At the end of Cambodia the Lord challenged me to boldness. I felt like I needed to be willing to get a little crazy and unashamedly proclaim the epic rad-ness (new word.) of Jesus. I was ready. And then I landed in Vietnam where I couldn't even say the word 'prayer' in public. I felt like I had all this eagerness inside of me ready to just bust and then I had to hold it all in. Not cool.
But then the Lord challenged me in a completely different way. He opened up ways for me to pour all of that pent up Jesus passion into prayer. Prayer??? C'mon God. Give me something GOOD. Give me something tangible or a sweet little child to love or a group of women to encourage. Give me something REAL.
As it turns out, God is actually smarter than me (shocker.) and knows whats up because prayer is pretty much the only way I made it through this month. Things got hard. Ministry didn't happen the way I wanted it to. God didn't show up in the places or ways that I expected. I felt overwhelmed in a city of too many people and waaaay too many motos. So when everything I had tried to do and feel kept crashing down, I turned back to do what the Lord had directed me to in the first place: pray.
I walked through the streets of Ho Chi Minh city praying for all kinds of crazy things. For strangers. For teammates. For this nation that so desperately needs to feel the power of Jesus. I prayed for anything and everything. At times it felt like I was in the movie 'What Women Want' where Mel Gibson can hear women's thoughts, because I would walk by people and just know that I was suppossed to pray something specefic for them. Some of it was weird but who am I to question God? So I just went with it. I prayed for strangers families, for sweet baby boys to grow up to be men of God, for safety and healing over the girls trapped in prostitution, for workers to make enough money to feed their families at the end of the day. The Lord opened my eyes to the brokenness in this place and allowed me to feel the weight of his sorrow over the way people choose to live their lives. He showed me people's sin and challenged me to find a way to love them despite their actions, just as He does everyday for me.
It's amazing how praying for a place and it's people can make you start to care about it. I didn't fall in love with Vietnam. To be honest I didn't even like it all that much. But does that mean I shouldn't care about the Vietnemese people coming to know Christ? Aboslutely not. The Lord has taught me to see past the scenery and circumstances of a place and try to look instead to the heart of it's people.
Best of Nam:
(no ministry pics because it seemed weird to take a pic of myself praying… right?)
Canoeing down the Mekong Delta! Was awesome to expierence a little bit of history and learn more about Vietnam. We ate lunch at a restuarant where, for $75, you could order a King Cobra and have it killed and cooked in front of you. Dad is still dissapointed I didn't try it. Sorrynotsorry.
Game nights! A combo of Wellspring, old teammates and fantastic new friends made for some excellent game nights! Hanging out and doing something so normal made things feel like real life. (because apparantly the WR is fake life.) So much fun!!!
Basketball!!! Other than live updates on espn.com I didn't get to participate much in March Madness. So I did the next best thing: went to see the Saigon Heat!!! Kind of like the Miami Heat except not at all. But still basketball and still good!
We are now in Malaysia and officially in month 7!!! Crazy. Today was our first day of ministry working with an Indian church on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur (the cool kids call it KL.) It is already such a blessing to be surrounded by a congregation of people that have so much passion for the Lord. I am so pumped to work with this ministry and see what God has for us in Malaysia!
Thank you all so much for your encouraging emails and texts that helped me stay strong during this hard month. Your love and support is incredible! Thank you thank you thank you!!! If there is ever anything I can pray for you about pleaseplease let me know! Much love my sweet friends! xo.
