In month two of the race I gained a deeper understanding of what it means to walk in freedom. I learned that in my life right now walking in freedom doesn’t look like breaking free of chains of any sort of addictions or lies or things of my past. But it looks like walking in constant praise and thanksgiving of God and his goodness. Walking in freedom means walking in joy and peace and acknowledging the power of Christ in my life and praising him for all that He is and all that He’s done for me.
I’m now well into month 4, and let me tell you the race is hard. It’s not always easy to choose joy or to choose to thank God when you fall asleep to the sounds of rats scampering beneath your plywood bunk bed and to the potent smell of mildew. Joy and thankfulness don’t easily become your first choice when ministry is shoveling manure into a compost pile, or when you’ve had your 100th miscommunication with your contact in a single day. A few days into our month here in Vietnam the lesson God taught me back in Thailand echoed in my head. Right about the same time God put Trang in my life. A woman who was walking so well in the things I’m learning to.
Trang is an employee at Donkey Bakery, our ministry site for the month. It’s a delicious Western bakery and sewing shop that is completely run by the disabled community of Hanoi. Trang sat down next to me one day and I think she may have said 2 or 3 sentences before she asked me if “I wanted to hear her testimony” I was totally shocked, I came into this month, a closed country, not thinking I would speak the name of Jesus but only show his love in action. But here I was on day 4 hearing the story of what God has done in the life of a disabled Vietnamese woman.
Trang has schizophrenia, she has one arm and one leg, and the hand she does still have is deformed. But the crazy thing about Trang is that she doesn’t let these physical and mental disabilities define her but she allows them to demonstrate just how good God is and because of that He is effortlessly glorified in her. When she tells her story she explains over and over again how God has been so good to her, how much He has blessed her, and she praises Him for the gifts He’s given her. Trang radiates beauty. Her pure love of Jesus and the way she constantly walks in genuine joy, peace, and praise has been such an encouragement to me to remember my own freedom and to walk in it the same way.
Trang is an amazing woman of God, He’s given her beauty that’s worth more than anything in this world. Her heart for the Lord has encouraged and empowered me to continue the next seven months of this journey. She told me the other day “ I never get tired of doing work for God, He always fills me up. And it’s the only work that really satisfies me.” It’s as if the Lord spoke straight through Trang to me in those words. Thanks to the faith of a Vietnamese woman, I’ve been reminded of why I’m doing the world race and now I’m so ready for month 5.
