This month has been one for the record books. If I would have known the joy and redemption and restoration that would be filled in my heart before starting this month I would have doubted and doubted. However, the Lord is good and He is the ultimate provider of life and all things in it.
From the very first moment of meeting Minh at the airport, I have seen the faith and love this man has for the Lord. It is very evident – not only in how he loves his wife and family, but also how he carries himself around others and in his ministry work place.
This is Minh and Blessing after church last Sunday.
This family has a special place in my heart. I have loved waking up everyday and walking to “work”. I have been served so well and hope I served them just as well as I was served. In everything – from building, installing, and painting a fence, to washing dishes, cooking, teaching, and just loving on the children and staff…
The days were long, but I don’t regret a single moment of this month. If anything, I regret not doing more!
Before I tell you parts of their story I want to tell you something that shows just how well they love and serve others. One day we were in the kitchen, a place I often found myself. Jordan came up and asked if we could borrow some nail polish later that evening to do our nails. Blessing immediately stopped what she was doing and went and got the nail polish. We sat down outside on the back steps and started taking off the old color. Blessing sat down and said,,”Here let me do it for you”. When asked if she likes doing nails she said, “I like to do my own but not others.” “But why do ours if you don’t like it?” “Because you are my friends”. She wouldn’t let us do it ourselves. She even went and plucked a lime from the tree in the garden to rub on our toes after the polish. She then painted my toes a pretty red color.
This is just one example of how well they loved us this month. There are many more stories I could tell you, but I really want to tell you about them and what I have come to know.
Minh has had a very rough and difficult upbringing. His childhood is one that has led him to his current ministry. He is an overcomer. His testimony is one that resonates in my heart. I feel like he is my brother on the other side of the world (which he is because we are brother and sister in Christ!).
Minh’s father was an officer in the South during the Vietnam War. Once the North won, his father was taken to jail. There have been many times where Minh had to fend for himself. At one point when he was young, he lived on the streets. Minh told me many stories from his childhood. The two that I can relate to the most is when he was in the hospital when he was young, and then again when he was a teenager. He often questioned where his family was- why was there no one coming to see him while he is hurt, sick, and in pain.
I have often had some of the same thoughts and know the pain that can bring a person. However, Minh, like me, really found hope in the Lord. In 1999 Minh’s father was in a car accident. He ended up being in a coma for 2 months and wasn’t able to walk or talk for 2 years. While he was in a coma Minh’s uncle told him to bring his brother home so he could die at home with the family. Minh was not ready to do that. He saw that the doctors were working and the things they were doing were working. Minh also had the faith that God would heal his father. That day Minh prayed that if the Lord would restore his father’s health he would live a life dedicated to the Lord. Over time Minh’s father got better and everyday Minh would share the gospel with his dad. His father is a believer and is in the hospital again. Please keep him in your prayers and how he can minister to the rest of his family and how he can help his father.
Minh has spent years working really hard to get to where he is at now in life. He is married and has a family. He adopted 14 children who had no one or needed someone to take care of them. Two of them have passed away. One is married and has a child. Minh has established a very good daycare where they help out many other children from the community. Some of the families can pay for food and things and some of them cannot. Yet, Minh takes care of them anyways. Minh told me that when he was a young adult he had to work in the mountains. His job was to cut off rock. It would be very hot and very hard work. Not much has come easy for Minh in his life.
About a year ago Minh had to quit doing business with one of his friends. Blessing had to leave her job as well. They moved into the daycare to save money. They have a house that needs to be renovated. They are doing this little by little. Although neither of them are working and they are at the daycare day in and day out.
Their circumstances do not lessen their faith. In fact, I have seen it grow more and more. They pray for every step. They know the Lord will provide all of their needs. It’s amazing to see that lived out!
This is Minh and Blessing after church last Sunday.
This is my toes after Blessing cleaned them up for me!
On Friday Blessing prayed about a passage for our team. The Lord gave her 1 Peter 1:3-11
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or timea]”>[a] the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.
Please continue praying for this family. That they just walk in the Lord and follow him step by step day by day.
