For the past month, the Lord has had Greg and I working in Da Nang, Vietnam. It’s such a beautiful and vibrant city, but the most beautiful thing about Da Nang is the people here. The kindness we have felt from them is something that we will never forget.
This month, our main ministry was building relationships with locals that we met, living life alongside them, all while sharing Christ’s love with them. This looked like getting together multiple times a week with university students in cafes and restaurants to teach them English, play games and joke around with each other, and just share our stories with one another. This evolved into riding around town with our new friends to try out local restaurants, going to the beach & camping trips together, praying for each other, and worshiping alongside each other and sharing our testimonies.
Our ministry host at the beginning of the month read 1 Thessalonians 2:8 over our team, and I could not think of a better verse to summarize what our ministry looked like this month.
“We cared so deeply that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our own lives as well. That is how beloved you have become to us.”
Other times during the month, when we weren’t pouring into the relationships with our university friends, we would spend our mornings (from about 5:30am-10:30am) walking around our neighborhood and local beach, praying for God to lead us to the people that He wanted us to meet and engage with. And man, did He lead us to some amazing people! One of our new friends was a teacher and her adorable children, who we would meet every other morning at a nearby fitness park and then head to a cafe together after our morning work-out to share snacks over sweet conversations. Another friend we made was a young man who owned a neighborhood cafe that we frequented, and we loved talking with him every morning while he shared with us his passions and taught us all about Vietnamese cuisine. He eventually started coming with us to English club and also came along for our camping trip! One of our dearest friends during our time in Vietnam was a young man who recently became a Christian after interacting with a previous World Race team in Da Nang. He came alongside our team this past month as we built relationships and shared our faith with our new Vietnamese friends, and it was amazing to see how passionate he was about his changed life in Christ!
As we were saying our goodbyes to our new friends at the end of our time in Da Nang, one of the university students came up to me and said, “Alyssa, I am going to miss you and the attractive light that you have about yourself. I was just drawn to you right when we met!.” I was taken aback by her sweet comment, but then I realized that that light is not my own, that light is Christ within me. As believers, we all have that light within us, and if we let God use us to love others like He calls us to love, that light shines bright enough for the whole world to see.
Ephesians 5:8-9
“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)”
Thanks for reading and enjoy a recap video of our month below!
