conflicts fueled by religious division.
Canada, the country that welcomed his shattered refugee family, became his blueprint for paradise. Its healthcare, education, and social support showed him a world where basic needs are met, lifting people from poverty and crime. “Canada was the closest thing to a paradise on Earth,” he observes in Faith in The Lord. He envisions this model spreading globally – a world without starvation, preventable disease, or endless war, grounded in shared spiritual values.
Rico Nguyen’s story is wildly unconventional. Visions of God? Confronting spiritual adversaries? Unexplained encounters? It challenges easy beliefs. Yet, at its heart, Faith in The Lord offers something profoundly relevant: a testament to finding purpose in profound pain, and a compelling plea for unity in an age of dangerous divides. It asks us to consider: Could a refugee’s unimaginable journey hold clues to saving us all?
Rico Nguyen’s extraordinary testimony demands attention. To understand his vision for global unity forged in fire, read Faith in The Lord. This book challenges spiritual seekers and peacemakers to confront our deepest divisions and imagine true reconciliation.