Vietnam was the last Asian country that my squad went to on the race and my team was sent to Ho Chi Minh City for the month. I didn’t really know what to expect because it was the first closed country we were going to and I wasn’t sure what ministry would look like. That month was pretty relaxed for my team. Our host would plug us into different areas that the Fellowship was involved in and we were only doing ministry maybe three hours tops a day. It’s hard to be really involved when you can’t openly display your beliefs. Needless to say, I kind of felt like a spy most of the time.
On the weekends we would teach life skill classes to children from local schools. During the week I would travel just outside of the city and teach English to five year olds at an orphanage. I became really attached to some of them. There was this one little boy named Tinh and he was the smartest of the class. He would sit in a chair in front of the first desk of kids (because there wasn’t enough desk space for him to have a place of his own) and every time the teachers would play learning videos he would get up, smile, and dance around. I loved seeing how much joy he had in class. And then there was Quin. She was the only deaf girl in the whole orphanage but she found her own way of communicating to her classmates and teachers. We were reviewing shapes and having the kids shout out the names of the shapes we were holding up in front of the class. When I held up a star she came running to the front of the class and spread out her overlapping hands to make the best star shape she could.
With all of the free time we had outside of ministry you would think it would have been really easy spending time as a team, but since everyone was on different schedules and involved in different things it made team time pretty hard. The time we did spend together though was awesome. We read the Easter story, we had communion, we read devotionals and did bible studies, and we sang Karaoke. I’m going to miss the fun I had in Vietnam and now that I’m in Africa with a new team and new memories to make, it’s time to say goodbye to the past. I’m saying goodbye to my old team. You guys were awesome and I can’t wait to catch up at the end of the month and see what awesome things God has done for you in Africa. And I’m saying goodbye to Asia. You were busy and full of lots of discoveries, but it’s time to make new ones. So, Africa here I come. What do you have for me?
P.S.: My next financial deadline is July 1st and I need to be fully funded by that time. I’m currently at $11,860 and I need to be at $16,250. Please help me finish the race by donating. You can do this by clicking the support me button.
Love you. Miss you. Bye. (Team D.O.R.A. reference)
