A lot has happened over the last 2 weeks. I’m no longer in Africa. I’m living in Vietnam—which by the way is SOOOO different than any place I’ve been the last 4 months. I have a new team (see THIS blog for more on that). And this is the first time I have not been assigned a specific organization and ministry host. Everything is new. There’s so much I have on my mind, and I don’t know how to share it all yet.
Team Sea Salt is cruisin’ the ATL which means “ask the Lord” (maybe you got the reference I just made to an Outkast song or maybe not haha). Our ministry this month is ATL. As a team, we decide where we want to go and what we want to do with the only guidelines being that we must stay within Vietnam and stay within our allocated budget.
I don’t feel like I’ve had the time to process everything that’s happening within me and around me. I went from living in cement houses with no AC or window screens. I’ve slept on couch cushions and tile floors and inside a tent. I’ve drank dirty water (but didn’t get sick praise God). I’ve gone days without bathing and embraced the stank. I’ve cooked my meals over a fire and ate the same thing days in a row because we didn’t have an option (haha we literally had just bread for lunch one day in Zambia).
And now I’m in Asia. Living with easy access to wifi. A nice and comfy bed with AC in the room. The water might not be drinkable from the tap still in some areas, but it stays on 24/7 and I don’t have to shower from a bucket. There’s washing machines. I have electricity all day long—not just half the day. I have a variety of food to choose from, and living in a hostel means I don’t even have to cook it myself.
Honestly? I’m feeling guilty. I guess my perception of the race was that for the whole 11 months, I’d be living extremely simply which sometimes would mean uncomfortably. And I had accepted that as my reality. But now that’s not the case. I went from poverty to plush abruptly in a matter of 3 days. Couple that feeling with the insane unknown of ATL and it really messes with your head.
I’ve felt a little useless here in Vung Tao/Hanoi just living my everyday life and nothing else yet. Maybe the Lord is just trying to teach me that he is present even in the everyday, normal routines of life. I don’t have to be connected to an official organization to experience Him. I don’t have to have a host family to continue growing. I simply just need God, and I can find Him even in the small things.
There’s really no revelation I’m trying to make in this blog or an overarching principle I am trying to teach. These are just purely my thoughts that I’m inviting you into. Thanks for reading and allowing me the space to think it all through with the Lord and with you guys.
With love,
Hals
