2 O.C. Pastors Head Home After Release in Vietnam : Detention: The clergymen are expected to be reunited with their families tonight after their 3-week ordeal.

After being held for questioning in Vietnam for three weeks, two Vietnamese-American pastors were released by the government Tuesday and expect to be reunited with their families in Orange County tonight.

The Revs. Nhi Van Ho of Cypress and Tuan Phuc Ma of Westminster telephoned loved ones from Malaysia about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, saying they were safe and unhurt, family members said.

Vietnamese government officials did not explain why they allowed the two ministers to leave Vietnam, said U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Long Beach), who vowed last week to travel to the Southeast Asian country if the two pastors were not released by August. They had traveled to Vietnam as underground Christian evangelists, and family members believe that the pastors were detained because of the government’s crackdown on Christian religions.

Hanh Ma, 21, said it still does not seem real that she will see her father tonight, when the pastors are scheduled to arrive at Los Angeles International Airport.

“We’ve hoped too many times,” Hanh Ma said in a telephone interview from their Westminster home. “My mom’s very happy. A heavy weight has been lifted from her mind.”

The pastors were staying at a hotel in Malaysia until their flight, she said.

Xuan-Nhi Van Ho said his father was anxious about one thing. “First thing he asked was if we had called his workplace,” Xuan-Nhi Van Ho said with a laugh. “He was worried if he had lost his job.”

Long Beach Toyota had given his father a three-month leave when notified of the special circumstances, he said.

The two men and two other Vietnamese pastors, Ho’s son, Vu Van Ho, and Thanh Tran, traveled to Ho Chi Minh City in June. All four were picked up by police and interrogated until June 30, when they were released, Vu Van Ho said. But on July 2, Nhi Van Ho and Ma were called in for further questioning and were imprisoned. Vu Van Ho and Tran were able to return to Orange County.

The four men help run the Vietnamese Christian Church in Santa Ana and the Vietnamese Assembly of God in Long Beach.

Rohrabacher called their release “an act of good faith on the part of Vietnam” for better relations between the two countries. He would have urged stopping U.S. talks with Vietnam if its officials continued to detain the American pastors, he has said.

“The imprisonment of these two men has certainly focused attention on the lack of freedom there,” Rohrabacher said in a telephone interview from Washington. And the “act of good faith” should extend to freedom of religion for the citizens in Vietnam as well.

It appears that the intervention of the U.S. government on behalf of the two pastors worked, he said.

A petition bearing the signatures of more than 40 members of Congress demanding the pastors’ release was delivered Thursday to the Permanent Mission of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to the United Nations. On Saturday, the deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Kenneth Quinn, also discussed the matter with Vietnamese government officials in a meeting in Peking.

Pham Que, the first secretary of Vietnam’s permanent mission to the United Nations, could not be reached for comment Tuesday, and no other officials were authorized to release information.

Xuan-Nhi Van Ho said he is happy that his father and Tuan Phuc Ma were released, but he will not be satisfied until something is done for Christians being persecuted in Vietnam.

Because of a crackdown on unpopular forms of religion, according to family members, Christians in the communist country meet secretly in homes and old meeting halls. It was estimated that 30 other proselytizers were detained with Ho and Ma, and it is not yet known if they also were released.

“Somehow, we have to fight for the freedom of religion there,” he said.