We left Australia late Sunday and arrived as a squad in Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam early Monday morning. We were ready for a week of Debrief and rest, and that def was what the week was.
Vietnam reminded me alot of Thailand. The tourist part, the people, just the culture with the crazy traffic and cheap everything!
I read all these blogs before going to debrief just to see what it was all about. I read some where they were in not nice living quarters. I read stuff where they were in really nice living quarters. I had no expectations just nerves going into it. I was nervous about where we were going to stay, and I was nervous about what all was going to go on during the week.
But this week was great, it was great getting to see people I haven't seen since the first day in Malaysia. It was a great time of rest and looking back on the past 2 months. We did a few personal debrief sessions where we looked back at Malaysia and Australia and thought about what we have learned, what we need accountability in, what we need encouragement in. It was good to think about things that I haven't that much.
The relaxation part of the week was great. Since everything was fairly cheap I took advantage of it. The first day I got a spa pedicure for $12 USD or (160,000 Dong) and then another day I got a hour hot stone massage for $8 USD (120,000 Dong).
Our amazing race parents flew from Texas to Vietnam to spend the week with us. They helped us with debriefing our months and gave us many encouraging words for the months to come. It was a blessing to have them there with us.
The guys of K-Squad are amazing! Let me just tell you that they have def set the bar higher for my future husband. One night the guys of each team wrote something to each girl on our team and also bought each one a gift. The guys of our team wrote each girl a verse that describes them and then gave us postcards and chocolate! Another night the girls stood in a circle and each guy on the squad went to each girl and told them characteristics such as beautiful, worthy, kind, loving, etc. It was both wonderful and hard to hear. How often do we actually hear that from men who actually mean it? For me that's only been a handful of times.
We left Saturday morning at 8am to catch a 27 hour bus ride to Da Nang, Vietnam. Let me just tell you that it was a ROUGH ride. Rough as in long and bumpy. The roads were terrible and the driving was worse. They blew the horn every 5 seconds, they swerved and then slammed on their brakes. The bus was hot and there wasn't much room. But I am thankful that they bus ride wasn't actually 27 hours but it was 24 hours. I am also thankful I got here safely, and I got pretty good amount of sleep.
So we are now in Da Nang. I expected it to be a really nice place where the beach is right at our hotel and it would be touristy. My expectations were blown. Da Nang is nice but the beach is a 45 min walk. It is not touristy but is a big city. There is no English writing anywhere and walking down the street everyone stares at you. There are many cute kids who run down the street waving and yelling hello which is so cute!
We start ministry tomorrow and we arent sure how much stuff we have we know the first 2 days of ministry but nothing after that. We know a couple options for ministry are working in elderly homes, working in orphanages, working in a restaurant, working with the youth, working with deaf people. Tomorrow we are doing some prayer walking and then going to work with the youth and Tuesday we are going to a elderly home and orphanage and then doing another evening activity with the youth.
SUPPORT UPDATE:
I am currently $511 short of my December 1st deadline. And I am also $5,000 short of my March 1st deadline of being fully funded!
