My month in Vietnam began in Ho Chi Minh City for our squad’s month 4 debrief. We spent a few days debriefing the last two months of ministry, resting, and getting to spend time with our leadership team and the rest of the squad. Our second team changes were also initiated at month 4 debrief, and I was asked to continue team leading for the new team I would get at debrief. I had just finished my first season team leading the Lunachicks, and I was challenged spiritually and emotionally as a team leader. I was battling performance mentality, pride, and my ability to lead a team well. In addition to the personal and relational challenges, my team and I had just finished our month in Indonesia, where we faced several miscommunications and difficult conversations with our host that left me feeling worn out. I arrived at debrief tired and ready for any sort of break from community and the Race as a whole. Over the next four days of debrief, I painfully began to work through my sin of pride and people-pleasing. I was learning more about myself and more about God’s unending grace for me in the midst of my sin, and I was even more tired and worn out. I was preoccupied with what the Lord was trying to work out in me that I didn’t have any excitement for a new team and I didn’t spend any time in prayer for them. So, beginning ministry in Vietnam, I had little to no expectations for what ministry would look like or how my new team would develop.
After debrief, my new team-The Rhodashians!-hopped on a 15 hour train ride from Ho Chi Minh City to Tam Ky, our new ministry location where we met our host, Julia, for the first time. Julia is Vietnamese, but she lived and raised her family in Florida, and moved back to Vietnam to be a missionary. She is a spitfire, a truth teller, so caring, and full of personality. After arriving, she announced that we would be heading to her house for the weekend before starting ministry the next week. We didn’t realize that her house was 2.5 hours away in the jungle of Vietnam. Julia and her husband, Tim, live in a conservative 4-wall home and run a farm on the side of their mountain where they teach local village people to raise chickens and farm the land for a living. They spent the weekend resting with us, serving us, showing us their farm, and getting to know us as a team. After knowing Julia for just two days, I felt peace in her presence and I felt at rest. She spoke so much encouragement and prophesied that God had something really good in store for our new team. I cried, right there at the dinner table. I felt cared for and I felt invested in; the opposite of how my previous team and I felt the month before in Indonesia.
When the weekend was over, we headed back to Tam Ky and began ministry at PoPoDoo English Center (it is pronounced poo-poo-doo, and there is no explanation as to why because it doesn’t translate in English. We laughed A LOT about the name). Vietnam is a closed country, so it is illegal to be a missionary. As a missionary team, we were not allowed to tell anyone why we were actually there, and we were not allowed to talk about God or Jesus with anyone. Fortunately, Julia has created a close relationship with the director of the center, so Julia provides native English speakers to the center via the World Race and other missionary organizations. This gives Julia credibility with the school, and she gets to build relationships with the staff and teachers in hopes to share the gospel with them, long after missionary teams are gone. Even though we weren’t able to share the gospel outright, it was a privilege to be able to support Julia and her ministry in the way that we could. My team spent our days teaching 3-14 year-olds English. We each had our own classrooms, and I really enjoyed getting to be in charge of a classroom, singing and dancing with the children, and getting them to laugh with silly English games (to all my teacher friends at home- YOU ARE AMAZING).
About once a week, Julia would come back to Tam Ky to spend a day off with us. She made herself at home with our team, and was just another one of us, and I loved it! I am so thankful for the goodness of God this month and for the goodness of Julia for being such a caring host and my World Race mom. I came to Vietnam pretty weary, with low expectations for what God was going to do. But through Julia, He lifted me up, and once again showed me that His plan is to constantly blow my expectations of what He is able to do, and what He will do. Julia was an answer to prayer that I was too exhausted to pray for, but God knows what we need. She calls us her daughters, I call her my Vietnamese Dream.
