Due to the sensitivity of this blog I waited to post the blog until I was out of Vietnam! I didn’t want to put incredible hero’s at risk… Here it goes the night the Holy Spirit let us know he was fighting on our behalf in a tiny, sketchy alley in Vietnam!
Unsung Heroes! I remember sitting in the Philippines during debrief, and I was so excited on the next adventure I was embarking on. They just announced our new teams and we were headed to “make a memory” !. (Make a memory is an activity we do when we get a new team… we make a memory together and come up with a new team name) So that night team Reliance was created and we started off the night excited for Vietnam. Our ministry was a month of Unsung Heroes! Basically we get to the country, we don’t have a host like we normally do, we live in hostels and we find contacts for World Race! Sounds simple… right?
Though we did not walk in thinking it was going to be a piece of cake, I thought it was going be fun, and adventurous and besides it was something new! Granted it has been exactly that… its just… well, let me take you through the feels of week one.
We walked around the city a few times, hardly anyone spoke any English, all we did was hang out in coffee shops, trying to find places we can check out. Its not like we could just go up to anyone and say “Hey, were missionaries and do you know of any cool places we could connect with, people who love Jesus and want some help. The thing about this country is… Its a fatherless nation. There was a time when this place was filled with persecution for believing in Jesus. We actually heard a story about that during a meeting we had in week 2. But the church is still not free to worship.. You walk the streets of this place and there is no joy, there is no love. There is heaviness. There is sadness. There is chains. There is brokenness. There is no freedom. There’s something missing and its so hard because I know exactly what its missing. Its missing the love of a father. So when we walk the streets, its hard, this is what we see and we can not tell them about the greatest gift in the world. We start to feel all these feels and it was hard to stay encouraged, stay motivated, stay strong.
But that’s the thing, and I see it true in this month. Even in the darkest place, light shines, love shines, hope shines. and this is where the story changes. We entered a church on a Sunday morning. It was a government run church. They gave the rules before anything started. Here they were.
1.) There is to be no clapping, during the songs.
2.) Traditional Bibles are only to be used.
3.) No speakers should be used in the church, due to complaints of it being loud.
4.) A church can be built if over 200 people come.
5.)Songs that are sung should only be from a hymn book.
6.) Don’t greet people around you.
To be honest, I zoned out! I can’t tell you what they preached, or what they sung, all I know is every time they had us stand, ( which was about 10 times total) I rolled my eyes and the thought came up, like how much longer will this be… I mean I did read the WHOLE chapter of Leviticus in one service. When the service ended we were swarmed outside the church with people who wanted to practice there English skills!
MIND OVERLOAD!!!!!
But then… I think God finally pushed us out of the way and started leading the way He needed to. There was a girl that walked up to us. Lets call her Peggy due to the safety of what she does. She asked us why the heck we were at a church in Vietnam and well curiosity came in. Were we allowed to speak to her about our agenda? Was she safe? Was she going to turn us into the police and were we going to get deported back to America? These were all valid questions at the time! The test came. She asked if we would like to meet her Monday night and go to worship? We said Yes… It was quiet possibly the best yes I have ever said on the race. The next night she sent us an address to a bookstore and asked us to meet her there. We start walking and turn down this really dark sketchy alley.
The protective instincts kick in and I think to myself, I don’t know that my mother would approve of me going down this dark alley with a person we just met, but then I thought I heard it said once about “safety in numbers”, so I mean there was 6 of us. I’m watching behind us seeing if anyone was following, thinking well, this is legit, no one knows where this leads, its dark, scary, feeling nervous, but still feeling peace the whole time. I think this is quiet possibly the best feeling I have ever had. The alley is small, the walls were super close and then we made it to some stairs where we walked up into this room. I have never felt so much freedom, so much joy, so much safety in all my life! There was about 10 others in the room, looking at us, watching to see why Peggy is leading these crazy backpackers traveling to 11 countries doing humanitarian work ( that was what we told people we were doing) into there space. But they were welcoming and it felt like I was at home.
The night started. Worship. I cried. Real tears. I was looking around the room, and I was watching this group of people raising there hands, clapping, hitting the Cajon right on beat loudly, and they didn’t have any fear inside. They didn’t have any fear that what we were doing was illegal and we could get thrown into jail. They didn’t worry about staying silent, and whispering praising. They full on shouted it. There was something so different in this group of people. They were not ashamed. They were not living in fear. They call themselves the ‘Watchtower over the City”. These were the Unsung Heroes!
What we witnessed that night, was something I could not imagine. Its one of those things that you hear stories of, but to be able to live it out? When I lived in Tulsa I had the privilege to visit the Voice of the Martyrs. From there I was always fascinated by the stories. I never thought that I would be able to see it happening. I never thought I would have to literally walk down dark alleys just to be able to lift up the name of Jesus in a place so desperate for freedom. But that’s just it… God’s presence isn’t in hiding. Its living in us, through us and on us. All we have to do is let the Holy Spirit do what It wants to do. Remember earlier how I said “it felt like I was home”?
That was it. The presence of God was alive. Breathtaking. Beautiful. Singing with us. Strengthening us. Walking with us. Present. This night was how I pictured Heaven to be like. Singing songs with different nations, all as one! Just when you think things were winding down, Get this part. The part were we realized God had bigger things for us in Vietnam. You see… Peggy was not even suppose to be in the country. She was in the Philippines studying when she felt God tell her to come back to Vietnam. She didn’t want to come back. She wanted to finish school. But she obeyed. Through her obedience, we met her at church. Worshipped with the “Underground” did outreaches with them, met with them in coffee shops, showed Gods love to the people of the city in whatever way we could. God opened impossible doors because of one girls obedience.
Pray with me as they pray for revival to hit Vietnam.
