After 3 days on a bus – which included great conversations with my squad mates, a few sweaty border crossings, lots of headaches, interrupted sleeps, and nothing but snack food – we made it from Thailand to Vietnam. This month we are working with another “New Life Church,” in Ho Chi Minh city! So what does that look like?
Wellllll, our team spent last week walking through the campus of the Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh, to approach students and ask if they might be interested in our English Club held at New Life. It’s amazing how open and welcoming the students are…there’s the immediate, “Wow, look at those foreigners!” factor that draws the students in. Ha! But a lot of times this is because many want to practice their conversational English with someone who is fluent. So it was easy to recruit many to come join us! We’ve now had 3 different sessions, and will have 3 each week – Friday night, Saturday morning, and Tuesday night – where we choose a topic to study. We begin the session with an ice-breaker game, then teach an English song that correlates with the theme of the lesson (like “Peel Banana!” for the food lesson, or “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” for the holiday lesson), and conclude by breaking into small groups to go over words and phrases from the worksheets in greater depth.
The English Club is a great introduction to New life Church for many students. It opens up a whole other supportive and encouraging environment for students to come to, ask questions, and learn about the love that God has for them. By no means is it a place that we lure students to shove the gospel in their face. Instead we get to be a part of creating another tool (a second, sometimes third language) that improves the chance of a better job post-university. Simultaneously, we get to just love these young people who are under the incredible pressures of their studies, and are trying to find hope among the expectations of their futures that their parents, professors and families place on them. Throughout the week we meet up with students for coffee or lunch and hang out, practising English and building those relationships!
When that level of friendship is built, it’s easy to open up and share with students what God has done for me in my life, despite those pressures that society has placed on me. New Life has gotten to be a part of many students coming to know Christ, and if our team gets to share just one month of those seeds being planted then – even if we don’t see the fruit from it right away – we know that it’s a part of the grand plan that God has.
And man, things are happening. Vietnam is a closed country. But one of the students who was baptised just last week was wearing a shirt that had Jesus’ name boldy printed across her T-shirt. The band playing at a nearby jazz bar this past Saturday was playing a beautiful randition of Amazing Grace. One of the university security guards angrily kicked our team out of the university on our last day there because a crowd was forming around us – and anything that goes against the grain here is closely monitored. We’re even unsure if the third movie from the Hunger Games triology is being released in Vietnam this month – because Vietnam is literally split into numbered districts, and any parallel to an uprising from the people is sensored. But God is totally working in the people we’ve met here, and protecting them too.
Right now our team is going through the book of Esther. For those who haven’t heard it before, it’s a story in the Old Testament of a woman who was chosen to be King Xerxes’ queen – and unbeknownst to him, was Jewish. Basically, Esther could have remained quiet to try and save her own life when all the Jews of the land were being persecuted, but instead she risked her life to plead for the lives of her people. No, I’m not going to loudly proclaim the gospel on the streets and put myself, team mates, and ministry contact at risk in unnecessary ways. But I’m going to be radical in the way that I represent Jesus. I’m going to risk being shunned by the world – losing a life of comfort and temporary satisfaction – so that others can feel the real acceptance of God – true joy, true peace, real life, eternal life.
Because, man….that’s the only thing that lasts in this world!
Think about it… 🙂
