After leaving Thailand, half of the squad went to Hong Kong, while the other half and I went to Vietnam. As senior World Racers we have learned to settle into and adapt to new places rather quickly, so Vietnam felt like home within a couple of days of arriving. My first impression was complete sensory overload. There was TONS of traffic, which creates a lot of noise, motion and some pretty interesting smells of pollution. However, shortly after arrival the constant overload became natural. Walking into the street with 20 or so motorbikes zooming at you was perfectly normal as you would otherwise never make it across the street. As Matt (who had gone ahead to Vietnam with the July squad) said “just walk. Don’t stop. They can dodge you. In fact they are really good at it. It is when you start to dodge them that they don’t know what to do and then you have problems.” So you just step off the curb in faith and move at a slow and steady pace and let traffic go around you…new concept but I can handel that.The people in Vietnam as so incredibly friendly. They are helpful and considerate, and most speak at least some English. It was refreshing to be with people who genuinely care about you, and are interested in who you are what you are doing. Unfortunately because it is a communist country we could not share openly what we were doing in their country. There were also many government spies around who try to get us to say that we are missionaries. Christianity is a real threat to communism and the power it holds over people so they do not like Christians. There is an open church in Vietnam, to make their country look good to foriegners, but every person is recorded by the government, as is every activity. Each time we did any volunteering at a government centre it was recorded by the government. It was difficult to know what to share and with who. It is hard to catch someone by their words, and in Ho Chi Minh City where the open church is well attended there is a smaller risk of something happening (jail time or deportation) than in the countryside.
We participated in many ministries in Vietnam. We went to centres, hospitals and schools for children with cerebral palsy among other disabilities, we went to an elderly ladies home to make jewellery with them, and we also did a college ministry with students our age, inviting them to a Christian coffee shop to help them learn English and to possibly share God’s love with them. Each of these opportunities was incredible in it’s own way. Over the next couple of blogs I will share with you some of the things I learned at each of the different ministries.
While in Ho Chi Minh we got to visit the Presidential Palace, the War Museum and the Cu Chi tunnels. At the Palace we saw the central command system for South Vietnam during the war. We saw where the president lived, and where he made crucial decisions. At the War Museum we learned so much about the war but ot was hard to stomach, as there were many graphic photos. At the Cu Chi tunnels we learned more about the guriella warfare, and the countryside farmers battle. We got to crawl around in some replica tunnels that were tiny for us, but were actually replicated larger so that sliding on your stomach was not the only option for movement.
Now we have arrived in Cambodia. For this first week here we are having a sort of debrief, relax time. We are in Siem Reap, and at some point this week we will be going to Angkor Wat, one of the ancient wonders of the world. It is an ancient temple- the one used to film Tomb Raider. On Thursday or Friday we will likely be headed back to Phenom Penh to begin ministry for 2 weeks. As things go on the race our plans have changed, and so we aren’t exactly sure what we will be doing for ministry, but it is our last country and so we are all looking forward to whatever God has in store for us as we finish this part of His calling on our lives. After the ministry we will be headed back to Thailand for final debrief (it’s hard to believe our LAST debrief is so soon). After that many will be headed home on Nov. 21, however a few of us will continue on travelling for 2 more weeks in the Middle East. We have walked AS our Saviour has walked and we want to walk WHERE our Saviour walked. It will be a beautiful end to a beautiful year.
