Xin Chao (Hello) from Vietnam! I never thought that I’d go to Vietnam (we’re here because we had a route change), but here I am, and I love it! At the end of our month in Cambodia, we got to spend two nights in a nice hotel in Phenom Penh, Cambodia, and we spent New Years there. I also got to go to a chiropractor there because my back has been hurting really badly. I could barely sit for 10 minutes without feeling like I needed to stand up. I went to an international chiropractic clinic in Cambodia, and the chiropractor was a Frenchman who was trained in America. Normally, I like celebrating New Years, but I was just so tired and my back hurt, so I just watched a movie with one of my teammates. My squad worshipped and had a little party though. Then the next day, we took an eight hour bus ride from Phenom Penh, Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam (southern part of Vietnam). We had a comfy, big bus, and I sat with my old teammate Jake, and it was nice to catch up with him. I had to stand and lay on the floor though for some of it because of my back.
We got to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, and we were told that Ho Chi Minh was where we were going to be staying for the month. It was a really big city with a lot of people and things going on. There were a lot of tourists there. There were many beauty salons/massage parlors, ATMs, shops, and restaurants. It’s cool because many people in the city were wearing those cone bamboo hats that you see in pictures of people in Asia wearing (they wear those throughout Vietnam). We had a couple of free days because we were waiting to hear from the ministry contact as to what our ministry was, so we got to relax, and I was able to go to a chiropractor again. This time the chiropractor was from South Africa. I also was able to get a manicure for only $2. We were in a really nice hotel. It was so nice to have a bed, hot water, and a flushing toilet again, and we also had a fridge, TV, desk, air conditioning, and free WIFI in our room for just me and my teammate. We were amazed! We’ve never had it like that on the race so far. I wish you could’ve climbed the stairs to get to our room though. There were so many stairs- it was the most stairs that I’ve ever climbed to get to a room before. I think it was like 7 flights or something- I counted the steps, and it was about 100 steps. I realized that a lot of buildings in Asia build the buildings really high instead of wide.
We finally were going to be told what we’d be doing for the month, and we got hit with a curveball that our team was actually going to go 8 hours north to Nha Trang, Vietnam to a ministry by the beach that does different things like feeding kids in villages, evangelizing on the beach, and helping churches. It was a surprise to all of us because we had been thinking that we’d be in Ho Chi Minh for the month, but only some teams are staying there. So we took the 8 hour bus ride (it was more like 11 hours), and I seriously found favor from the Lord because the bus we took was a “sleeper bus” which means that you can recline almost all the way and lay down which was perfect for my back. Otherwise it woulda been a really long, painful ride. The bus also had free WIFI which was cool.
So now we are here, and the first thing I noticed was all the beautiful mountains. The beach is also really beautiful too! There’s palm trees too- I never thought that this would be in Vietnam. It is for sure one of the most, if not the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever seen. We walked by a part of the beach, and it was so peaceful and beautiful. There’s another part with more tourists though. I feel really blessed and lucky to be at a beach in January! I heard that in Minnesota they closed the schools today because it was so cold. The beach has a lot of little to medium-sized crabs on it. I’ve never been on a beach with crabs before. We’re living in a cute guesthouse owned by a super cute Vietnamese family. There’s a pastor here and his wife and kids and the grandma. We have pretty much everything we had at the hotel in Ho Chi Minh. The area is right by a university, and some shops and some cafes selling Vietnamese food. They sell some sandwiches here that seem to be pretty popular called Bahn Mi. In Ho Chi Minh so many people spoke English, but people seem to speak very little English here. I think it’s one of the places that speaks the least amount of English that I’ve been to so far, so I’ve been trying to learn a bit of Vietnamese. We went to a Vietnamese Evangelical Church, and it was so cool! It was big and beautiful, and it seemed to have a lot of male elders in the church. There were a lot of people there, and I realized I’ve never been to a church like that with all Asians before. They actually gave us all headphones so that a woman could translate the service for us in English. We had communion which was great. It reminded me of a traditional Lutheran service from back home. My back was hurting a lot sitting in the pews, but I’ve been stretching, strengthening, and icing it, so hopefully it’ll feel better soon. Things are going really good with my team- we all get along and are listening to a sermon series together. We got a new team member named Heather (she’s from Florida) and a new team leader (Michelle) this month.
