Nothing coherent could come from a single attempt to summarize my month here in Vietnam. Instead, I’d like to share with you a handful of short snippets that have contributed to the greatness of my month here. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I’ve enjoyed living them.
Ca Phe Sua Da
Vietnamese coffee with milk, or ca phe sua da as it’s called here, is unlike any coffee I’ve ever had. My squad leader, Mason, described it to us as really sweet, really burnt coffee, which is basically all it is. A glass is filled with about a shot and a half of the darkest, strongest coffee you’ve ever tasted, an equal amount of sweetened condensed milk, and the rest of the glass is filled with ice that you allow to melt before you drink it. Upon arrival I don’t even think I wanted to bother trying it except out of curiosity. Even after my first taste, my impression was that it wasn’t as terrible as I’d imagined, but nothing in me wanted more. Yet now I’m finding myself craving the precious elixir every day. I think my most excited moments have been those in which our host walks up to us, smiles sweetly and says those four precious syllables: “ca phe sua da?” What has happened to me? Vietnam, I’ll miss you. Ca phe sua da, I’ll dream about you.
Team Leading, My Phone, and Other Things I’ll Joyfully Surrender
On one of our first days in Vietnam the team leaders sat down for tea time with our squad leaders, during which we were informed that at the end of the month, we would all be asked to step down so that new team leaders could rise up. A lot of other things were said during this conversation, but the main thing I heard was this: team changes are coming. In case there’s any question about this, I’ll say it now: I love my team. These women have pushed me into so much growth, discipline, and pursuit of the Lord over the last 3 months. I’m a different person because of them. So when I was told our teams would be different at the end of the month, my heart felt so heavy. I had known would happen eventually, but I had been expecting at least another month with them. Immediately after our meeting, I sat alone with the Lord and talked to him about it. I was immediately reminded that ultimately, Father’s plan is for his glory and everything that is done will contribute to that. As much as I love my current team and want to be with them, I want Father’s glory more, and I want his plan to be carried out more than I want my own desires. I will be joyful about that no matter what it looks like. That said, about 2 weeks later we received an e-mail with our new teams. My team sat around anxiously as Rachel read us the contents of the email (unnecessarily slowly, I might add). The only thing different about our team is that the role of team leader is being given to my teammate Lyndie—a role I’m so excited to watch her step into. I can’t even explain the joy I get from thinking about what this next month has in store.
Another thing I’ll be leaving behind in Vietnam is my phone, which I lost in Ho Chi Minh city on one of our adventure days. Though I’ve lost a lot of documented memories and the ability to access wifi in an instant when it’s available, what I’ve gained is worth so much more, and that’s presence. The day before I lost my phone, I sent an email to my squad leaders in which I stated I want to spend more time with the locals in my path without bringing along technology to distract me. I can’t not laugh about the way that turned out.
Needless to say, this month has taught me the value of surrendering to the Lord. Everything I have belongs to him anyway. The greatest joy I can find is in placing it before him to do as he pleases, recognizing his plan is greater than my own. Please pray for me now, that when God asks for something from me, my yes will always be louder than my resistance.
Corn
One night our host, Pastor Loc, picked us up from ministry at around 9pm, and on the way home he asked us if we liked corn. (Well actually he asked if we liked carp. “Fish?” we asked.
Pastor Loc: “No, no, carp, c-a-r-p.”
Us: “So fish? Carp?”
To shorten one of many too-long exchanges to translate a single word from Vietnamese to English, I’ll tell you that he meant corn.) We thought it was really funny that he asked that question because he doesn’t speak English very well, but he just wanted to talk to us, so that was how he chose to start conversation. A few minutes later Rachel and Amanda start saying that we weren’t taking the usual way home and began trying to figure out where we were (I don’t pay enough attention when we’re driving to have noticed, but it became very obvious when we drove to a dead end and made a U-turn). Pastor Loc then says, dejectedly, that all the people who sell corn are asleep. Guys, he was driving around trying to find a place to buy us corn as a late night snack before taking us home! I laughed hysterically the rest of the way home. What even is my life? I love it.
Sing a Song
Yesterday was our last day teaching English. After our final class, our student, Lam, who is the assistant pastor here at the church said, “sing a song.” We just looked at one another, not sure what to do. Our response: “Uh…” Then, he got up from his seat, walked out of the classroom, and came back a few minutes later with a guitar. Lam then explained that he has been learning the guitar and that he would like to sing a song for us, and man was he humble about his abilities. He explained that the song was him wishing that God would lead us into peace. Though I couldn’t understand a word, it was one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard.
Mai
I don’t even know how to begin describing her. I most frequently do so by saying, “That girl is literally a psychopath.” Mai is one of the 18 children who live here at the church receiving schooling, practical skills, and other things her family isn’t equipped to provide for her. She is six years old and one of the strangest humans I’ve ever met. This girl has been the source of so much laughter and too many “what is even happening” moments to count. Perhaps my favorite such moment was one evening a few weeks ago when my teammate Audrey and I were hiding out in a classroom on our laptops trying to get some work done. Mai soon found our hiding spot and began migrating back and forth between the two of us touching our screens, our keyboards, and our faces. Any time she attempted to touch our keyboards, we would tell her, “No.” She then proceeded to try touching our keyboards more sneakily, after which she would jump back, wave her finger at us, and say, “Nooooo,” in an extremely mischievous voice. Other things she did that evening were log-rolling around on the floor and open-mouth kissing the top of my foot (I guess there’s a first time for everything). It was all I could do to keep from laughing so as to not encourage her. That girl kills me.
Christmas Came Overnight
Our host had this huge Christmas concert that they built a stage and decorated for throughout the month. They worked so hard on it, and most of the time they worked late at night, so almost every morning we would come to the church and this entirely new piece of the set-up would have been born, seemingly overnight. It was really fun to keep coming to the church in the morning and saying, “Woa! That’s new.” My team and I came into the month all expressing a hope that we would be placed with a host that had a Christmas celebration so as to not feel like the holiday season had just passed us by unacknowledged, and we were given even more than we could have hoped for. It was such a wonderful surprise to get to spend the holiday season at the church with the largest rotating light-up Christmas tree in Vietnam! (This is what we were told by one of the children about their light-up tree here. My teammates and I thought it was such a funny and random accomplishment, but I’m not complaining about getting to live next to it for a month!)
Tonight I’m sitting at the church we live next to in an upstairs hallway that I like to call “the wind tunnel” because of it’s prime airflow. I can’t believe I’m leaving here tomorrow. It feels so unreal that this is my life just because I said yes to following Jesus. The last thing I’m doing before I post this is I’m praying for you. Whoever you are, reader, I’m praying that God would awaken a newness of His Spirit in you, and that He would reveal to you the calling He has placed on your life, and give you faith to pursue Him like never before. And I pray that your yes would be louder than any resistance inside of you.
