The miraculous healing of one woman in Hanoi led to a remarkable Christian awakening in predominantly Buddhist Vietnam led by a farmer named Dao Sanh.

Recalling how it all began, Dao Sanh said in August 1996 his wife, Han, suddenly suffered a series of violent and painful convulsions resulting in the paralysis of the right side of her body, according to God Reports. He sought the help of Buddhist monks who chanted prayers and healing mantras for his wife. But their prayers were useless as his wife remained paralysed and had great difficulty in talking.

Days later, a group of Christian missionaries arrived. They prayed over Dao Sanh's wife Han. Lo and behold, three days later, Han rose from her sick bed, completely healed.

The Buddhist couple was amazed and overwhelmed upon being told for the first time about Jesus Christ, the Son of God who was sent to earth to sacrifice Himself on the cross so that the world could be saved and was later resurrected.

Dao Sanh and his wife eventually embraced Christ, fully giving their lives to Him.

The power of the Holy Spirit was such that Dao Sanh even felt the call to preach the gospel to the hundreds of villages in Hanoi and surrounding areas.

Even without formal training, he went to the market and began preaching. At first he was ignored and then derided as a crazy man and a fanatic.

But Dao Sanh persevered, driven by his passion for Jesus. He began attracting people who listened to him attentively. His listeners grew in number, causing Buddhist leaders to feel threatened. They filed complaints to the police who subsequently arrested him for "causing a disturbance, inciting rebellion, threatening the public."

He was later released from prison, with a warning never to preach again.

But the next day, he was back at his usual spot in the market, preaching the gospel to a crowd of people.

The police arrested and detained him a number of times but were unable to stop him from preaching each time he was released. He was intermittently arrested and jailed for 13 years.

Being locked up in prison did not prevent him from preaching. In fact his evangelisation work was made even easier since he literally had a captive audience in prison.

Many released prisoners returned to their homes as new men reborn in Christ, thanks to Dao Sanh's work.

Vietnamese officials were at a loss on how to stop him from preaching, since he could do it even inside prison. They eventually decided to release him and—to Dao Sanh's utter amazement—even gave him a "licence" to preach Christianity, not just in Hanoi but throughout Vietnam.

The following year after his release from prison, Dao Sanh and his fellow evangelists were able to build 60 new churches.