Holy wow. I blinked and my time in Vietnam disappeared! We leave on Monday and head to Cambodia for debrief. We will be getting team changes and 3 people from our squad will be raised up as squad leaders, so it’s going to be a busy, yet super exciting time!
We’ve done so much this little month, but just to recap on what’s been going on here in Da Nang; we got to work on making Grinch masks and little cards to hand out to the kids for the production. The theme this year is “How the Grinch Found Christmas.” Super cute, and we get to dress up like Whos. Some of the teammates got out their makeup skills and turned us into Whos already. Day to day life looks like choir practice, English clubs, just hanging out with locals, eating traditional food which I’ll drop right here so you can have a taste of Vietnam in your kitchen:
https://www.196flavors.com/vietnam-pho-soup/ – Pho is amazing!!
https://thatrecipe.com/blog/2016/08/23/chua-vietnamese-carrot-daikon-radish-pickles/
https://kitchenconfidante.com/traditional-vietnamese-iced-coffee-ca-phe-sua-da-recipe – the coffee that Vietnam is known for! So yummy.
We’ve helped home school some missionary kids, which is the easiest part of my week besides my off days. I’ve helped with Sunday School for some little tykes and will help with worship this coming Sunday (which will equal my 3rd time singing in front of a crowd. 2 of the other times were on the Race as well.) I also taught a CPR class at a deaf school that a missionary couple run, I honestly never thought I’d be using my EMT skills this much on the Race but it’s come in handy plenty of times. It’s reignited my passion for medical work and more info later on what I want to do after the Race. 😉
Our adventure days consisted of renting motorbikes and driving to Ba Na Hills. Locals were shocked to hear that we rented them on our 3rd day in Asia. Our squad leader neither encouraged nor discouraged it, so, that meant yes. It was such a beautiful ride and we all stayed safe and LOVED riding motos. It actually was super easy, you just have to be confident. But Ba Na Hills was my favorite place. It was so gorgeous and God just painted every piece of Vietnamese nature so perfectly.
We hiked Marble Mountain with some new friends, explored some caves, and it was one of the sweatiest days of my life. We were drenched, we felt like we could reach up and touch the sun.
We also took a trip over to Hoi An for a lantern festival after a day of baking Thanksgiving treats!
Thanksgiving was spent at our host’s home with some friends, very American style food that included turkey and stuffing PRAISE THE LORD I WAS GONNA CRY I WAS SO HAPPY. Plus I made the best brownies I have ever tasted in my entire life. Not to be biased.
On a more serious subject, most of the people of Da Nang have never even heard of Jesus and the Gospel, and when they get a taste of it they want to know more. God is moving through this country and we’re praying that the people will be receptive to hearing and acknowledging the truth. They are the kindest people you will ever meet, ever. And I just love them so much. They’ll do anything to help you and go out of their way for you. I encourage everyone to come visit and serve here. The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few! Please keep praying for the country of Vietnam and the missionaries and locals here. Pray that they will find hope in Jesus and that the country is radically changed for the Lord. God has taught me so many things here in Vietnam, and I’ll fill you in on a deeper blog post later. Even though I had some bad days here, and most of the time was spent in pain, (I went to the doctor, but I’m fine, I’m fine) I still loved it. I love Vietnam.
We spent one very windy afternoon taking family photos 🙂
Mergies, I love each one of you so much! Thanks for the past 4 months.
~Mego
