11 things I learned in Vietnam
1. Find joy where you are
When we first arrived at our ministry site for the month it looked nothing like I expected. I thought we were going to be living right by the beach, teaching sports and music, and maybe (possibly) getting the chance to surf or something like that. I was so wrong. We lived in a small fish town that was a solid car ride away from any city or anyone that spoke English, and we had to specifically schedule those times with our host since the taxis didn’t come all the way where we lived. We also ended up teaching English everyday. The only places we were allowed to be were in our home or at the church. We were told that we couldn’t walk around, especially at night, because we would draw attention to the church (remember that they are not technically supposed to be housing missionaries). I felt trapped. I saw the places that other teams were located, and my immediate response was to be jealous, but I knew immediately that I had a choice. I could choose to be bitter or I could choose to find joy with where I was. I am so thankful that God revealed His true joy to me that month. I found so much joy in the relationships built with the church members and kids. Any of the difficult situations just started to seem funny. Now I can say that I love the little fishing town outside of Vung Tau. I love that I would wake up to the same stinking rooster or the heard of cows walking by our gate. I love that we sang karaoke at a little hut cafe with our host family. I love that I got to see the same kids everyday and tell them how much they were loved by me and their Father. I loved teaching English to the adult students and just laughing when even Google translate couldn’t help us get the point across. God changed my heart from how I originally felt about my time in Vietnam, and I’m so thankful for that.
2. I am a human jungle gym
The church that we lived by was home to about 10 or so children. These kids were there so they didn’t get forced into child labor in the fishing industry. Anytime we went over to the church for any reason, you could expect that the kids would find you immediately. Want to get some finance work or blogging done? Well then you better expect to do this with several eyes watching over your shoulder and at least one set of hands playing with your hair. You could also expect to be tugged around and hugged by multiple children at a time. The hugging and tugging gradually turned into hanging and jumping on, and let me tell you: these kids have some impressive acrobatic skills.
3. Never turn down cà phê s?a dá
I was told that the coffee in Vietnam was very different than in America, but I had no idea what to expect. I tried it for the first time in a mall while we were buying groceries, and was not so sure how I felt about it. The only way I can explain Vietnamese coffee (cà phê s?a dá in Vietnamese) is that they fill your cup about an inch full of condensed milk, then add an inch of SUPER thick (almost burnt tasting) black coffee, and then fill the entire cup overflowing with ice. Have you ever tried something that seems gross but then the more you taste it the more you like it? That’s exactly what happened to my team with ca fe sua da. Our host would offer it to us the in middle of english class and we would gladly accept. Sometimes we would linger around the church just hoping to hear them ask if we wanted some. It was kinda becoming an addiction in the best way possible. We justified always getting more by saying that it might be the “last cà phê s?a dá” ever. Spoiler: they also have it in Cambodia, so I haven’t had to part with it yet.
4. Rhythms are important
One of our squad leaders introduced us to the idea of finding and sticking to rhythms in our life. Creating the discipline of having consistent rhythms in your life allows you to feel grounded in times of change. So what better time to work on this than when you’re life and living situation is changing every month? I decided to really focus on this in Vietnam. Here’s what my rhythms looked like: reading the Bible, praying, working out, listening to podcasts, listening to sermons, getting caught up on treasurer duties, and communicating with family and friends back home. I talked about these rhythms with my team and put them up on the wall by my bed, and this allowed us to hold each other accountable for our rhythms. In the past I’ve felt like I had to do all the right things to be a “good Christian.” To avoid falling back into that feeling, I made sure to give myself grace if I wasn’t able to do everything every week. Finding that balance of finding discipline, but not allowing my discipline to determine my identity, has been a great learning experience for me.
5. Google translate is our best friend
In every country so far we have had multiple people around us that can speak English (at least enough to get each other’s points across). Like I mentioned earlier, absolutely no one in our little Vung Tau fish town spoke English. Here’s an example: one time I asked a shop owner if there was a bathroom. After a long blank stare, she held up six fingers like she was telling me the price of something. I’m still curious what she wanted to sell me that sounded like the word “toilet” to her. This language barrier was also the source of funny conversations with our hosts. Needless to say, there were several unofficial games of charades played everyday. We ended up relying heavily on Google translate to help us communicate. Unfortunately, there were still times when Google translate didn’t do the trick. Apparently the words “picnic” and “camping” are interchangeable on Google translate, as well as “beat up” and “dissipate.”
6. Fundraising is a blessing
I’m going to let you in on a little secret: fundraising makes me SO uncomfortable. I don’t really like asking people for help, and it’s even harder when it’s related to money. Throughout this whole fundraising process God has been teaching me that I can’t to this on my own. I’ve learned that trying to do everything on my own is prideful, and He has humbled me so much by all of your donations. Let me tell you about the amazing things God (and you guys!) did last month. At the beginning of December I had raised a total of $11,697 and was short of my deadline by $1,303. I was told that I had until the end of the year to raise this money to stay on the field, and I wasn’t really sure how this would happen. By the end of December I had not only met the $13,000 deadline, but had somehow raised a total of $15,989. That means that you all donated $4,292 in one month, more than double of any other month of support so far. WHAT! Not to mention, that about $2,000 of that money was donated in a 24 hour span. You guys completely blew me away by your generosity, and I am so so so grateful for each of you, whether I know you dearly or you are a complete stranger. Thank you! Through fundraising God has shown me how everything is perfect in His timing, and I can truly see that now.
