This ministry I got to work with really was amazing. I can’t imagine what they have gone through to get to the place they are now.
The kids that come to this school are like orphan children. Their parents don’t care what happens to them. One of the kids, Henry, parents never fed him, bathed him, or sent him to school. He also likes to rough house and play rough. Which for boys is usually okay but he never knows his limit and has shown signs of being abused. But the teachers take care of all those needs and give him special attention. He is loved so much but has gone through the ringer of life.
At the school were also 3 sisters and 1 brother. They were the sweetest little children and were a handful.
The boy would always want to play games or wrestle. He was always super into singing the He is the king of song.
The oldest girl was very smart and was doing an amazing job at learning English pronunciation.
The middle girl stayed glued to me whenever she could. She would hold my hand or wrap my arms around her, and she would always have this smile of joy on her face.
The youngest girl was very little but full of energy. She smiled and played a ton and became attached to my teammate Ryan.
These kids were amazing and have so much joy in their hearts.
We were offered to go see where some of the kids come from one day. We got to go see that family’s house. We get out of a taxi, about 1 or 2 miles away from the school, and walk down this alley.
It looked like most others in Vietnam with Buddha shrines littered the streets, dog walked by us, people in homes eating noodles and watching tv, a motorbike with 4 people on it goes past us, and then we took a hard right and it changed.
We turn into this shantytown type environment. It smells like burnt something, everyone stares at us but smiles and waves, and we go into their home.
The four kids have another little sister who the teachers at the school named, because the mom and dad are illiterate. So that’s 7 people living in a space that is maybe 30 square feet. The parents were trying, but not enough. They had no consistent income and were barley getting by. One thing I saw they did was burn trash to find bottle caps and other metals to recycle. Though, the school was helping them by giving them some seed money to start a business.
Then we got to pray for the home and the family while we were there. Which was a surreal experience. Praying for a family who was raised Buddhist, kids were being taught about Christ at school, and now the teachers and us were ministering to the mom and dad and people could hear and see what was happening in that room.
But all of this hit us hard. These cute, fun loving, joyful kids came from this place. But we know how loved they are at the school.
We came to this school M-F and were tired but left with joy. We know that we were there to just go and love them. If I could do more I would. That is what I keep reminding myself to do.
Love as much as I can and don’t hold anything back.
That is what Christ told us to do. It’s risky, it’s countercultural, and it can be hard.
But we weren’t called to an easy life. A life of living in abundance is saying yes to being loved unconditionally by
The Lord and then reciprocating these feeling to the world around you.
I also realize this whole blog is kind of a mess of seamingly random things on one page. But that is about what my life is like right now. It’s moving and changing and it all makes sense in the grand scheme but walking through my daily life is a toss up.
But I am okay with that. I go from being filled with joy getting to know the children at one moment then heart break as were hear any sort of back story or see the repercussions of sin in our world.
I wake up and make the choice so I follow Jesus and let him be my comforter or let the pain of what happens in this world eat me alive.
Which do you choose today?
