Missions | Andy and Glenda Read

We have been in Hà Nội for three weeks without the team. We have followed them on Facebook and Whats App as they debriefed in Kona and moved on to the next phase.

We have moved into a different apartment on the west side of Hồ Tây, West Lake, near where we rented the first year we visited. Back in the old ‘hood, you could say.

We have continued with some of the work that started while the team was here, particularly the VTV3 (Vietnam TeleVision) English Club. We have started a couple of new clubs, two at the Mustard Seed, where our students range from 4 years to 74 years!! One of the ladies at the VTV3 club invited her husband a couple of weeks ago. He is a well-known doctor, known as Dr Happy. He asked if we would host a club at Hanoi Medical University for some of his colleagues; so this week we will go there for a test run. Out of all of this, we have some one on one tutoring in the works. In all of this there are so many opportunities for sharing life and our culture and worldview. This nation is hungry – hungry for English, hungry for the good news, hungry for relationship, hungry for mothers and fathers…

…and hungry for food.

There will always be food pictures. Here in Vietnam, fellowship around a table, or on a floor mat, is a integral part of the culture, whether it is a TET meal, Lẩu, Bún Chả, Phở, Cơm Rang or Nem Rán. An invitation to share a meal, even from those who have little to offer, is hard to refuse. There is so much life in the sharing.

English at the Seed

Hot Pot at the Seed

Meat & Tofu Hot Pot

BBQ Pork for Bun Cha

Moto

Fish Hot Pot

We will leave Vietnam for a short trip next weekend to renew our visa, we have been in the country for 90 days, already. We will visit friends in Penang, Malaysia, flying from Hanoi to Kuala Lumpur then up to Penang.

We are picking up a bit more tiếng Việt, Vietnamese, but we are still asking Dad to wake us up one morning fluent in this tongue.

Still watching and listening for all other reasons we are here. Please keep praying for us to have the boldness and wisdom to walk in obedience to His voice.

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

Scripture fromEnglish Standard Version (ESV)

This weeks teaching by Ralph and Donna Bromley from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, was on Missions. They did their Crossroads DTS back in 1980, then worked with YWAM for 7 years. Since then they have been involved in missions, as a mission pastor in Kelowna, in intercessory prayer, they are now with Hope for the Nations. Another week of excellent teaching, this time based on my second favourite scripture passage,

Ralph Bromley

“He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God” Micah 6:8

We looked at this scripture from the perspective that we have an ‘an absolute sovereign God’ who says that “Righteousness and Justice are the foundations of [His] throne” Psalm 89:14. We also recognized that God’s way is often opposite to the ways of the world, as we can see when we compare Satan’s upward plan ‘to be like God’ in Isaiah 14:13 with Jesus’s downward life, as described in Philippians 2:5. So with the right foundation, and God’s way in mind, when we looked at Micah 6:8 it was easy to see that to fulfill God’s requirement we need to walk humbly with our God Praise before we can love mercy and do justice. When we humble ourselves through prayer and worship, we develop a character more like God, then we can see beyond our own little world into God’s heart for mercy and justice. Once we get the humble character then the attitude of our heart begins to align itself to God’s heart, and we start to recognize other’s pain and suffering and we offer mercy by providing Philanthropic Justice. As we begin to invest our time and money in an injustice we see God’s posture as a defender of the widows and the orphans, and we move into action; doing justly. The fruit is “Love & Faithfulness go(ing) before you,” Psalm 89:14

Other takeaways from the teaching:

* To be missional is to be who we are and bring that to others.
* The conversation is more important than the answer.
* Missions is a changing landscape, years ago it was a vocation, gone for the rest of their lives in another nation, then short-term with youth, like YWAM, now globalization is…
* Fighting injustice is a team sport, identify an issue, pull in behind someone/something.

There have been many fundraisers going on as we reach the deadlinefor outreach money to be paid. Some are hosting Brazilian BBQs, others cooking up Shish Kebabs, cookies, ice cream, putting on magic shows, etc, but the International Korean DTS has set up an outdoor salon offering massages, pedicures, manicures and haircuts. Glenda had the manicure and pedicure, black and silver! I helped out by getting a haircut.

My Work Duty was spent mostly in the swimming pool, which has been under ~~constr~~ um, destruction since before we arrived. There were two seemingly very long days of pulling weeds for Jesus.HereLars is teaching Deborah, our Malay classmate how to use the jack-hammer. Note: Sorry I am not in any of the photos it must be because I am never working but taking pictures 🙂 Oh, and I missed work duty on Thursday as my small group went sea kayaking and we didn’t make it back in time for work, fortunately our performance appraisals had already been completed and handed in!

It has taken just 8 weeks but I finally got to snap some photos of Glenda dusting books in the library. (Is that Katai I see on the shelf?)

Thursday night at Ohana Court included an excellent teaching message on God’s understanding of adoption (click here for the video) by Johnny Gillespie, who is an adoptive father and a YWAM Kona DTS leader. The video is a couple of hours long, it begins with people arriving, we sat on the left of the middle aisle if you happen to see us. The worship starts about 15 minutes in, then around 40 minutes some families share their adoption stories, the main talk starts at about 1 hr 12 minutes in.

Wildlife this week, starting with the insects and birds…

…and plant-life…

…and don’t forget to check out “George the Gecko” video on the Instagram link on the sidebar.

Next week is a short one, American Thanksgiving on Thursday gives us a 4-day weekend, we will be travelling over to Hilo on Friday with our Seattle friends and suite-mates, Jon and Joyce Brooks.

Until next week, be blessed and be a blessing, and believe,
love, A&G

P.S. Go Stamps, Go!