Hey Everyone,
It’s been a while since my last blog, so I have a lot to cover in this one, so Buckle up. We wrapped up our debrief in Colombia and then set out on our long voyage to Vietnam, and man, it was a process. First, we had to take a bus to the airport, which was about an hour drive, and then when we got to the airport around midnight, we couldn’t check our bags until six in the morning, so we found a little quite spot where we spent the night sleeping on the cold tile ground (didn’t get much sleep that night). After that sleepless night, our bags were checked, we got to our gate, and then finally had our six-hour flight to Texas, where I chowed down on some Wendy’s. Anyway, to sum it all up, we flew from Texas to L.A,
where we were on the news, which was super cool. From L.A., we had a 16-hour flight to Hong Kong, and from Hong Kong to Hochi Min, Vietnam. The next part wasn’t much fun; our squad said goodbye to each other and split off to our ministries across Vietnam. My team (all men) made our way to the very touristy city of Da Nang on the northern coast.
When we got there, it was very refreshing to feel the somewhat tropical sun on my face, and to also no longer be in a pressurized tube. From the airport, we made our way to our hotel/apartment, which was about a two-minute walk from the beach (what a blessing), got our stuff unpacked, and then faced our next challenge… jet lag. Later that night, we met with our host to go over the ministry we’d be doing in Vietnam, and boy, we were barely awake for that; some of us even fell asleep. Afterwards, our host sent us back with a bagful of sleep meds to help us with the jet lag, and I probably popped around ten pills that night.
To give you some context, Vietnam is a semi-closed country; it’s not illegal to be Christian, but it is illegal to openly share the gospel. It’s only legal if someone asks you, so
our ministry was solely based on relationship building. How we did that specifically was through a Church that has an English Club for young adults, many of whom were Vietnamese, and some were Russian or Ukrainian. We would go and help the person leading the lesson teach new words, phrases, and even a little bit of American slang. We would also be handed topic questions that we discussed in our groups to help students practice their English. We did these three to four times a week, and all of it was for the sole purpose of building relationships with the students. Our host encouraged us to go out and grab food or coffee with students we had gotten to know well, and we did a couple of times. A lot of memorable relationships were formed, but only a few reached the point where we could share the Gospel with them. I only had the opportunity once to share the gospel with someone from the English club over coffee, which was very impactful to me because it was my first time ever doing something like that. There were also other ways we’d build relationships; a good bit of it was through sports; we would get together with some of the men and play soccer for a few hours or meet with some people on the beach to play volleyball or American football. All of this was for the hope of getting a chance to share the gospel, and although we didn’t get many opportunities, some seeds were definitely planted. I will say, while all of this was going on, we men had a few challenges to overcome. The first few weeks were difficult because we had just gone from a group of forty-three to a group of eleven. So in one sense, the energy had kind of died down. Another challenge was that the English club didn’t start until 7 pm, which left a lot of free time, and we would be bored out of our minds.
However, the big challenge was being away from home during the Holidays. For most of us, it wasn’t that bad a struggle, but for some it was a lot harder, me included. But as a team, we adapted. We learned to get along, which brought us much closer together as friends. We filled a pretty big chunk of our free time with time in God’s presence, whether it was in the Word, in prayer, or in worship. We learned to make the most of what we had for the Holidays, which was each other’s company and our new friends in Vietnam. As hard as it was, it was all worth it because from it all we grew together as a team and as men of God.
Aside from all that, we did have a lot of fun experiences. We went to a place called the Han market, which was always crowded, and whatever you were going to buy, you had to barter for it. There were also rats in Danang, which was news to me. One ran right in front of me, and I never thought I could jump so high in my entire life. We did try some street food here and there, some of which made us very sick. Another cool experience was going to Monkey Mountain, where I’ve never seen so many monkeys in one place, up close. That experience was both fun and terrifying because we did get chased by a few. To start the
year, we decided to sign up for a 5K that they hold for New Year’s. It was my first one, so I spent a couple of days training for it and placed in the top eighty, which wasn’t bad for my first one. My personal favorite experience was learning to surf, and let me be clear: the only reason I did that was that sharks are very rare to see here in Da Nang. It was a lot of fun. I rented a surfboard for the month, and whenever we had free time and good waves, I was out there. I will say some of it was a little terrifying when a giant wave was coming at me, and I had no time to turn my board around, but aside from that, it was all a great experience. It was a great way to get some energy out, and personally gave me an even better appreciation for the Lord’s amazing creation. In fact, the beach was one of my favorite places to go; I’d take long walks along the shore or find a nice shaded area to read my Bible and do journaling. To sum it all up, Vietnam was very good for me. I had all sorts of cool experiences and such, made a lot of new friends, and potentially planted seeds in their lives. But what was most impactful was that although we had a lot of free time, it gave me a chance to slow down and to just bask in the Lord’s presence. That’s all for now. For my next blog, I’ll be in the Philippines, so keep an eye out. I hope everyone back home is doing well, and I miss you all so much. Until next time, and Happy New Year!!!
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