Today I went to lunch with a friend in Vietnam. It was a great opportunity for us to catch up and talk about life. We ate and interacted with the others in the restaurant a little until the end of our lunch.
As we finished our lunch a man who seemed to be a regular at the restaurant began talking to us about the U.S. elections yesterday. He seemed to be a bit bent out of shape that Obama had won. I brushed it off since everyone seems to have a stronger opinion than me at this point. As he began to ask us why we are here in Vietnam he asked if he could sit down without even pausing for our response. Given the pushy nature of his demeanor we might have said no, but we didn’t have time to decline.
He sat and grilled us for a good long while about why the American school system is failing. We gave him our opinions and tried to stay as involved in the conversation as we could. At one point my friend tried to redirect the conversation off of America and on to him, so she asked what he does for a living.
He replied “ I am involved in the slave trade.” WHAT?
NO SERIOUSLY WHAT THE #$#@%@!!!!!??????
We nervously laughed as he said “No not really I help Vietnamese people get to Australia to be educated.”
I let him continue for few minutes and I then asked him point blank “So do you send people to Australia for sexual reasons or to be educated?”
He told me “I may be an old man but I am not a dirty old man” and then he began to tell me where he sends people in Australia to be educated.
My blood began to boil and anger began to rage inside of me as the conversation trailed back to the American school system.
I believe there is always some truth in jest, so I believe his first response was the truth about what he really does. Because let’s be honest who really jokes about being in the slave trade or human trafficking to perfect strangers.
I’m not really sure how to process sitting across from him today. What should my first response be? LOVE? ANGER? RAGE? Satan would love for me to be numb and not let it affect me at all, to be honest I am fighting that today. What would your response have been?
Pray for all who are enslaved today and especially for those who enslave them.