7. Finding comfort in a mall
Okay, everyone can remember the days of being in middle school, where you were too young to drive but old enough to want to hang out with your friends away from your parents. You would have your mom or dad drop you off at the mall, and promise to be back at a certain time to head back home. It may have only been a few hours that you weren’t supervised, but MAN did it feel freeing! All of those feelings were so real for us this month. Since our ability to leave our house was limited we found so much comfort in going to the mall. Our pastor would drop us off outside the Lottemart and we were greeted by the loud beats of blasting music at the front doors. After we danced our way into the mall we would usually eat “American” food and get a bubble tea as we shopped in the bookstore or watched a movie. It was such a simple thing that you are able to do all the time in America, but if felt like such a fun stay-cation for us in Vietnam.
8. Always say yes to dance parties
Everyday of our first week in Vung Tau the kids asked us if we could have a dance party. After we put it off for several days, they finally dragged us upstairs one evening. Honestly, I really didn’t want to do it. As we get up to the roof we see that they had already brought up the speaker, and they were surrounding us requesting songs. The language barrier made it difficult to understand what they were asking, so they would usually have to sing (mumble) whatever song they wanted. We realized that they were requesting Cotton Eye Joe, and as it started playing they all ran into a formation and busted out a choreographed dance. It was SO cute and hilarious. I immediately got into my camp counselor mode and taught them how to do the dance to Footloose (throwback to camp dances at Camp Allen). Some of their other favorites were Cupid Shuffle, YMCA, Macarena, Cha Cha Slide, We Don’t Talk Anymore, I like You (shout out to Ben Rector), and Faded (this song will forever make me think of those kids). That night on the roof was one of my favorite nights on the World Race so far. We had several more dance parties over the month, and it was a huge way we were able to connect with them even though we spoke different languages. In our last few minutes before leaving Vung Tau we had one final dance party with the kids. It was a sweet way to celebrate the time together and friendships built. One of the best “goodbyes” we’ve had on the race so far.
9. Intimacy is to proceed fruitfulness
When I was in Nepal I didn’t do a great job of having quiet times, but I was still praying that the Spirit would move in big ways there. I didn’t really see the spirit move as much as I was hoping for that month. Now I realize how thankful I am that God didn’t answer that prayer to see the Spirit move in big ways. I am thankful because I don’t want my faith to be based on these expereinces I witness, because that will lead to a lack of faith when the memory of the experiences fade. My faith should be growing due to the consistent quality time spent in God’s presence. If I am consistently seeking quality time in His presence, then I know where my identity lies and I won’t lose faith when facing challenges. In the book “Spiritual Lavery to Spiritual Sonship” it talks about the Great Commandment needing to come before the Great Commission. Intimacy is to proceed fruitfulness. This hit me hard. I had been praying for the Father’s fruit, but how was I supposed to see that to it’s full potential if I didn’t first seek the Father? So instead of asking for God to do huge things in my life, I’ve been asking God to continue to reveal truths to me about Him and myself.
10. “Same same” is the same as “xem xem”
One of the funny things we knew about Vietnam is that they say “same same” anytime they are saying something is in fact similar. It is such a common thing there that they literally sell shirts with the phrase on it. We used this phrase probably 5 times a day when we were teaching English. For example, they didn’t understand what “beautiful” meant, but they knew what “pretty” meant. So we would tell them “beautiful and pretty, same same.” On the second to last day of teaching I wrote “synonym = same same” on the board. Our student, Lam, came up to the board and erased it. He then wrote “synonym = xem xem” and said it was Vietnamese. This was the funniest revelation for us. Literally all month we had been saying this phrase that we thought was English, but it turns out that it was Vietnamese words that just sounded like English words. Now I’m glad I didn’t buy the “same same” shirt I wanted.
11. Life is an adventure if you say yes
Like I mentioned before, the lack of communication led to very funny situations this month. There were times that the pastor would tell us to meet to do something, but we had no idea what we were meeting for. Sometimes we would be leaving in the car to go somewhere and trying to guess where we were going to end up. Here’s 2 times where this happened to us:
Story 1: It was 6am on Christmas Eve and we had just finished morning prayer at the church. As we were trying to leave to go home they told us to get in the back of the truck instead. We asked where we were going, and they just told us the name of our pastor. We asked if we needed to change clothes (since we were basically still in our PJs) and they told us no. We asked if we needed to get money and they just laughed and told us to get in the truck. As we rode in the truck to a mystery location we talked about how this could be how we become part of the movie “Taken.” Well it turns out that the pastor and the rest of the church community had met at a local street restaurant and wanted us to join. We had Christmas Eve pho for breakfast, and they all taught us how to properly season our food and eat with chop sticks. It was a blast!
Story 2: Hillarie and I decided to go grocery shopping while the rest of the team went back to our translator’s house. As we finished shopping our translater gave us an address to give to our taxi driver. Then, she told us to go to the specific gate number and ring the bell. Those were the instructions we got, and we couldn’t get ahold of her or any of our teammates again. We carried all of our grocery bags in the rain and rang the bell at the gate. A few minutes later a really old lady opened the gate and ushered us in without saying a word. It reminded me of the scene in Harry Potter 7 where Bathilda Bagshot leads Harry and Hermione into the house without speaking (except way less creepy). Then, she led us into a room with a bed and made us sit down. She kept pointing at the folded sheets in the corner, so I helped her make the bed. She gave us a pillow and wouldn’t leave until we laid down. Hillarie and I just laid there, laughing to ourselves, and continued to try to contact our team. Two hours later our translator walked in and told us this was her house. She told us that the rest of our team was just upstairs napping. We were cracking up at the idea of thinking we were in a stranger’s house just resting, and it turns out the rest of our team was there all along.
Fundraising Update:
Thanks to all of you, I am now about 96% funded. WHAT!!!! I am just $727 away from being FULLY FUNDED. If you would like to help me reach my final goal, click the “Support me” link to the left. All donations are tax deductible.
