Tag Archives: hanoi

Back at the Crossroads – Chúc mừng năm mới!

It is the Lunar New Year here. Super 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 friends 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.

This 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.

This 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.

We 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 shining 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

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.

Wk 17.5 -19 – YWAM Kona, At the Crossroads – Exit

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Well, we are back in Kona!

Our last two weeks in Viet Nam were very busy. When we arrived in Ha Noi, just 9 weeks ago, we knew no-one, as we began to develop some contacts from the 3 telephone numbers we had this changed rapidly. We are now exiting this phase of our training and leaving Viet Nam behind. Now there are so many people to say “goodbye” to, all hoping that someday there will be a reunion, on this side of heaven. There was so much favour, God opened doors and many things happened that were beyond our wildest dreams. The country has very quickly become one of our favourite places away from home. For us, standing out from the many highlights was witnessing the joy and the power of the early church at work. Viet Nam is indelibly etched into who we are now.

When we came back from the trip to Sa Pa, we were winding up our english teaching and english clubs as we began preparing to leave.We had lots a special meals with good friends, one included crab! Actually,
there were many celebrations and parties arranged and attended. It was more difficult than usual to get around the city as traffic was building in anticipation of Tết holiday. The sidewalks, or pavements, normally cluttered with motorcycles were now filled with crowds of peach blossom branches and orange trees leaving us no option but to walk on the street. The trees are the Vietnamese equivalent of our Christmas tree. We see them frequently being delivered to the buyer’s home by motorcycle. Tết is the Vietnamese Lunar new year which began on Feb 19th this year. The holiday lasts a full week in Viet Nam with many businesses closing up as people travel to their family home in the country. We were leaving on Valentine’s Day, Feb 14th, and there were many of our new friends asking us to stay longer, but University of the Nations and our “graduation certificates” were calling, as was our family back home.

Some of our English club friends got some extra English practice by acting as tour guides as they showed us some of Hanoi.They took us to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, which includes a museum and the grounds of his home. The history of Viet Nam is very interesting. We also visited the Temple of Literature, a 1,000 year old university. Glenda visited B52 lake with some students from another English club, it is site where a B52 bomber crashed during the war with America.

Part of our team debrief took place on an overnight excursion to Ha Long Bay, literally: “descending dragon bay”) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Tuesday and Wednesday. This is a spectacular site, we cruised on a ship, visited a cave and Glenda went to a pearl farm, while I kayaked.

Be
blessed and be a blessing, A&G

Week 16 (and 17.5) – YWAM Kona, At the Crossroads – Delinquent in Hanoi

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We cannot believe how fast the weeks are passing by, we only have nine days left in Vietnam.

Our schedule has been full for the past few weeks, so I apologize for our delinquency in posting. Today looked like an opportunity for catching up on posts. Then last night we heard that there is a call to prayer today for YWAM Ships. A month ago they lost the 86 ton yacht Hawaii Aloha and staff member, Aaron Bremner to a winter storm off the Big Island, today we will gather in prayer for this ministry.

Last weekend we headed out of Hanoi, to Sa Pa a community close by the northern border with China. Sa Pa is in the mountains and we had sleeping berths on a night train to get there, we came back to Hanoi by bus late on Sunday night. This was an interesting trip, we had a few hours of sunshine on Friday and almost saw the peaks of some mountains, but most of the time we were in the clouds, rain, fog, mist, it was the ‘hard-to-warm-up-chill-to-the-bone cold’, not the ‘dry cold’ of Alberta. The trip was filled with great joy though, as we were able to meet many H’Mong, a tribal people native to the area. The town of Sa Pa must hold the world record for most “the North Face” stores, I am sure I went in 27, they are interspersed with hotels, restaurants and massage places.

A little while ago we were asked if we would do it again, give up 5 months of our life to do a YWAM DTS. The short answer is “Yes, without a doubt, we would do it again.” We have done several short-term missions over the past 13 years, to Santiago, Chile, to Unitedville, Belize and in Tijuana, Mexico; these have varied from two weeks to five, each was centred around a construction project which we used in a variety of ways to build relationships. Some of the things we learned in short-term missions were helpful in preparing us for the outreach phase here in Viet Nam but the lecture phase at Kona was very different from any previous mission preparation activity. The teaching was intensive, very solidly Bible-based, challenging, provoking and practical; we would sit under that teaching again.

Our time in Vietnam has been quite different from all of our previous trips into the developing world which focused around a construction project as the tool to build relationships, have conversations and share cultural and worldview. While YWAM is not averse to practical assistance, often involving itself in mercy, relief and development aid around the world, it is not the focus of the Discipleship Training Schools outreach. Over the past few weeks in Vietnam it has been our participation in english language clubs and our involvement in classrooms that has brought about the relationships needed to be able to share life. One of our purposes in coming to YWAM was because we were at a crossroads in life and we were hoping to discover a ministry opportunity where we could serve together. While we have both been stretched and pushed out of our comfort zones by the tasks that God has given us here, especially the university classes, we have seen many people who desire to learn more than just the English language. Discussions always seem
to go beyond the topic at hand around life management, coping skillsand cultural differences. Both of us have enjoyed sharing through english classes and clubs. We have registered for TESL/TESOL/TEFL certification course at the University of Calgary in March and are thinking that we can start an english club in Okotoks.

5 months seems like a long time to be away but we have found modern technology Skype and FaceTime has narrowed the gap, enabling us to see and chat with children and grandchildren as often we are able with a 14 hour time difference. We have done so, weekly from Kona and two weekly from Viet Nam.

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