We spent the first four days in Vietnam down south in the city, where our time was occupied by four different ministries:
1. Visiting an orphanage on the outskirts of the city. Those kids clung to us like they’d known us for years; it was a blessing to get to just play with them for a few hours and do a skit about a crazy sheep.
2. Tea Time with our “temporary contact” and his friends. This was a great chance to just hang out with a group of people our age and have some amazing conversations– about school, work, the Lord, life in Vietnam and America… and we got to play some really fun coffee-shop games 🙂
3. Fellowship with a group of elderly ladies with cancer. This was by far one of my favorite nights of ministry we’ve had on the race. One spunky little lady sitting next to me had had eye cancer and lost one of her eyes, but she just smiled and teased me like crazy! She would hold my hand, touch my tattoo, and talk and smile as if I understood every word she said, even though she knew I couldn’t. Getting to love on those women, pray for them, hug them, and hold their hands was more of a blessing to me than I ever could have imagined. In that tiny upstairs room, mice crawling outside the door, boxes piled high all around where we sat huddled on the floor, the joy and love of the Lord was overflowing.
4. Life. Because we had no planned ministry here in Vietnam, this was our chance to live out ministry on a daily basis and in everyday interactions. I met a Christian woman named Mai who lived out her faith like no one I’ve ever met before. One night we were at a restaurant with a big group of people, and our waiter came up and asked where we were from. Mai translated my answer to him, and then just looked at me and said brightly, “Share!”
I blinked, “…sorry what?”
“Tell him about Jesus!”
“Oh um, ok well, I don’t… Okay so in the beginning…”
And so I twisted around in my chair and began stumbling through the Gospel, slowly gaining momentum and courage from Mai’s translation and encouragement. And in the middle of that loud restaurant (while Jonathan and Tracy were being cheered into eating a live duck egg across the table by all our Vietnamese friends) a young man named Yun heard about Jesus for the first time.
Afterwards Mai told me that she shares with everyone she meets because so many people in her country haven’t heard about Jesus, and they need to hear. I’ve heard a lot of people say things like that on the race, but I’ve never seen anyone live it out so consistently. She was so passionate and so clearly broken for people– she didn’t come across as pushy or demanding at all. It was just how she lives.
I want to be like Mai. For this month in Vietnam it is going to be a challenge to really live out ministry on a daily basis, without set times, contacts, or schedules. I’m so incredibly thankful I got to meet her and see her example for how to do this.
