What do you know about Vietnam? Before coming here, I pretty much knew nothing about this country. But after spending only four days in this country, I am blown away.
This month, we are staying in a very nice hostel with real showers!! A big step up from bucket showers in India and Nepal.
Let me tell you about my day yesterday to give you an overview of what life will look like this next month…
Early morning rise around 6am to have quiet time and a prayer walk on the beach. (By prayer walk I mean praying and walking along the beach – nothing fancy).
Came back to the hostel around 8am and enjoyed the free breakfast that they provide which consisted of eggs, toast with pineapple and strawberry jam, a banana, dragon fruit, pineapple, and coffee. Brandon and Nick (two of my teammates) joined me for breakfast. Nick asked me to have a 1 on 1 later that morning (intentional time together to get to know members of your squad. Our squad does this practice very often).
Next we went to the beach! Jacob, McKenzie, Brandon and I walked the ten minutes to the beach and jumped in the water. The weather is so beautiful here and the water temperature is perfect. We only got scared for a few minutes when we saw a huge jellyfish coming through the waves. (Pretty common in this body of water).
Nick came and we took a walk and talked about life and the Father and what we have been learning on the Race. And then he tried to climb a coconut tree. Maybe after a bit more practice he will be more successful.
Krystal and Eric joined us and we all went to have lunch together and do team time (team time is something we do everyday. It is intentional time together as a team to check in with one another and also have adventures together. Sometimes team time is a worship session and sometimes it is going to a lantern festival).
We all ate some AMAZING street food together and set spiritual goals for the month. Mine was to read through three books I have been struggling to finish in the New Testament. Also as a team we decided to memorize a Scripture verse together. We chose Romans 12:9-13.
We then came back to the hostel and prayed for one another as a team for some of our family and friends back home. Praying as a team is seriously a beautiful thing.
McKenzie and I then went to rinse off all the sand we had acquired from the beach and change so we could go to ministry for the first time! Our shift is from 3-6pm with Jacob. We sit in a coffee shop and talk with university students who want to improve their English.
We biked to the coffee shop (as we will every day) but Jacob ended up going too fast and the chain on his bike fell off. We pulled over and some men sitting outside of store saw our struggles and came over to help. They didn’t speak any English but they successfully got the chain back on with no problem! They even found Jacob soap and water to wash his hands because he had tried to fix it and touched the greasy chain. It was so cool getting help from strangers who expected nothing in return and don’t even speak our language.
We finally got to ministry and spent the next three hours making friends and helping students learn English. I have a whole lot more friends on facebook now and it’s only been one day so far! I am excited to see what G0d is going to do with this ministry and I pray He gives us opportunities to share about Him. (I will give more details about our ministry in a different blog).
After ministry we went to eat at a place one of the students suggested for us. We were not disappointed at all. Seriously, I have yet to encounter Vietnamese food I don’t like.
We biked back and then decided to have a Bible study together with Eric and Krystal while the other part of our team went into their shift at the coffee shop. We read through Romans 5:1-5 and were just blown away by G0d’s goodness and grace that He gives us. He also gives us hope since He gave His son to die on the cross for us. And we don’t deserve any of it!!! FAITH is all we have to bring to the table. Faith that J3sus did die on the cross for us. Faith that He rose again. Faith that He loves us and that He died for us so we could live eternally with Him. Wow. Just wow.
After that it was shower and bed around 9:30pm. Every day will look somewhat different but this will be roughly our schedule during our month in Nam. So grateful that the L0rd has brought me here and so grateful for my team!
Here is a picture of us biking back from ministry in Nam! Over the dragon bridge!
