Vietnam Favorites: Picture Blog

1) The food: 10 out of 10 for sure. It’s all fresh, full of flavor, and fun to eat! If you’re looking for a country to add to your world tour of food, add Vietnam.

2) Team Jacob rented bicycles this month to get us around town. They provided for many adventures, trips to the beach, and strolls through the city of Da Nang. We also rented moped bikes a couple of times and I got to learn to drive one!

3) Da Nang is one of the coolest cities I’ve lived in on the race. My favorite city structure is this dragon bridge they have going over the river. The dragon bridge is awesome all on its own, but they take it to the next level. At 9pm on Saturday and Sunday nights the dragon bridge breathes fire.

4) There’s many reasons why I believe God uprooted Team Jacob from Ho Chi Minh (where we were supposed to be for the month) to Da Nang. The reason that stands out above the rest for me was so I could meet Petra. She’s the daughter of our contacts, Lillian and Bernard, and she’s my favorite person I’ve met while traveling this year. She’s adventurous, funny, honest, and a treasure.

5) Every single one of our many contacts this month made Vietnam the excellent month that it was. Lillian, Bernard, Petra, Betty, Charlie, Nancy, and Jeff: you all are top notch. Thank you for welcoming us in as family and loving us so well!

6) “Tet” is the Chinese New Year holiday that is celebrated in Vietnam. It occurs at the end of January and beginning of February. While we were there we threw a Tet Party for the students at the international school we worked at all month. I got to have my own cooking show for the night and taught the packed room full of people how to make pancakes!

7) We worked in close proximity to Team Fidelity again this month. Because of it, I was able to celebrate my sister JoJo’s 21st birthday with her! There isn’t anyone who’s taught me more about the beauty in being weird quite like she has. She’s vibrant and saturated in the audacious aroma of Christ.

8) Our last off day was spent renting motor bikes to adventure around the beach and country side of Hoi An, a super cool city next to Da Nang. This is where I learned to drive the moto. We also played on the beach, ate new food, ran out of gas, and got pedicures on the street. Mike even got some leg hairs threaded off.

9) Vietnam ended with 4 days of debriefing as a squad. While debrief is supposed to be about rest and refreshment, I always find a way to get caught up in the excitement of being reunited with my brothers and sisters I haven’t seen all month. This debrief, above all others, provided for some really phenomenal reunions, conversations, and sleepovers.

10) Debrief also means adventure! At least for me it does. My favorite adventure of this debrief was visiting the monkey temple with Miguel, Andrew, and CheyChey. We rode motos out to the temple, fed the monkeys peanuts and bananas, almost died by their attack when Andrew tried to pick one up, and hiked to the top of some rocks that overlooked the city.

11) It’s hard to explain the work God did in the hearts of so many this month, except to say He’s up to something really special. This resonated deep in my heart the last morning of debrief. I woke up at 5:15am with Ashley and we walked to the beach in the dark before the dawn. We sat down in the sand, turned on our music, and quietly entered into worship-side by side, yet on our own. I watched the horizon with excitement and anticipation of the beauty that would be coming soon. As the sun rose, I prayed with a heavy heart, burdened by the many requests it held for myself and the world around me. But the higher the sun came up over the horizon the stronger hope became stirred up within me. As the skyline passed through the many colors of the sunrise and the sun approached its official debut in the sky my mind became saturated by this thought, “hope is rising with the dawn.” Hope is being reawakened in the hearts of S Squad. Hope is igniting within the countries we enter into. Hope is spreading home to our loved ones in America. And hope is rising each morning with the dawn.

I stood up, grabbed my scarf, and danced and twirled under the hope of the rising sun.