I really don’t know what I expected from Unsung Heroes. I think my mind went to “adventuring” and “discovering” when I heard we were chosen to do it back in Nepal. All I had heard about it was people working in coffee shops, doing skate board ministry, and learning to surf. For those who don’t know what Unsung Heroes (UH) is, The Lumes were picked to spend the month we had in Vietnam seeking out new contacts for Adventures for not only future racers, but for other missionaries they send out through the various programs the organization has. While we were in Nepal, Enrica and I had met a past racer and she was able to help us gain some understanding as to how to go about UH in a closed country. The one thing she really encouraged us in was that a UH month is whatever the team made it to be; it could be really “successful” ( I say it like that only because it’s not based off how man potential contacts a team found) by finding a ton of contacts, or just one, or it could be a month were the team really poured into one another. There are many different ways to rate how “successful” the month would be.
The way we later would describe it is “It’s like we are on a treasure hunt looking for Christians in a country that didn’t want to know there were Christians there.”
We stayed in Ho Chi Minh a week after the other teams headed out to their ministries trying to figure out where Papa wanted us to go and where the Spirit was leading us. We were in Starbucks when we saw a ton of children walk in all wearing long red performance robes. A volunteer walked past us and on the back of his shirt it said The Christina Noble Foundation. We looked it up and saw that it was an organization that specifically helped slum children and children effected by Agent Orange from the Vietnam War. We made contact and a few days later we were touring their facility there in the capital and hanging out with the children. It was there that Papa gave me not the answer I have been searching for for years regarding the disabled. As I held a little girl born with hydrocephalus and other conditions, “Intricate” and “I’ve got them” were the words that he was speaking to me. I was wanting a clear answer to my question of, “What about them” and instead I got reassurance that these children, all children born with disabilities, were still created by His hand, Papa took the time to create them intricately and that He loved them dearly and called them “chosen”. He reassured me not to worry because He holds them as tightly as He does you and I.
Doing a team worship time, we all heard that we were suppose to go down South to the island of Phu Quoc and there God would show us what he had in store for us. We jumped on a bus, got confused on where to get off, hopped on a smaller bus, spent the early morning on the floor of a street restaurant sleeping, walked to the pier, and Super Dong’ed it (the name of the ferry) to the island. We took the first two days to ourselves and rested and spent time with Jesus listening to what he had for us individually for the month. As Monday came we headed to our coffee shop, The Embassy, and there we met Hannah, who later introduced us her family Eric and Ella, and her staff Trung who would later introduced us to a contact. Hannah acted as our guide to the island, where to eat, members of the community that may be able to help us or be potential contacts. We were there for a week and were striking out everywhere we went. We were starting to get restless and anxious, not wanting to “waste” the time we had left in the month, and began asking Papa even more fervently “What are we doing here?!?” “Just wait”. The next day we had a meeting with a pastor we had met down South and upon meeting him he put us on a small boat to head to an island to met a family. It was on that island that he showed us where he wanted future teams to stay and what he would want them to do. Another week went by and as Chantai returned with Laura, we again started to pray where do we go now. “Just wait”. The next day a few of us went and found another church in the north that wanted the organization to put their name in their Rolodex of contact names. The last week was spent pouring into the individuals we met; the owners of the Embassy, Trung and her ill father, Mike and Christina (missionaries from Florida), Ho (the hotel worker the Spirit led us to by showing me a image of a dead water lily and sure enough he was the only one at the hotel that had not yet opened near the water lily pond that was filled with dead lilies).
The thing I have learned about UH is that is’t not about how many contacts the team was able to find, or drawing a fish in the sand so that we could locate other Christians. It was all about listening to the Spirit and where he was leading us, it was about not doubting what we heard from him. It was being patient for what Papa had for us.
UH was several different things; it was a unified “thing” for the team, but for each of us individually it something different. I really encourage you to read about what it was for Christi, Enrica, Mel, Kelly, and Chantai through their blogs listed below.
• http://christichatman.theworldrace.org/?filename=the-pain-of-loving
• http://christichatman.theworldrace.org/?filename=a-letter-to-my-dad
• http://enricaverrett.theworldrace.org/?filename=performance-does-not-equal-greatness
• http://enricaverrett.theworldrace.org/?filename=adventures-of-living-on-an-island
• http://kellyfreiburger.theworldrace.org/?filename=take-me-to-church
• http://melissapresley.theworldrace.org/?filename=frustration-in-performance-love-in-jesus
