Well, Christmas is tomorrow, and I definitely meant to write this blog a lot sooner. But, these past couple of weeks have been so busy, so I’m just now getting around to it. I had originally hoped to post something about how Ho Chi Minh City is decorating every street with lights and Christmas trees, but instead I want to focus on the Christmas spirit that has captivated the Vietnamese people.
Since being in Vietnam, I’ve attended 6 Christmas parties, have helped decorate churches for Christmas, and have taken tours on the back of motos to look at Christmas lights.
I might even dare to say that Vietnamese people have more hype about Christmas than Americans do. Coming home from a Christmas party last night, my team got stuck in traffic because everyone was stopped on their motos to take pictures of the Christmas lights. We sat there as people dressed up in Santa hats walked in between the motos to get closer to the lights for better pictures.
I started seeing the lights go up as soon as we got here. Slowly, one decorated store progressed to a couple malls to streets completely lined with decorations. One mall even has a Santa hanging off the side of the building.
A big thing in Vietnamese culture, at least in Ho Chi Minh City, is to go out and take pictures with the decorations at night. There are hoards of people out there every night, smiling while holding up the peace sign.
Beyond the purely external manner of celebrating Christmas, the thing that I’ve enjoyed the most about Vietnamese Christmastime has been the excessive hospitality and generosity.
These people, who we have never met before, invite us into their homes, their churches, their concert halls, and their dorms to celebrate the birth of Jesus with us. We worship and pray together, we have a message about how much God loves us, and then we are invited to a feast. Every single party I’ve been to, they have served us first and given us more than we can finish. I have felt so loved this Christmas.
The party that stands out the most in my mind over the last few weeks is one that we weren’t expecting. We have different ministries every day with different contacts, so we never really know what we’re getting into until we’re there. We had only been in Vietnam one week when one of our contacts asked if we could come to a coffee shop. We had taught English at the coffee shop that morning, so we figured we would be doing something similar that night.
How sweetly we were mistaken. Let’s look back to the night of December 8…
We walked into the coffee shop, were ushered up to the third floor, and walked into a room full of laughter. We had just crashed a Vietnamese Christmas party!! As we walked in, everyone looked at us and clapped. So, of course, we awkwardly clapped too, wondering all the while what in the world was going on.
We just took our seats when they asked us to sing a song and give a testimony. We sang a couple Christmas songs, shared the Good News, and sat back down. The rest of the night was full of games and songs and smiling. We were given pineapple smoothies, cakes, fruit, and gifts. I had a goofy smile on my face the whole night as I was wondering, “Who are these people?” It was an experience I will never forget.
We found out after a while that it was a sort of underground meeting, and the believers had gathered there from across Vietnam, China, and Korea. There were tears in all of our eyes as we finished off the night singing “Fall on Your Knees.” What a proclamation of love and hope. What an honor to be in the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Thank you, Vietnam, for your loving kindness that you have shown to my team and me during this season away from our family and friends. I will keep these precious memories tucked deep in my heart forever.
P.S. Please consider supporting my teammates who need to meet final deadline! They are amazing people from whom I have learned so much. They are all so close to making this deadline. Check out their blogs below:
