I have gone all month without an explanation of where I’m staying, what I’m doing, and how exactly I am living. And by the time you are reading this, I’ll be one day shy of crossing borders into Cambodia (which also means my blog won’t have to be password protected).
If you didn’t see yet, team Sea Salt did ATL this month which stands for “ask the Lord” and means we got to decide what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go. Right now, I am in Ho Chi Minh City for yet another mini debrief to gather as a squad for a few days to process our first month with a new team, and say goodbye to our much loved alumni squad leaders (Amy, Rob, and Courtnie) because they will be going back to the good ol’ USA real soon.
As briefly as I can, here’s a recap of what’s been going down in ‘Nam.
Week 1:
I lived in Vung Tao, Vietnam. I stayed in a hostel. We taught English in a nearby community center in exchange for free housing and food.
Above: Street view in Vung Tao
Above: Beach in Vung Tao
Week 2:
I lived in the capital—Hanoi. Our home was another hostel. This week I struggled with transitioning from African culture/lifestyle to Asian culture/lifestyle. I guess that’s what we call culture shock. It is, for lack of a better word, weird to go from living SO simply with not a lot to living comfortably—and one might argue luxurious—like we do in America. I also struggled because I felt very useless since we didn’t find a specific ministry or church to partner with, and I felt like I wasn’t doing enough. I felt like a failure to my supporters and a failure to the goals I had set for myself at the beginning of this race. Khurry has reminded me over and over again that I’m not a failure because of this, so I’m still working on trying to believe that.
Above: We sang Christmas carols outside of this church/nativity scene display
Week 3:
I traveled to Sapa, Vietnam. I didn’t want to go. This trip required some extra, personal money costs outside of what I fundraised, and it was also a physically demanding trek. But I went anyway.
As I’ve said many times now, I’m in a closed country where evangelism is illegal and talking about Jesus outside of your church building can put you behind bars. For three days and two nights, we trekked through small villages in the hills/mountains/forests/rice paddies that make up Sapa, Vietnam. We stayed at a homestay the first night and played cards in the common area.
First of all, I wanna say that you meet a lot of different people at hostels. So many people travel alone from all over the world, so they’re very willing to just randomly join a group of people hanging out or playing cards. I got to meet people from Australia, India, Czech Republic, Germany, and France in these 3 days. A woman from India sitting with us noticed something was different about my team- and not because of the way we talked or looked. She mustered up the courage to ask me why it is that we were willing to leave our families and jobs and everything behind to travel to the other side of the world. I shot a nervous glance at Austin who proceeded to say “send it” which was my cue that his discretion had deemed it safe to spill the truth. “It’s Jesus,” I told her. “Jesus is why I’m here.”
By no means am I done wrestling with the feelings of uselessness during ATL, but these few days I got to witness how ATL can be used to reach people in every day type conversations and encounters.
Above: These 3 women (along with our guide) helped us trek during day 1
Above: The views in Sapa were absolutely breathtaking
Above: The ladies of team Sea Salt
Week 4:
As you can see by now, we’ve done A LOT of constant hopping around from place to place. Our fourth destination was Halong Bay, Vietnam. This is where we spent Christmas. I lived on the 7th floor of a little apartment in a quiet area. This trip was considered our adventure day, which we normally get 1 per week, but we compiled them into a clump at the end before we came to Ho Chi Minh. We got to celebrate Christmas as a team here and take a boat tour which included seeing the islets, exploring caves, kayaking, and taking a (chilly) dip in the water at the beach.
Above: Christmas breakfast
Above: Jeff bought us a cake for Christmas
With love,
Hals
