Tag Archives: Crossroads

Back at the Crossroads – Chúc mừng năm mới!

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It is the Lunar New Year here. VNYE mealSuper Bowl Sunday in the USA. In British Columbia it is the Family Day weekend. In Norway it is Fastelavn. This week also has Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday when many Christians begin the season of Lent. And next week will be Family Day in Alberta. So much celebration, so much renewal, and so much of it involving family and friends! Here in Hanoi, we have been invited to be a part of many peoples celebrations, including New Year’s Eve with the family of one of our english club VNY Breakfastfriends and  this morning we shared blessings with our landlords at their traditional Vietnamese New Year’s breakfast. Tết is such a busy time in Hà Nội, many people have left the city to be at their families’ traditional homes. In fact, the city is a bit of a ghost town as nearly everything is closed for the holiday. There is hardly any traffic, the streets are emptier and easier to cross.. Those who originate in the city have cleaned and decorated their homes and are enjoying Thanksgiving, Christmas and western New Year all rolled up into one great celebration. The generosity of the people in Vietnam goes above and beyond, they are giving people, they are amazing hosts, they are very loving and we are left wondering what compels them.

There is also a lot of religious activity, ancestors are being worshiped at the ancestral altar in the home and temples and pagodas are being visited. We have the chance to bless people with prayer and by sharing God’s love. In Vietnam, Ông Trời is the owner of all heaven, a bit like the Greeks in Paul’s day who had a shrine to the unknown God, just in case.

DSC_5576DSC_5485DSC_5496This week has really been all about visiting. Along with friends in private homes, we were also able to visit a home for handicapped people east of Hanoi. We met the Director of the centre a man of peace who really cares for the 360 people and 95 staff that are under his care. In Vietnamese tradition we shared tea and then were able to visit many of the people in their homes. As you can see from these few photos there was much love and joy shared.

IMG_0645This week we are heading to Sa Pa, a small frontier town near the border with China, for 5 days. We are hoping for good weather. Last year we were in the clouds and rain for most of the trip with a high of 4C. It was very cold and wet and hard to move around, traveling between villages in the mud on foot was difficult. Our team has purchased 240kgs of dried fish in 20 boxes along with socks and gloves which we hope to be able to give to the minority people who live in the Hoàng Liên Mountains around the town.

DSC_5645We have had a couple of beautiful sunny spring-like days. Yesterday, we were in a village north-east of Hanoi visiting the family of Yen our interpreter. The sun was DSC_5683shining and the sky was cloudless. It was a first time experience for us. It is not unusual to see streets lined with flags as the Vietnamese in this part of the country are very patriotic. On a sunny day the red and gold really stands out. After we return from SaPa we will have just two days to debrief, clean and pack before traveling back to Kona. It is hard to believe that our two months in Vietnam is already coming to an end.

Until next time be blessed and be a blessing, A&G

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Scripture from The Voice Bible unless otherwise noted.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

Back at the Crossroads – Preparing for students

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Crossroads Bookmark SingleIt is now Arrival Day! Thursday October 1st, our students will be here soon.

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Bob & Carolyn Hopkins

Our second training week was spent with Bob and Carolyn, our school leaders, getting some Crossroads specific training and preparing for the students arrival. It is wonderful to be working alongside this couple. They have been leading Crossroads DTSs for 28 years, and they still have loads of joy and passion, energy and wisdom to share. We are truly blessed to be serving under their guidance and counsel and are thanking God for them daily.

We are meeting in a different classroom from the one we had last year, it wont be quite as tight. Our 34 adults will fit comfortably, even with their 19 children on occasion, though we will miss the beautiful ocean view. I’m not sure  how we will know it is Wednesday without being able to see the cruise ship. We spent some time at the end of last week cleaning the classroom: dusting, sweeping, mopping, and cleaning widows. Setting up and learning the audio video system; the name badges and room door tags are printed. The school, our students and staff have been prayed over each time we meet.

In the KitchenWe are completing Transition week: the week between quarters where staff get to do the jobs normally done by mission-builders and students on work duty. We spent most of Saturday helping in the kitchen, we worked two shifts in the dish-pit. That is Eric, one of our new friends, at the sink. We had a lot of fun, and met many more IMG_0340people, somehow working together is a great way to get to know one another. Then Monday was Campus Beautification Day. All staff are volunteered, at least strongly encouraged to volunteer, to prepare the campus for Arrival Day on Thursday. This summer had only a couple of mission builders to look after the grounds, so there were many, many weeds to be pulled, plants to be trimmed, dead foliage to be hauled and grass to be cut. All the common areas in and around the buildings, patios, laundry rooms, and hallways had to be swept, dusted and cleaned.

