A projected 48 hour bus ride to Thanh Hoa’ was the beginning of our real ‘Ask The Lord’ adventure. A time without a specified schedule, contact or agenda. During prayer about the month, each person received Vietnam as confirmation of the place we were supposed to go. Jonathon got Dong Tau, and so we made a plan to go for it and see what the Lord had.
Driving up the countryside of Vietnam was some of the most beautiful scenery I’ve seen so far on the race. It was full of mountains and the gorgeous South Chin
a Sea. We even got to run out on a bus stop and walk the beach.
Surprisingly, 48 hours did not seem that long and it went by pretty quickly; it was roughly only 44 hours of travel though.
It was full of interesting stops, bathrooms, food, buses and
conversation.
Started off the journey next to Nathan Salley for the first 24 hours- we switched buses at about 7pm for the night ride. It was a ‘sleeper’ bus.
Nathan and I were in what’s best described as a dungeon or a cave. We crawled back behind other sleeper beds at the back of the bus where there was a line of 5 beds. We had the two closest to the right window.
We watched 27 dresses, had story time and then worked hard trying to fall asleep. We switched buses again at 7am where I was able to spend some quality time with the girls. We were dropped off for a five hour gap in a small city.
It was FREEZING COLD! We barley have warm clothes and we were scrounging to find a concoction of clothing that would not leave us shivering.On our bus travels, the Lord provided several opportunities for us to share the gospel with people, and opportunities to meet some great people traveling alongside us. I met a young woman namedHing, who had never heard of Jesus. It is mind blowing to try and tell someone the story when they have no groundwork whatsoever. As I was sharing my testimony and describing who God was, I was overwhelmed at what I could share, there are just so many good things to say!
So… I handed her my Bible, then took it back and highlighted some of my favorite verses and verses I thought may help her with the struggles in her life she was telling me about.
As Nathan and I were discerning what verses to underline, Jonathon said, ‘does she know it’s not just a normal book?’ Man! I never thought she may just think I’m giving her a fiction novel! So I explained what the book meant and prayed for God to speak to her through her reading. She began reading it immediately.
Each person was able to share with others in some way, we prayed for it, and it happened.
After our break, we got on our last bus and were excited to have our next stop be our final destination. We had some English speaking friends on this bus! I met a super nice English man that kept me company when the rest of the team was sleeping… 2:30am roles around and we are dropped off at the side of the road with
no idea
of
where we would stay, how we would get there, where we would be, and what our next move was…
We were prepared to walk where needed, or tent if necessary. We had no idea what to expect of this town, and we weren’t sure we would be able to get anywhere that night.
A taxi pulls up, eager to help and we all pile in and are taken to a hotel. Without any hesitation, the Lord provided a way for us to go somewhere and sleep. The hotel manager could not speak a word of English, but we had a place to stay!
The next day we strap on our packs in search of a hotel we found that was cheap online. An estimatedone and a half mile walk! We did not want to take a taxi, because we wanted to save money. We get many stares, smiles and waves during our walk. We were told that we would not see any other foreigners or travelers in this city, and our walk confirmed that statement. People have been very surprised to see us and to hear we want to stay in their city. We have yet to find an English menu, or supermarket, or a place to buy warm clothing. I’ve been wearing the same shirts for days.
The first hotel does not work out; they did not want to deal with travelers over the Tet holiday(Chinese New Year) because the police would likely investigate why we were there. So we start walking again, stop for lunch, and keep going. We pass a store that looks like a wine shop, but it’s also a hotel. The hotel is closed down for the holiday, but Jess and Andrea speak to the receptionist at the front desk, and the owner says we can stay in the hotel alone, as long as we clean up after ourselves.
We paid our exact amount in budget 100.000dong per person, per night-roughly $5. A WHOLE HOTEL TO OURSELVES! No one else is staying here or coming, does this actually happen? Wow. We thought this was crazy, but little did we know the craziness that was to come!
Psalm 62:7- “My salvation and my honor depend on God; He is my mighty rock, my refuge.”
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