Day 1 in Saigon:
Just wrapping up a full day here in Saigon, Vietnam. What a full and rich day it has been. We spent the majority of the day with Johnny (our main contact here in Vietnam and younger guy 2nd from the right in the photo) who is the organizer for the conference that starts tomorrow. Johnny is a 34 yr old with 2 kids who is full of joy, laughter, and the love of God. He took us to the ‘American War’ (that is what they call it here) museum today. It was eye opening seeing the war from the perspective of the North Vietnamese. So many died, so many casualties, and no winner. It is truly incredible what man can do to each other.
The highlight of the day was eating dinner with Elisha. Elisha is the one next to me in the picture. For the last 30 yrs since the start of communism in Vietnam in 1975 he has been one of the main leaders of the under-ground church. The house churches and mini-congregations have grown to more than 400,000 people. In the early 90’s he was imprisoned for 3yrs in a communist prison. Sleeping sideways because there was no room, horrible sanitation, and other horrible things I am not going to mention in a public blog were some of his story. After much political pressure he was released and the church grew so large that the government finally made it a state recognized church 2 yrs ago. He is an amazing man who had a free ticket to leave the country when Saigon fell in ’75 but chose to stay because God was calling him to tend to his flock. He talked tonight much about Paul and how he was sustained in prison because of what Paul had experienced. You get the picture. Powerful stuff.
A few other highlights from the day:
1. At dinner tonight we ate at a restaurant where we got to pick the fish we wanted to eat as it was alive in a tank. They brought it to the table flopping around and then steamed it. Both the before and after picture are below.
2. Other fun treats at dinner was Jelly Fish salad and large shrimp cooked on the table by a candle.
3. As we were walking back to our hotel Clif talked us into getting a foot massage. $5 for an hour. You heard right $5. We all sat together and talked about our day. Then all of a sudden they had us lie flat and these foot massage ladies started walking on our backs. I then got a full nelson from one of them until I almost cried. Gave them a $3 tip and called it good. $8 for the pain I am in right now…..worth it..not sure. Funny though.
I am Super tired, Rob is already snoring next to me…jerk. We are up early tomorrow to start the conference. Learned today that many of the volunteers who are coming from 16+ hr bus rides will stay at a local church for our 3 day training. They will sleep on the floor and eat on $1 a day.
You can see the melted candle under the shrimp...
Wow, what an entry!!!!
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