Vietnam is a “creative access” country, meaning that it is illegal to be a m!ssionary here. Thus, by coming here on a m!ssions trip we signed up to break the law for a month. We didn’t do anything crazy – we weren’t handing out tracks, we weren’t preaching on street corners, we didn’t even preach. M!inistry this month was one of complicated simplicity, that my team as a whole really, truly loved.
We spoke in code with each other, and with our families at home. We would talk about reading the book (B!ble), talking to dad (G0d/Pr@yer), doing M(m!nistry). I would call my mom and talk about the teacher of sorts (p@stor). We had to be extra careful going to m!nistry in taxies to not talk about the kids we were spending time with, to not talk about the trip as a whole. I wouldn’t wear 2 of my 5 shirts because they say something about WR on them. All this to say, 1) sorry for the lack of blogs 2) sorry for the awkward text full of numbers and symbols – it makes it not come up on searches [my spellcheck looks like my screen is bleeding right meow] 3) sorry for the vagueness in blogs about m!nistry in Vietnam.
This month we were working with a great expat who has been living in Vietnam for 7 years. He and his wife are American’s, but they live here each doing their own big M. She works with women, while he works with children. We helped him with his set up, which is intricately woven through many ranks of people in Vietnam. He is legally a consultant, who teaches life skills. With this on Friday nights and Saturday mornings we taught classes to children from affluent families. This kiddos could speak pretty good conversational English, and are from mostly well off families. They face a different set of struggles than the orphans or neglected children that most m!ssionaries imagine they will work with, but they have a set of struggles that need to be taken care of. They need to be heard/acknowledged just like any other kid, they need to know who He is just like everybody else, they need to be taught life skills like compassion too. We would also have kids from grades 1 and 2 from a local school come by on Tuesdays and Thursdays where we would teach them English, Art, and Life Skills. These kiddos are from the poorer communities, and they didn’t speak as good of English as the Friday/Saturday kids did, but that’s part of why we were there – to teach English!
With teaching these kids, each day before the kiddos would arrive, we would pray for them individually. He has cards, and we would pick a card and pray for that kid. Each child there is showered in prayer, and then met with joy and love as they walk through the doors. My specific m!nistry was different. I WAS ABLE TO USE MY DEGREE THIS MONTH! (I’m sure my mom is happy). I ran around taking pictures and videos so that the media team here could put together promotional videos / build a website. I even got to use the fancy lapel mic that I didn’t want to bring but thought I could maybe use!
So there you have it, a quick glimpse into the m!nistry we did this month. Up next is LDW which is a leadership development weekend. THEN OFF TO CAMBODIA. Honest Captions, and Dear Viet Nam will be posted next week. Photos to come.
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Thank you so all of my supporters thus far!