On Tuesday I had to take a Driving Test — I passed. 4e5cf7d4ccb9c59b6620a9c71944d51eSo now I can drive University of the Nations vehicles, 15 passenger vans mostly, some minivans and maybe a car or truck, once in a while. This will be helpful for picking up guest speakers from the airport and getting snack supplies from Costco, and transporting students to Walmart to get some supplies the first Saturday. We spent a few hours in corporate prayer meeting for the upcoming quarter. We began with worship, then Darlene Cunningham shared an encouraging message, which was followed by small group prayer, one on one prayer, Korean-style prayer and prayer led from the front – lots of prayer!! We need it.

Wednesday was spent cleaning rooms for the students, really each room could have used more time but we gave it all we’ve got.

DSC_0565Like the last time we were here most of our exercise is working and walking. We are averaging 25 – 30 kms per week on foot which includes ascending the campus’ many stairs at least twice a day. We have had less rain this week as well, so maybe the torrential downpours are over.

The US Canadian exchange rate is harsh. Each dollar we spend here is now costing us around CAD 1.40, along with some un-budgeted charges for staff activity cards and meals, everything is costing much more than last year. Still  very good value, we are so blessed!

I am thinking that I should start up the “Wildlife this Week” section again…

These guys were about 100mm (4″) long.

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Until next time, be blessed and be a blessing, A&G

PS You can leave a reply by clicking on the “Leave a Reply” link at the top of this post, we enjoy  your comments, thank you.

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Back at the Crossroads – Staff Training

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transformationI saw this cartoon during the week and LOL!

All too often I have I sat in meetings where this sentiment never actually made it out into the open but greatly influenced outcomes. Of course, we don’t need to go to church or be a Christian to understand that “a journey of transformation without requiring any real changes” is not possible. Neither is it Biblical.

We have a heard a lot about metanoia this week as we trained to be DTS staff. Metanoia is the Greek word for repent, be transformed of the mind, change the way you think. Merriam-Webster says it is “a transformative change of heart; especially :  a spiritual conversion.” The word is used 22 times in the New Testament. Jesus speaks of this kind of change several times, my favourite is in Luke 15:7 “I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” In Romans 12:2 Paul says “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” While metanoia is a transformative change, Paul speaks of transformation using the greek word metamorphoo, from which we get metamorphism, the process through which a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. When we accept Christ we should look different.  Paul says “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” just as the caterpillar is recreated as a butterfly, transformed people should be very noticeably changed.

The DTS is a Discipleship Training School. A disciple is a follower of a teacher or mentor, in Christian terms it usually refers to a follower of Jesus. We can assume that disciples follow teachers because they are learners and want to learn more. Much of being staff at a DTS is about friendship, it is about sharing the journey. We will be walking alongside others who are heading to the same place; helping them along the way; lifting them up and encouraging them, acting as a guide along the path. A DTS is all about transformation, caterpillars becoming butterflies. We are privileged, and humbled, to be companions on this journey. (To our Cursillo friends, you may remember I have described DTS as a Cursillo weekend on steroids.)

So this week we learned a lot. We heard about the history of the University of the Nations (click to watch a 15 minute video), and the DTS curriculum; we reviewed the Belief Tree, which we learned about during Family Week last year. We learned about Cultivating an Atmosphere of Worship and Intercession; Small Groups; One to Ones; Leadership Skills; Learning Styles; Outreach Finance training; International Awareness and Cross Culture; Spiritual Authority of Leaders and Staff; Classroom Management and Speaker Introductions; How to deal with students from difficult backgrounds; and Outreach topics. All of this was bracketed with amazing worship and prayer, times of hearing God’s voice and sharing with others.

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Next week we train with Bob and Carolyn, our school leaders, on the specifics for the Crossroads School. We are still praying for more staff to join us, it is going to be a busy time for us, empowered by Holy Spirit!

On Thursday night at the weekly Community Worship the summer quarter teams were commissioned for their outreach phase by Loren Cunningham and other leaders and sent out to the nations. A new school, Apostello School of Frontier Missions sent out their first outreach teams to northern India, Turkey, and Nepal. Unlike a DTS, that goes out for 8-12 weeks, these teams are committed to a minimum 2 year outreach. There was great joy and heaven was celebrating with us.

It is so encouraging to see so many people already fired up for God getting their fires stoked! Ready to go out and make a difference in the world. Again we are impacted by the passion, hunger and wisdom all around us. Last week, the kitchen manager led one of the devotions, he spoke with great passion and quoted scripture all from his heart and that is so common here.

Be blessed and be a blessing, A&G

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