So we knew that ‘ministry’ was going to look different in
Vietnam as it is a closed nation, which means that bad things could happen to
us or to anyone with us if people knew we were talking about God. My team was
excited for an opportunity to show the love of Christ and not just talk about
it. So, while in Cambodia (if you remember the White Board blog) we made a
bucket list of things to do. Among it were two that I want to share with you.
#1 – Offer to wash dishes at a restaurant.
While the Tet holiday was going on, much of Hanoi was shut
down, so we ended up at this one restaurant that was open for all necessary
meals and for the unnecessary meal of dessert as they served a mean Apple
Crumble.
After maybe our third or fourth day in town, a Garrett and I
stopped by to ask if we could do their dishes. Providentially, the restaurant
manager was there (we’d never seen him there before) so we sat down with him
and tried to convey in about 7 different ways that we were offering to help out
for free. After about 15 minutes he looked very excited and started to shake
our hands.
We came back an hour or so later, ready to work. Asian
culture is all about honor- we could tell that our friends were honored by our
offer and also wanted to honor us. We attempted to serve tables, take orders,
work the bar, make food in the kitchen. Honestly I’m not sure how successfully
we did any of these things, but at the least it amused our co-workers and their
customers. We got tons of questions from feasting foreigners about who we were
and what the heck we were doing. People come to Hanoi to party and to see the
sights. They were a bit astounded that we came here to do this, but honestly I
think everyone should try it.
A couple of the workers spoke enough English for us all to communicate.
Others did not speak any English, but would exchange things with us, or make
faces, or just do charades patiently until we all got somewhere.
The first day, our friend invited us all upstairs for
authentic Vietnamese food. (We were being served the same lunch that the family
of workers ate.) As she piled more rice and beef and veggies into my bowl, she
asked me ‘Carrie, you know war?’
‘Yes.’
‘The war between America and Vietnam?’
‘Yes.’
‘I sorry.’
I told her I was sorry too and just sat awed that in this place, a restaurant kitchen on a third story in Hanoi, reconciliation happens.
We ended up hanging out/volunteering with them for the rest
of the time we were in Hanoi. We took a couple of them to go see ‘Tangled’ at
the movies. They in turn bought us local street food of Pho. We made them
Valentines. We had multiple photo shoots.
I was very blessed by these friends and will miss my time as a waitress with them.
#2 – Plant 200 scripture rocks and take pictures.
We more like planted 30 scripture rocks and took two hundred
pictures- but that’s okay. Someone gave us this idea as a way of letting the
word of God be known in a really subtle way. I found this
suggestion delightful and ironic especially because Jesus talks about ‘even the
rocks will cry out’ in Luke 19.
We wrote scriptures and references on rocks and hid them
(very inconspicuously, I might add) all around the park. The rest of our time
in Hanoi we took note that many of the rocks went missing. Not sure if they
were confiscated by guards or if curious people took them home… not sure, but
excited either way.
