All that I really knew when I arrived in Viet Nam was that I would be helping people learn English. It didn’t sound super exciting at first, but it ended up being one of my favorite months. The country is beautiful and the people are so kind and made me feel loved. I cannot go into too much detail about what we did or use the names of the people we worked with because it is a closed country, so this blog is a little more vague than normal, but I have lots of beautiful pictures to make up for it.
When we arrived in Viet Nam we were welcomed so warmly by our host and she went above and beyond to make sure we had all of our needs met. We needed to go to the market to get food, and she drove super slow on her moto so we could keep up on foot. After we got done shopping our host loaded up the groceries and one of my teammates on her moto and helped carry all of our food up four flights of stairs. And this is just one example! She took us on adventures through the city, bought us coffee, showed us all the best places to go, and she would even stop at the most beautiful parts of our drive so we could take pictures.
It is amazing and so humbling how our hosts that we go to serve more often than not pour out so much of their time and love on us. I am learning that is truly what being the church is all about. Not seeing people as just what they can do for you because they have this or that title, whether that be someone in leadership like a pastor, or someone that is serving, but to love all the people around you regardless of the reason they are there with your gifts and what you can do for them. When was the last time that you pursued your pastor or the leaders of your church instead of just waiting for them to pursue you? Even something as simple as getting someone an avocado ice cream (it sounds weird, but it is so good) and being available for people goes such a long way! My time in Vietnam was spent pursuing and being available for our English students and that is my favorite way to do life.
My team broke into smaller groups and helped run English clubs all around the city. We would have up to eight students at each club and we had four different clubs that we would run every day. We taught the students vocabulary and then played games and did acting scenarios to help them practice. We really got to know them and it was so much fun! Our students would let us ride on the back of their motos and they would show us the best places to eat and would go on adventures with us. They took us to climb up mountains, watch fireworks, go to the dragon bridge (that shoots actual fire and water), and we went to the lantern festival with them. As we developed relationships with our students we got to share our stories and the reason that we came. As a result of that we left Vietnam with two new sisters! It was so exciting! I love all of the friends that I made and it was hard to say goodbye to them!
Viet Nam was my last country in Asia and I am in my second month in Europe. Thank you so much for following my journey and for all of your prayers and support! I could not do this without you! I’ll be posting about my European adventures soon.
In Him,
Heidi
