I love children, so much so that every time we pass a really cute one my team has to tell me I can’t steal them. My heart has been stolen over and over the last 2 and a half months by all of the precious kids we’ve met. So when we found out we would be working with kids all month long in Vietnam I was anything but disappointed.
Vietnam is a closed country so you can not openly be a Christian and you definitely can not come in as a missionary to share the Word. Our host refers to it as a “creative access country” where you need to do just that get creative to get access. Him and his wife have been here for going in 7 years and their story is so amazing. They came here with no plan in store but knew they were following where the Lord was calling them. After months of prayer walking and figuring out the niche market they could utilize, a children’s life skill center was put into motion. Education is a huge part of the culture here; kids go to school 7 days a week, spend a ridiculous amount of time studying for exams, and are expected to learn and thrive in English to get anywhere in society.
Our host has such a heart for kids and watching him pour into them has just continued to confirm things the Lord placed on my heart for the future. His life-skills program consists of children of very affluent families that want their children to have the best education and professional qualities to excel. This program enables him to do the big M in a really unique way, the profits for that cover the costs to bring in kids from the local neighborhood school who have nothing and pour into them and give them an education they can not afford.
These kids are amazing! I want to bring them all home with me. How our host blends the two drastically different spectrums is so beautiful, by teaching them Christ-like characteristics with a goal to give them each a heart for the other to prayerfully make a difference in the country long term.
Heres a few clips of what our first week looked like :
We are actually just the children’s jungle gyms!
If you spin a kid around, be prepared to do it at least 100 more times.
Em didn’t understand why I was so sweaty after jumping and spinning around non-stop so decided she would wipe me down, haha so great!
I promise she wants me to steal her as much as I want to, no one would even notice she’s not mine
