We are in Vietnam! We are currently staying at a hotel in Ho Chi Minh City. We have been involved in several ministries since our arrival including prayer walking, talking to the elderly at a nursing home, ministering to AIDS patients, working with orphans, and touring the city as well.
Ho Chi Minh City is unlike any place I have ever been before. The paved, five-laned roads are covered with motorbikes. I’d say there are about 50 motorbikes for every car that is on the road. I’ve been able to have a few adventures aboard the motorbikes! I was able to go to a home for AIDS patients via a motorbike whose driver got lost going to the home and returning from the home. Needless to say, after at least 2 hours on the back of a motorbike, my behind was pretty sore.
At the AIDS home we were able to speak with several people about Christ, and two accepted. I was told by one of our Vietnamese contacts that the government allows us to go into the AIDS homes because these people are so hopeless, and they recognize that visitors, especially Christians, are the only ones that are able to bring them any hope. The people in the AIDS home are those who are nearing death. They have reached a point where they are too weak to take care of themselves. They are served one meal a day, but if they want more food their families must provide it. Many of the patients have lost their appetites, but it is still important for them to eat nutritious foods.
As we shared Christ with each patient, Ms. Mai (pronounced “My”), our translator, would talk to the patient and present the gospel and then have us pray for them. The patients we talked to were so eager to receive Christ. It literally took only a few minutes of presenting the gospel before the person was ready to receive Jesus.
I realized just how hopeless these people are without Christ. One lady we spoke with said that her husband had AIDS as well as her daughter. AIDS affects entire families for generations.
The same spiritual darkness that is in the AIDS home is apparent as I walk around the city. The air is thick. I go home completely exhausted at night, yet unable to sleep. The enemy is lurking in every shadow and every corner. Here is where I have seen what real spiritual warfare looks like. I wrote in an earlier blog, before coming on the race, that I wanted to be worthy of Satan’s attacks. Satan does not attack people who are not a threat to him, so if I am in the midst of the battle, then I know that Satan is seeing me as a worthy adversary.
We have been to visit a couple of temples while in Vietnam. The predominant religion here is ancestral worship mixed with Buddhism. There are many forms of it. When we went into one temple, which is near the hotel where we are staying, we climbed to the top where there was a huge statue of Buddha and a room behind the statue that had pictures of dead ancestors. Offerings of fruit and incense were all around the room. As I entered this room, the air was so thick, I felt like I was choking. I struggled to breath in and breath out. All I could pray was the name of Jesus over and over again. I wish I could convey this better in words.
