One of the main reasons I chose to be on U Squad was because it visited three Eastern Asian counties. Ever since I was a kid I have been fascinated by Asia, it’s mystery and allure. Vietnam delivered. It was everything I was hoping for and more.
First things first, the food. Oh em gee. Vietnamese food is perhaps my favorite genre of food ever. Phò, the traditional dish of seasoned broth, meat, noodles, cilantro, bean sprouts and greens, is definitely one of my favorite dishes of all time. Everything they serve is fresh and filled with herbs and flavors. The fruit is tropical and delicious. Papaya, mango, dragonfruit, and passion fruit have quickly become some of my favorites. Everything is delicious and healthy. I’m pretty sure I could eat here forever.
Second, the landscape. This country is filled with beauty. The beaches are some of the best in the world, the forest is lush and tropical. It has everything from mountains, to rolling hills, to flat grasslands filled with rice patties.
The architecture is streamlined, modern, and filled with angles. They tend to favor blues and greens saying that it’s too hot most of the year for warm colors. It’s all basic and easy on the eyes except for the Buddhist temples. They are some of the most colorful and ornate structures I’ve seen.
Which leads me to one of the things I’m not so fond of. Vietnam is mainly Buddhist and Animist (ancestral worship), and only about 3% of the population is Christian. Vietnam is also socialist, and the government controls the spread of religion as much as it can. It’s classified as a closed country, and religions are not allowed to proselytize. Evangelism from a foreigner to a national is illegal, and we’re not allowed to refer to ourselves as missionaries. It gets in the way of everything about spreading the love of Jesus excepts actions.
We tried to be Christ as much as possible and fill a role wherever we were needed. We were partnered with DIF Church (Da Nang International Fellowship) for the month. Our first week was nothing short of chaos as we put in nearly 12 hour days preparing for their giant play called Merry Christmas Da Nang. It was such a production that they had government officials coming to the rehearsal to regulate religious content.
Nearly 2000 people, most of them non-Christians, came to see the play over the weekend. We had the fun job of playing Asian shop keepers, which mostly entailed wearing pointed bamboo hats, flitting about the stage, and smiling a lot. After the play was over we helped take down the set and basked in the glory of Christmas.
In the following two weeks our ministries varied from going to the beach to meet locals to scraping and painting walls at an orphanage. We scraped, puttied, painted, and designed a mural for the gym wall at Promise House, one of the homes run by Orphan Voice, another ministry we worked with.
Our hosts in Vietnam were all Americans living there as missional families. It was wonderful to hear American accents and be able to receive directions in fluent English. One of our hosts was a former world racer who moved to Da Nang after her race was over. She works for a Christian marketing company, and I had the pleasure of going into work with her and becoming an impromptu social media consultant for the day. It was a lot of fun.
One of my favorite things about Da Nang was our freedom. We lived in a hotel, and as long as it wasn’t time to do ministry, we could come and go as we pleased. They gave us bikes to use for the month, and we were free to rove about the city. I very much enjoyed my freedom to bike to the beach or the gym. We rented motor bikes one day and went to the neighboring city of Hoi An. It’s a UNESCO international heritage site, and it was very cool to see.
Towards the end of our stay in Vietnam, we got to work with a Vietnamese orphanage and hang out with the kids, as well as the youth group at DIF. It was fun and refreshing to spend time with the kids. I really enjoyed being the member of a church body again, which is something you don’t realize is such a big sacrifice on the race. I have my team and my squad, and they are such a blessing. But there is nothing like a church.
Sorry this blog was posted so late, as I’ve already been through Cambodia and Thailand since Vietnam. But better late than never! Thanks for reading.
Please enjoy my month 6 recap video!
