I’m in Vietnam!
I’m living in a hostel with a soft bed, bath tub, and air
con. I feel so blessed! (I’m praying the
transition from here to Africa won’t be bad…)
This month, we’ll be doing a lot of relational ministry.
We’re living in Ho Chi Minh City and there are a lot of people here. There are
tourists from all over the world and so many friendly Vietnamese.
Contrary to popular
belief, there is no animosity towards Americans.
There are bars surrounding our hotel, a park across the street,
and so many coffee shops. During the evenings we’ll go to the bars to talk to
invest in people. During the day we can go to coffee shops and pretend to read,
but look for people to talk to. And there are always people at the park, we can
go there anytime.
I’m working out again this month; God has blessed me so much
in providing the park along with exercise machines!
Alongside relational ministry, we’re visiting rehab and
leprosy centers. We went to the leprosy center last night, it was so cool! I
always thought that people with leprosy would have really crusty fingers and
toes that would fall off at any minute… I guess it’s just something strange I
pictured. But the people there don’t look like that at all, they’re just
missing limbs.
Everyone there are all in wheel chairs. We sang worship
music and I shared a testimony about what God’s been teaching me lately (which is in
my last blog), and some others shared the gospel. One lady
accepted Christ. We were so excited! We were told that since Christians have
been coming there within the last year, two-thirds of the patients have gone
home because they are healed! God is moving there.
After the leprosy center, Ally and I went out to the bars.
We went out not to have any drinks, but to find people to talk to, to shine
light into their life, to share the gospel. Of course we know we might not be
able to share the gospel in one night, but we can build relationships. So, we
stopped at Crazy Buffalo and met a bar tender there who was eager to speak English
with us. He was talking nonstop, sharing about his life. We told him we’d be
back and visit him throughout this month.
We went to another bar and met the security guard. He
immediately started talking about how he has to work to be happy. The more he
works, the happier he is, but he isn’t happy right now. He doesn’t like his
job, but he can’t get another one. He is so good at English and dreams of being
a taxi driver to help the foreigners get to places. And he proceeds to tell us
we’re not happy because we’re not working. He needs Jesus too. We encouraged
him to keep dreaming. We told him we were happy and shared how money doesn’t
make us happy because you always want more. God’s using us in his life. We’re
going to visit him also throughout the month. I’m excited to see what the Lord
does! I’m praying that by the end of the month, he’ll be a taxi driver.
