Going into Vietnam I really did not have any sort of expectations because we originally weren’t supposed to go there, but from the second I got there I knew that it was going to be so growing and such a blessing to our team.
Right when we got there we were greeted with a 4 star hotel that was our home for the next month of our lives. We had nice showers, queen size beds per person, laundry service, pool, ac at our fingertips, the beach not even a 5 minute walk away, wifi access at our fingertips, ect. We were living in luxury and the Lord had blessed us but not only in the way we were living but also in our schedule and our ministry and the hosts that we had. Although living in luxury on a mission trip sounds amazing it was actually probably the hardest place to live in, personally. I am not going to sit here and tell you that I didn’t enjoy living the way that we did but it made it hard to not get complacent with what the Lord blessed us with. Not only where we blessed by our living situations but also our daily schedules and our ministry.
Our ministry in Vietnam was at an English club that was more based on building relationships with the people there. We worked with college aged people and our job was to talk to them and help them work on their conversational English and each night 2 of us would make PowerPoints on different topics to get discussion going. It was such a blessing to be able to do this ministry and I most definitely see myself going back to Vietnam just for this ministry alone.
During my time in Vietnam I learned a lot through my team but also the Lord opened my eyes a lot during our few short weeks there. I learned that no matter what circumstance or situation I am in that the Lord will never leave me to go through anything in life alone. During my time in Vietnam I was starting to get really comfortable with my surroundings and was falling into a place of complacency with the Lord. I was living in an area where everything I needed and wanted was at my fingertips or the touch of a button on my phone. This is a different kind of obstacle that I have never had to face before and it put me into a whole knew level of “isolation” of some sorts. Feeling like I didn’t need God anymore is a new tactic from the enemy I have never felt before and it was such a terrible feeling because in that season of luxury I still needed God just as much as I do now sitting in our rat infested house in Cambodia (next blog on this :) ).
Vietnam took me by so much surprise, it is a country that we were not supposed to go to originally but it is now my favorite place we have been so far and the Lord gave me so much insight and so much perspective on how we are living back in America versus how the rest of the world is living and during that time the Lord started giving me a heart for the middle east, which I didn’t have before. I think the thing that brought this love and this passion for the middle east was watching the documentary called Sheep Among Wolves which is a 2 part documentary that talks about the persecuted church in the middle east and how good we have it in the western world, it is a 10/10 I highly recommend watching it!! I seriously cannot recommend it enough.
Being able to go through that season of the Lord opening my eyes in Vietnam was definitely one of the ways the Lord was starting to prepare me for life in Cambodia. Looking back on it now I can see that if I couldn’t prioritize the Lord in the luxury how was I supposed to know how to prioritize him in Cambodia? We had so much free time in Vietnam and we had that for a reason, the Lord was telling my team that it was okay to take a beat and rest. That is exactly what we did, it was such a blessing to have a country in between Guatemala and Cambodia to process and really rely on the Lord for true rest and renewal. I know for a fact that Vietnam was such a great place for me for the time that we were there and it was such an amazing segway into Cambodia. I can definitely see myself going back to Danang, Vietnam sometime in the future but for now I am taking it day by day seeing what the Lord has in store each day, he really does teach me something new everyday and I cannot wait to tell you all about the newest and I think biggest thing he is teaching me!!
I know this is a very long overdue Vietnam blog but… its here!! I hope you all enjoyed this update and I am currently also working on a Cambodia blog and what the Lord has been teaching me blog so be on the lookout for those! I am also still fundraising and have my LAST deadline coming up February 15 and I have 4% until I reach that goal!! If you feel led to donate the links are in the bios of my Instagram and my Facebook!!
