Our squad got together for a couple of days at the end of last month in downtown Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam for a leadership training weekend. I was excited to reunite with my squad and to hear how everyone’s months went. I was also really excited to spend some time with my former teammate and my best buddy on the Race, Robert.
One night our squad met to do praise and worship together. We were couple of songs in and I felt like God was telling me that I needed to go pray. I grabbed Robert and asked him to come pray with me. We did and it was amazing! We prayed together for an hour. We prayed for one another, for our squad, for Vietnam and much more. We asked that God would use us and work through us.
Robert and I finished praying and went to a coffee house where our squad mates were playing and singing. We met some of our Vietnamese friends there and I shared the gospel with one of the guys I had gotten close to. We had a good conversation, but he didn’t feel like he was ready to give his life to Christ. He asked me to pray for him and we agreed to keep in contact.
After we left the coffee house, I talked to Robert about going to the park to evangelize to some of the locals. We ended up standing on the corner with a couple of our squad mates and talked about what we were going to do. Brian said that he wanted to go find a guy that he had met the night before. This guy was in a wheelchair and had bad sores on his legs. Brian said that he felt like God was telling him to go and pray for this guy in the wheelchair. We decided that we should go with him and then we could head to the park.
We prayed together and then walked down the main strip to look for this guy. We eventually found the guy towards the end of the red light district strip. Brian started praying for him, but I felt like we were attracting a crowd because there were five of us foreigners all around him and we were right in front of a restaurant where people were staring. Amanda and I walked away from the group for a little bit. As I stood back and watched, I saw a man sitting on a motor bike yelling at a lady who was a street vendor selling sun glasses and bracelets while she watched what was going on.
We moved on down the street as Brian went to buy food for the guy he had prayed for. I watched as another man started yelling at the same street vendor lady (Huyen). Eventually this man moves toward Huyen and attempts to hit her as three other ladies hold him back. This obviously caught my attention and I was confused as to what was going on and why this man would try to hit a woman.
Amanda and I moved back up the road and saw that our squad mate Ana was talking to Huyen and trying to ask her what happened. I tried crossing the street as quick as I could to get close to them and hear what happened. As I started to cross the street, I saw a group of guys come towards them. Once I was able to cross the street, the group of guys was already on top of them. Huyen had moved away and I saw a lady holding pulling on a guy’s shirt to hold him back because he was aggressively trying to get to Huyen.
The next thing I know two young guys were in Huyen’s face and both of them throw punches at her and knock her to the ground. I ran as quick as I could and threw one of the guys off of her. I wanted to knock the guy out. I looked around to see if anyone else was coming towards us. Ana and Amanda were there with me to help Huyen pick up her things and get her to her feet. I was infuriated. Nobody else even moved at all to protect this lady. A police officer eventually came over with his stick and acted like he was upset with Huyen. All I could think in that moment is if he hits her with this stick, I’m going to jail tonight. He waved her on and walked away.
Our group walked with Huyen and took her down the street. We stopped in front of a Christian café and asked her if she was ok and if she could explain what happened. She tried to tell her story to two Vietnamese workers there as tears streamed down her face. Eventually another worker came out that spoke a little bit of English. We asked him what happened. He didn’t tell us much. Only that there are some bad people there and sometimes they come out and other times they don’t.
We were not satisfied with that answer, but he wouldn’t tell us anything else. I asked him to ask Huyen if we could pray for her. She said yes. I asked Ana to pray as our group laid hands on her and said a prayer. Huyen cried again and told us to “Go to hotel.” She wouldn’t accept anything else from us. We offered food, water, to walk her home, or anything else she needed. She just gave Ana and me a thankful look grabbed us by the arm and again said “Go to hotel, go to hotel.”
We walked to the park, but our excitement for evangelism in the park had obvioulsy been deflated. We were all filled with a righteous anger. We sat silent for a while as we played the situation over in our minds. Eventually we talked a little bit about what we saw and what we were all thinking. Eventually we prayed. I realized that I had been speaking to people all month about forgiveness. I had told people that they needed to forgive even when they didn’t want to and even when others don’t deserve it. I realized how much of a hypocrite I would be if I didn’t forgive these guys that attacked Huyen and ask God to change their hearts. Ana mentioned what Jesus prayed when he was on the cross “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Although it was the last thing I wanted to do, I did it.
Going into the night I had plans to present the gospel to people in the park, but God had other plans. I wish this situation had never happened, but I’m glad we were there to protect and love on a stranger named Huyen. I’m also glad that God didn’t let me just talk about forgiveness, but used this situation for me to practice what I had preached.
If you want to hear Ana’s perspective of this night, please click here. If you want to hear Brian’s, please click here.
