Do your tha’ng Jesus.

Katie, Sara, & I left our hotel this morning with a Vietnamese lady who was to translate for us throughout the day as we spent time doing ministry at a university. As we followed her through the busy streets of Ho Chi Minh city (busy being an understatement) we looked for a taxi. Mostly driving in silence due to it still being early, I found myself wondering what today would bring. “We are going to a university where we know none of the students, we have no specific agenda laid in front of us, and we’re in a socialist country where there isn’t freedom to publicly voice your faith, not to mention only 2% of the population being Christians. How are you going to use us Lord? What will you do today?” Katie quietly began to pray as we asked God to lead and give us divine appointments.

Upon arriving at the university I initially felt overwhelmed by the 15,000 or so students and a sea of mopeds parked everywhere. As I asked our new Vietnamese friend what we would be doing for the morning she responded with, “It’s up to you. Whatever you choose,” and I quickly realized there was absolutely nothing planned. “Whatever we choose? We’re in a university with 15,000 students and seemingly no options. It doesn’t seem we have anything to choose from.” Part of the task-oriented American side of me soon came out as I slightly felt pressure to accomplish or make something happen. 

As the Lord and I softly communicated back and forth and I asked for his guidance, he grabbed my attention with two female Vietnamese students smiling widely at us and giggling as we walked past. Though I felt we should stop and talk to them we kept walking. After standing in the middle of a hallway for a short time we decided to approach them, where to our surprise they spoke English! I was quite excited as we struck up conversations with them for a little bit. In talking to them, I became aware of this deep love I had for these strangers all of a sudden. Shortly after this another classmate of theirs came up to us and invited us to their classroom.

Walking into the class we soon realized that their teacher was American and had also been from Arizona! He let us stay and interact with the students while leaving soon after. In getting the opportunity to socialize with small clusters of students we were able to sow small seeds of love. As they asked questions about our purpose in Vietnam, doors opened for us to share a little about who Jesus is, that we are Christians, and our main purpose being to love them and their people. Some students invited us to hang out at a coffee shop this coming Sunday, so we exchanged numbers in order to go to church  together and then the spend the afternoon with them over coffee.

Soon after, a second teacher entered the classroom and just as we were preparing to leave we discover that she is also a Christian! She has only been in Vietnam for 7 months and is only teaching here for this year. The entire time she has been  in Vietnam she has been searching and asking God for a church. She got so excited in meeting us today, realizing that not only did He hear her but he answered her! We were able to encourage her through our Vietnamese translator and her connecting, planning to go to church together this coming Sunday (along with her students who aren’t Christians!), & praying over her before leaving.  You should have seen the faces of the students watching us while praying; it was awesome!