Greetings from Vietn@m!
My team and I arrived in the country Friday and immediately started working with our contact. This month we are teaching English to groups of affluent children as well as children in a poorer section of the country. Although Vietn@m is a creative access country (it is illegal to share the g0spel), our host is explaining ways we can show Chr1st while working with our kiddos.
I’ll be posting blogs and videos about Vietn@m and what m1n1stry looks like in a creative access country throughout the next weeks, but I also wanted to share an experience in Nepal that challenged the way I view difficult situations that don’t seem to have any resolution.
About ten days before leaving Nepal, half my squad and I traveled to two mountain villages to encourage Chr1st1ans and to pr@y over the valleys.
While in the mountains, our team explored a cave, hiked almost daily for pr@yer, woke up to the outline of snowcapped Himalayas, and had pr@yer time on the banks of rivers. Being surrounded by God’s artwork has been incredibly refreshing, and I find G0d using these masterpieces to speak with me.
When we were in the cave, our guide led us up rocks and paths that American cave companies probably wouldn’t deem safe for tourists. At one resting point, everyone inside the cave turned their headlamps off and we waited in the dark.
Two minutes felt like half an hour. Even if I had my hand an inch away from my face it was impossible to see. The absolute darkness and silence felt thick as if it was pressing around us.
From this darkness one person turned their headlamp back on, and the cave illuminated.
When I saw this, I realized there are many situations we categorize as hopeless or lost, but if we would be brave enough to bring just one glimmer of G0d’s hope to them, the darkness would flee.
When people think about countries like India where there is persecution against Christians, or Vietn@m where it is illegal to share the g0spel, it is easy to label m1n1stry as hopeless, but G0d calls each of us to bring His g0spel into those dark places.
One small light casts so much hope that we cannot afford to forget its power.
I challenge supporters in the United States to think about the areas in your life you have deemed as hopeless. I challenge you to pr@y daily for the impossible in whatever the situation, because your pr@yer is heard and could be the one act that turns darkness into light.
