Day 2 – Saigon.
Today was a work day. We spent most of the morning with our two main contacts who organized this training preparing for the start of the conference. It is amazing, what should take 15mins to plan takes 90mins. Between the translation, the explanation, and then the examples it just takes a long time to get a point across and to plan. At noon we drove through town which is a pretty incredible experience in itself. There are so many scooters you would not believe it. No stop lights or signs, people just flying around everywhere. I posted a picture below, but it does not do the real thing justice.
We drove to the outside of town (the suburbs) where there is a church. I had a picture in my mind of what these suburbs looked like. I also had a picture of what this church would be like. And like so many other pictures I had of these people, of this place, I was wrong. I can’t find another word for it other than a slum. Other than the cross on top of the patchwork building you would not know what it is. We had an hour meeting with some of the key leaders and volunteers. We learned their names and got to know their stories a little. Phom, My, Alex, and Uen. Some of them take English names so we can understand them. But most Vietnamese names are really hard to say. They use pronunciation and inflections in their voice that we don’t use. They laughed a lot at us, but we got their names down. These are wonderful, simple, and joyful people. One young man I met, Nyguen came from 700 miles away to be here. He travelled 2 days by bus. He works in the rice fields, but wants to learn to reach the teenagers for Jesus in his village. He makes $100 a month working 15hr days. It is hard to put this in perspective for me, even now as I type sitting in my air conditioned room knowing that Nyguen and 70 others are sleeping at the church in one room on the floor. Hard to come to grips with this (as you can see I am struggling)
Couple of highlights on the day:
Rob and I basically ran a Young Life club tonight. Modeled the principles of great incarnational ministry in a whole new way for these friends. During trivia we flashed pictures of famous people on the powerpoint, we started with a picture of Yoda. Whoever stood up and said who it was got some candy. Bad Idea. Ok, being an avid Star Wars fan I thought everyone knows who Yoda is. They all just sat there and looked at it. Rob and I looked at each other and then someone stood up. They asked if it was Satan. Yoda, Satan? Ouch. That was funny. By the way they also had no idea who Tiger Woods or Bart Simpson were. They all knew Obama was. Interesting.
The food was not as eclectic and good today. We had noodles for lunch and for dinner they catered in a meal for everyone. I thought, heh catered meal this is going to be great. Ya, it was a box of rice. I ate 2 power bars when I got in the car.
Big day tomorrow. Would love your prayers as we share the principles of Young Life and of relational ministry. A big hurdle will be how to interpret the practical application into their world.
Blessings,
Jamie
Today was a work day. We spent most of the morning with our two main contacts who organized this training preparing for the start of the conference. It is amazing, what should take 15mins to plan takes 90mins. Between the translation, the explanation, and then the examples it just takes a long time to get a point across and to plan. At noon we drove through town which is a pretty incredible experience in itself. There are so many scooters you would not believe it. No stop lights or signs, people just flying around everywhere. I posted a picture below, but it does not do the real thing justice.
We drove to the outside of town (the suburbs) where there is a church. I had a picture in my mind of what these suburbs looked like. I also had a picture of what this church would be like. And like so many other pictures I had of these people, of this place, I was wrong. I can’t find another word for it other than a slum. Other than the cross on top of the patchwork building you would not know what it is. We had an hour meeting with some of the key leaders and volunteers. We learned their names and got to know their stories a little. Phom, My, Alex, and Uen. Some of them take English names so we can understand them. But most Vietnamese names are really hard to say. They use pronunciation and inflections in their voice that we don’t use. They laughed a lot at us, but we got their names down. These are wonderful, simple, and joyful people. One young man I met, Nyguen came from 700 miles away to be here. He travelled 2 days by bus. He works in the rice fields, but wants to learn to reach the teenagers for Jesus in his village. He makes $100 a month working 15hr days. It is hard to put this in perspective for me, even now as I type sitting in my air conditioned room knowing that Nyguen and 70 others are sleeping at the church in one room on the floor. Hard to come to grips with this (as you can see I am struggling)
Couple of highlights on the day:
Rob and I basically ran a Young Life club tonight. Modeled the principles of great incarnational ministry in a whole new way for these friends. During trivia we flashed pictures of famous people on the powerpoint, we started with a picture of Yoda. Whoever stood up and said who it was got some candy. Bad Idea. Ok, being an avid Star Wars fan I thought everyone knows who Yoda is. They all just sat there and looked at it. Rob and I looked at each other and then someone stood up. They asked if it was Satan. Yoda, Satan? Ouch. That was funny. By the way they also had no idea who Tiger Woods or Bart Simpson were. They all knew Obama was. Interesting.
The food was not as eclectic and good today. We had noodles for lunch and for dinner they catered in a meal for everyone. I thought, heh catered meal this is going to be great. Ya, it was a box of rice. I ate 2 power bars when I got in the car.
Big day tomorrow. Would love your prayers as we share the principles of Young Life and of relational ministry. A big hurdle will be how to interpret the practical application into their world.
Blessings,
Jamie
Thanks for the info and the reflection. We look forward to hearing more about our brothers and sisters in Vietnam. Praying for you.
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