As in all of our ministries on the Race, our main focus in Vietnam was relationships. As a result, our ministries looked different each day.
Some days our ministry would involve visiting the residents at an orphanage/elderly home on the outskirts of the city. Other days we would tutor English to the friendly cashiers at a local café called Bread of Life. Still other days we’d worship and go out on prayer walks, seeking opportunities to build relationships with strangers throughout the city. I could write for days about each of these ministries and the relationships that were formed in them. For now I’ll share the one that weighed heaviest on my heart while in Vietnam.
Almost all of the residents living in the orphanage/elderly home had previously lived on the streets, and many of them are disabled, mentally and/or physically. These were people who had been rejected and abandoned by their families and communities, yet God showed me in the midst of such pain and loneliness just how differently He works from the rest of the world.
What the world rejects, He not only chooses, but He delights in and treasures.
What men see as worthless, He sees a child worthy of the very life of God Himself, worth giving up everything – even His own Son – to be in relationship with them for eternity.
Our first time at the home, God put a 19-year-old boy named Tom in my path. Tom’s body was so malnourished and under-developed that I thought he was no older than 9 when I first saw him. He was visibly in pain; his limbs were wrapped together in a knot, and his coughing was unrelentless. Still, he would look into my eyes and smile in between his coughing fits, and as I hummed and prayed over him he gently closed his eyes.
I got goosebumps as I prayed for him, physically feeling God’s presence over His son, and I was reminded that nothing can separate us from the love of God – not language barriers, or mental handicaps, or physical distance, or anything! God put words into my heart to pray for Tom that I didn’t know were there. I prayed for Tom’s body, heart, soul, and mind; I prayed for the family who had left him, for emotional and physical healing, for restoration and provision, for abundant blessings in Christ. I knew that God had plucked me from my home on the other side of the world so that I could come to this remote place in Da Nang, Vietnam and pray for this one boy and his family, sowing seeds for God to grow. In spite of appearances, God’s faithfulness and protection were all over Tom, and I couldn’t get Romans 8:38-39 out of my head. In it Paul writes, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Whatever your life looks like today, know that God is with you. That is the one thing He promises us in His Word – that He will be with us through everything. Our health, happiness, job, loved ones, and everything else in this world may come and go, but He is constant. He is with us.
During Christmas season, we sing "Come, O Come Emmanuel." It's one of my favorites. Emmanuel is one of the many names for God in the Bible; its Hebrew translation is "God with us." I can't think of anything else more worthy of celebration!
This will be my first Christmas without my amazing family, and I know it will be an emotional day for my squad and me. But I rejoice in the fact that my God is with me always. He is with my family always. He is with Tom always. He is our hope, and He is our joy. Thank you God for coming into this world so that we could know the life, joy, and hope that come through a relationship with You!
Merry Christmas everyone!! I love you!
