We came here with nothing…best decision we’ve made yet!

Our bus dropped us off on the side of the road  at our final destination at 2:30am. We didn’t know exactly where we were, we didn’t have a place to stay, we didn’t know anyone in this city…but we weren’t too worried about it. Within minutes, we had taxi’s by our side as we played the ongoing game of charades with all of the non-english speakers around the world J Another few minutes, and 100,000 Vietnamese Dong (=$5 USD) later, we were on our way to a hotel for the night. We played a few more games of charades with the hotel owner and within a few minutes we were all settled into our rooms for the night. Sometimes I wonder if when I get home, I’ll go to the ATM and try to take out 500,000 USD on accident haha DENIIED!

Anyway, we woke up the next morning and decided we’d walk the 2 miles to get to the hotel we found online instead of taking a taxi so we could save some money. Many miles later, we finally arrived! We played charades a bit with the hotel owner before calling some of our new friends from Ho Chi Minh to help translate J Because it was the Vietnamese New Year, most hotels are closed (quite different than in the US where the hotels would be packed, ay??) and they didn’t want to have us stay there because if the police found out we were there, we would all most likely be investigated and questioned and they didn’t want to deal with the hassle. SO, we were back on the road! Haha We stopped for lunch and were praying that He would provide somewhere for us to stay.  

 

We continued on our walk, and on our way to another one of the hotels we saw online, I saw a sign for a hotel above what seemed to be a wine store. The girl working spoke English (thanks, G*d!) and went on to say that the hotel was closed for the holiday. She called a hotel down the street to see if we could stay there which seemed to be working out…then she got off the phone and said that instead of going to the other hotel, we could stay at this hotel for as long as we needed and pay exactly what we had for our lodging budget!! Man, another ridiculous blessing! It is so amazing to be in a position to truly need Him to provide for us. So often we find ways to make things work out, but if we just let go and trust Him, He’s got a way better plan for us!   

Here we were walking along praying to find anywhere to stay, and then the Lord blesses us with an ENTIRE hotel to ourselves!!!!! Haha  and this isn’t any inky dinky hotel…this is a 6 story, gorgeous hotel with hot water and an ACTUAL bathtub so the water from the shower doesn’t go all over the floor and a real sink and toilet!! 

This isn’t a tourist city at all, so everything is written in Vietnamese and it’s very hit or miss to come across anyone that speaks English. We were walking around trying to find a little grocery store (which we are still yet to find) when we saw a couple young girls eating what looks like French fries at this little outdoor restaurant…if that’s what you wanna call it haha We were peering over at them, trying to figure out what our next step would be when they asked Tracy what her name was and then welcomed us to join them for lunch. We began telling them that we were there traveling through when another girl walks up to us that’s friends with them. Turns out they hadn’t seen eachother in a year and she only came up because she was interested to see what the foreigners were doing here haha Before long, it was like we had all known eachother for years.  They’re all Buddhist but seem very open to talking with us about their beliefs and hearing about ours.  They showed us where they live, walked us to a nearby church that we’ll be going to later today for service with them, and made plans to spend the new year celebration together.  

Later that evening, we met back up with the girls and they showed us all around town. We went for hot chocolate and coffee (which is the thickness of chocolate syrup but coffee flavored). An extremely sweet couple was sitting behind us with their 8month old that I was playing with, and we ended up getting in a nice chat. We exchanged phone numbers and they asked us if we would like to come over for dinner while we were in town…man, we’ve been praying for divine appointments and He’s providing! 

After the show, we walked back to our hotel and had some champagne and listened to blaring loud techno with two of the people that work here at the hotel. (Sidenote: People all around the world from Tanzania to Vietnam LOVE ridiculously huge and loud speakers and their techno music whether it’s 3am or 8am haha)

I love that this month has allowed us to not have a schedule, a ‘plan’ for ministry, a place to sleep, food to eat, translator to help us communicate, and whatever else you might imagine we would need coming into a closed country none of us have ever been to before…yet we’ve been able to further our dependence on Him by asking Him to provide what we need.  We have complete freedom to do exactly what He wants us to do and rely only on Him, and it’s been one of the best months yet. To think we still have 2 weeks left is so exciting!

Please continue praying for us as we go out and share His word whether it’s with our mouths or with our actions <3