Hello again my supporters, friends, family, whatever it is you may be. The last 2 1/2 months or so me and the rest of the W squad family have been working at various ministries in Vietnam and Cambodia. Ill try and keep this update as short as I can but it has been quite a while since my last post and I don’t want to leave any important details out of reach of my readers.
In Vietnam me and my team worked in a coastal city called Da Nang under a retired ex-Texas resident named Sherman who ran an English club out of his apartment. Our goal was to form friendships with the Vietnamese people so that we might share the light of christ with them and hopefully talk to them about Jesus. In Vietnam its technically illegal for foreigners to share their faith so we had to be careful so that we would not create trouble for our ministry host. Most people in Vietnam follow some variation of Buddhism and their families have done so for generations so it’s difficult for them to accept the faith out of fear of being outcasted.
Vietnam was difficult for a lot of people on our squad because there was a lack of structure to the schedule and you were constantly surrounded by all the luxuries of western living. Also we were there for only a few weeks doing a ministry that usually takes months to see fruit in. This created a lot of moments where I would struggle with thoughts of not doing enough. It was a good wake up call for us to see how we would handle our eventual return to the states and it exposed areas where we were weak and susceptible to the rhythms of life out west.
Nevertheless I do have some fond memories of Nam. A few times a week me and some of my friends would go surfing at the beach which was a block from our hotel. We got to become pretty good friends with the guy we would rent our boards from. He was this Korean dude named TK and he lived in his shop with his friend Steve and his wife Tee. They were really funny guys who had very interesting stories, wish we could have talked about our faith a little more but it was hard to find a lot of good opportunities. I love those guys and I still pray for them. At the end of the month we reminisced on the fun times we shared over pizza and mango smoothies followed by a surf sesh. Every week we also would go to orphanages and play with the kids which is always a really sweet time to just love those who don’t often receive the love they should. On Christmas eve our ministry host somehow scored us a choir gig at the fanciest resort Ive ever been to. We were tasked with singing carols during the dinner buffet which was an good opportunity to sing about Jesus to the resort residents. We later discovered the resort was under the impression we were a professional choir, which really put the pressure on to perform well despite our minimal singing experience. In the end we delivered a half decent show and received a free dinner as payment.
One day at english club we met these two teens who invited us to some live music at this bar the next night. We decided to go check it out and it ended up being a really cool experience. First of all I love live music and it’s something I miss a lot from home. Second of all it was an open mic night so any one could go request a song and the band would play the music for you while you sang. At about midnight me, Jackson, Clay and Noah went up front and performed “drift away” it was super funny but afterwards while we still had the mic I decided to pray over the bar and the people present. It was really nerve-racking but there was a lot heaviness and darkness in the people there and I felt I would regret not taking the opportunity to impart some light onto them. Later in the week we ended our time in Nam with a big coffee shop gig that Nick and Jackson had scored somehow. We invited all of our new friends to come watch the performance and got to say many last goodbyes while they serenaded us with a mix of secular and christian music.
Now for Cambodia. In Cambodia we were living at this small English school located in a small village of the Chhuk province. The school was run by our ministry host Vuty who many years ago became the first christ follower in the village and opened the school as a step in his vision to one day see the whole village come to Jesus. We spent our days teaching class and playing soccer, in our off time there wasn’t much to do because we were in the middle of nowhere so we had plenty of chances to bond as a team, to read, and to simply lounge outside on a hammock, possibly with a coconut. The quiet lifestyle of the village really grew on me and I reached a level of peace and contentment that I was really needing after Vietnam. We got to get really close with the community and with the children we worked with which was something we hadn’t really had the opportunity to do previously. Dara, this 23 year old who was on staff there became a real brother to us. He taught us Ting Lang, this Khmer card game which me and my team play often, he took us to cool places and led us in worship on many occasions. He even taught me a Khmer song that I can now take home and perform if you ask me too. There wasn’t a whole lot of staff there, in fact we made up over half of it while we were there but I think that helped us to bond with the local community a lot better. Throughout the month we tried tirelessly to remember the many weird Cambodian names in our classes and I think we did pretty well to be honest. Eventually the dozens of games of tag, dance parties, soccer matches and english lessons came to an end. That last goodbye to the kids was one of the most touching moments Ive experienced on the race. Imagine 20-30 kids aged 7-12 all weeping at the news that you would be leaving for good that day. It moved us all to tears and we got to pray over them as we gave our last tearful embraces. The night we left many kids and residents of the village escorted us to our bus stop. We spent one last meeting together in prayer and worship before our Cambodian chapter came to a close.
Closing thoughts: I miss bidets.
Its time for Africa.
