This is the second time I’ve written this blog, just as I finished it the first time, I accidently deleted it. Just goes to show, the Devil didn’t want this written! Here’s to hoping this one works out.
I fell in love with Vietnam at first sight, the lights were so bright, people were so kind, and the food was incredible. However, it’s a country that does not support Christianity. It is not illegal to be a Christian, but you are not allowed to preach to the locals. The majority of the people here are Buddhist and worship false “God’s”.
On our first adventure day, we were taken to a mountain that had multiple statues of different God’s, I started feeling really dizzy just looking at them. The main one is referred to as “Lady Buddha” she stands at 220ft tall and is the Mother of Vietnam. She was put there to keep a watchful eye on Vietnam and it’s occupants. Supporting her from all sides are more statues of strange animal/human creations. After a while of being here, I started to feel real heavy so I sat down, pulled out my Bible, and read Psalm 33. As I was putting my Bible away, a young lady came and sat next to me and started talking to me. This gave me a chance to find out more about the God’s. She told me that ever statue there depicts a God of different things, you pray to each one for different things; fertility, wealth, happiness, etc. We talked about her life and my life, in a very short time she became my friend. As she walked away, it hit me she WORSHIPS these false Gods, she doesn’t believe in the one TRUE God. This girl that is so full of life and love…what happens to her when she dies? I pray that she finds her way to God.
The second time I experienced spiritual heaviness was when we explored Marble Mountain. MM overlooks the beach where American soilders would hang out during the war, so the Vietnamese soliders would use the highest peaks of MM to spy on them. My Grandpa fought in Vietnam, so I was already feeling heavy because of that. But as we started exploring, I realized that was being used as another buddhist temple of worship and where we started was what the Buddhist know as the 18 levels of Hell. Basically, what the Buddhist believe is that there is a different level for every sin so you go to the level that coincides with your sin. We kept walking deeper into the depths of “hell” and saw some pretty disturbing statues. For me personally, the worst was where children go when they disobey their parents. There were statues of children being murdered my tiny devils…because they disobeyed their parents. I was drawn to these kids, so I stood there and prayed for the children that are subjected to this belief. After I opened my eyes, there was a spider on one of the children’s heads. Naturally, I was grossed out, but I decided to do my research about what spiders mean in Christianity and learned that Isaiah says that they “weave the spider’s web” or that their works and designs are, like the spider’s web, vain and useless. I feel like God is comforting my heart and reminding me that no matter what Buddhist believe, God is holding his children tight. Their designs are useless. We kept walking and came across a HUGE statue of smiling Buddha’s son, I learned that he is the Guard of Hell and decides when people go to Hell or get out. As I was looking at him, I saw a lady worship this peace of marble. My heart broke, I wanted to hug her and tell her that her true Father loves her dearly and wants her to come home, that no matter what she does, she will always be loved and wanted by Him.
Please pray for the people that are lost, pray that they find their way back home to their true Father. Please pray that I’m able to get the funding so that I can continue to discover other people way’s of living and continue to fall in love with strangers. I feel God is not ready for me to leave, and if you feel God is leading you to donate, please consider making a donation!