On Monday, we got some groceries individually, and it was fun to do that and put them in our fridge because I haven’t been able to buy my own groceries and put them in a fridge all race yet. I got to get some milk, bread, and butter which I have missed. On Tuesday, we went to a village, and I spoke to the kids at a Christian school (I’m pretty sure they were in school?) about Jesus using the story in the Bible about the Lost Sheep. I had them do some actions and a little skit too. We later gave them some treats that we had bought. It was confirmed that the message was what the people here need to hear, so I was grateful that God was working through me. On Thursday, we tried a little evangelism at the beach and university. Some on my team talked to some girls and invited them to church, but my teammate and I didn’t talk to anyone really because some of the people we tried to talk to didn’t speak English and a lot of the time we didn’t pass by anyone and a conversations just didn’t really happen. And it was a little confusing since we were told that missionaries aren’t allowed in this country, but they told us to go out, so it must not be that big of a deal. We did pray for the people, city, and country though. We did interact with a couple of fisherman too, and that was fun. I was a little discouraged by how it turned out because we didn’t get to talk to people really, but I know that God is sovereign and that prayer is powerful. On Thursday, we had a day to be with God and pray and listen to a sermon. Yesterday, we went to our ministry contact’s church (he’s a pastor), and we visited a lot of elderly people from the church. We went to their homes and greeted them and gave them some little goodie bags. We then prayed for them. It was so fun visiting the elderly people. They seemed so joyful. We also went to a lot of nearby churches and greeted them and prayed for them too. It was neat being able to see and encourage the nearby churches. They then brought us to this pool/spa thing where we they brought us lunch (it was a yummy rice with seasoning and chicken, greens, and cucumbers, and a basil soup with pepper), but we didn’t go into the pool and the spa part was shut off. We then went to the evening church service, and we sang 2 worship songs, and someone from our team gave a talk. Today is our day off, and I got to skype some of my friends from back home, and it was so nice. We’ve had a lot of free time this month. More than any month so far, and it’s hard sometimes to not think that you should be doing more, but it’s been nice to refresh and spend more time with God since we’re on month 7 now. The family here is so sweet. We live in their guesthouse, and they’re so welcoming. There’s the pastor, and he’s so funny, and his wife, and the grandma and she’s so sweet and cute, and they don’t really speak English, but the two daughters speak some English, and they’re so sweet too. If we’re not with the two daughters, a lot of times things get lost in translation. Like we think they mean something and they don’t. It can be pretty funny what ends up happening. For the past couple of nights, we’ve had to sleep in a nearby hotel because I guess they had to renew their guesthouse license or something, but we just go there to sleep, but we’ll be able to sleep back at their house next week. My back felt good on Thursday, and then felt awful yesterday, but felt better again today. I hope and pray that it gets well soon.
Vietnam had a time period of French rule and Japanese rule. Northern and southern Vietnam were at war in the Vietnam war, and America helped southern Vietnam against the northern communist part. The war ended in 1975. It is currently a socialist country. It reminds me a little more of Thailand than Cambodia as it doesn’t seem to be as poor or have as much litter as Cambodia. Unlike Thailand and Cambodia, Vietnam uses the same letters as us. Thailand and Cambodia have squiggly characters. Also to greet, they shake hands here, and they don’t do the putting the hands straight together near the chin and bowing your head like they do in Thailand and Cambodia. They also seem to be a bit more touchy than in the two other countries. You can also notice that there is a considerably larger elderly population here. There were hardly any elderly people in Cambodia because of the genocide. I think I heard that about 10 percent of people here are Christian, and I believe that only like 1 percent of people are Christian in Thailand and Cambodia. We’ve seen a lot more churches here. We’ve been told that foreign missionaries aren't wanted in the country because the government doesn’t want missionaries working in the country. They allow Christian churches and people to be Christian, but they have control on the churches I guess because they don’t want it to get more powerful than the government, so that’s why they don’t want missionaries to be here either. As far as I can tell, it seems to be pretty lax though- that it’s not super enforced, just something to be cautious of as a missionary. I’m feeling relaxed and refreshed and am excited for our last two weeks in Vietnam. Thank you so much for your continual support, prayers, and thoughts.
My team and I visiting an elderly couple from the church
