It all started at the cafe where we sit every night and talk to people who want to get better at English.
A man and his two children walk up to me. “Sit down!” I say. The man so eager, the kids, not so much. They take a seat and I start to talk to them.
“What’s your name?”
“How old are you?”
It doesn’t take long for me to see these kids want no part of it. The girl (14) barely talks and the son (8) just wants to go home.
They stay anyways and the dad and I talk for three hours. He wants his children to learn English so they can get better jobs in the future. I learn the boy goes to school at 7am and stays there till 4pm when he comes over to the cafe to learn English till 7pm. (I would want to go home at that point too)
We talk about all sorts of things, introductions, sports, colors, church (they are Catholic), jobs and family.
At the end of it, the dad asks me so eagerly if I want to come to their house for dinner.
In my head I’m freaking out. (These are the situations that kinda freak me out. Stranger danger right? I can jump out of a perfectly good plane but not welcome a very generous offer.) I thank him for the offer but say I have plans to meet up with my team, which isn’t totally a lie.
“Possibly next week” I tell him, which is my polite way of saying no…never.
Next week comes, and they spend a night talking to my teammate Amy.
“Would you like to come to my house for dinner tonight?!” He asks again.
Again we make up that we are doing something with the team, but we make plans for Friday. (What am I doing?!)
Friday night rolls around. Amy and I meet him at the cafe to go to his house. He only has room on his scooter for one person at a time. I go first. I get on look at Amy and think, yup this is it I’m dying tonight. Just kidding, I didn’t feel at all concerned…until he turned into an alleyway. He kept driving to the very end of the alley.
What did I get myself into!?
We reach the very last house in the alleyway and I see his daughter siting on the couch holding a baby. It turns out he and his wife adopted a baby whose parents couldn’t take care of her 6 months ago.
While he went to get Amy, I sat with his wife (who doesn’t speak English), his daughter (who I haven’t heard speak more than 10 words) and his son who is still hiding behind his mother.
The daughter did her best translating for her mother about who I am, where I’m from and all that. She did an amazing job and I was so proud of her!
When he and Amy returned, he took so much pride in showing us everything about his little house. Those five family members live in a house that has a room for daycare during the day that turns into a bedroom for his two oldest kids, and a living room downstairs. Upstairs are two bedrooms, a kitchen and a room to eat.
Time for dinner.
His wife made us a real Vietnamese meal consisting of fish, cabbage, an egg bake, squid and of course rice. We all sat around and talked about everything; how to pronounce “fork”, his job, family, the kids school and life in America. For someone who isn’t adventurous with food, it was the best meal I’ve had in Vietnam. In Vietnam it is rude to not eat all the food, so we ate, and ate…and ate. We were so stuffed by the end, but it was so good we couldn’t stop.
Then it’s time for dessert! We moved back downstairs where they served us kem belam, a custard dessert that tasted like caramel, and dragon fruit.
Over dessert our conversation turned from simple conversation to an English lesson for his daughter. She seemed way more comfortable talking with us, and was even smiling. The more she talked the more I could see her confidence grow with speaking English!
Two hours later it was time to leave. We weren’t far from our hotel, but they insisted on walking us home. They would point things out on the street and ask how to pronounce it in English. We walked, we talked, we laughed and we made friends.
I am so humbled by the kindness a stranger showed me in Vietnam. In a closed country, of all places, I was shown the most fundamental thing God calls us to do. He calls us to love.
I thought about this and I wonder why we don’t do this in America. Rarely do we invite our friends to our house, let alone strangers we have met. Or even more so, we don’t allow ourselves to meet. Do we shut out the possibly of meeting a stranger because it’s awkward, we’re to busy, we’re on our phone? How many times do you go to a cafe, work or bar and sit there? Do you speak to those around you? Why not? Do you say hi to those you walk by every day?
So much can happen by the spark of a conversation. Words can be spoken, memories can be made, friendships can form and love can be shown.
Let’s be a people who don’t turn away from the awkward situations. Let us be a people who accept generous offers with open hearts and minds. Let us be a people who spread His love. Let’s spread it farther than our comfort zone, farther than our friend groups, our family or our coworkers. Let’s spread it to the strangers. Through His love, we spread Him.
