Even If Only For This One Reason, It Was All Worth It
My family of five was able to go to Vietnam this July, and it was such a blessing! The first day, while we were still recovering from jet lag, we rode on the backs of motor bikes to see nearby cultural sites in Ho Chi Minh. The next day, we attended a Vietnamese church, after which we drove several hours up the coast to Mui Ne, where we held a camp for numerous foster families and all their permanent foster kids. We prepared for the camp that day, and the next day, the kids arrived, and we held the camp for them for several days. After camp, we drove several more hours up the coast to Nha Trang, a touristy beach city (lots of Koreans and Russians) where we visited many homes where the children who attended the camp live. After that, we flew back to Ho Chi Minh, went to church again, then flew home the next day. We had to raise a considerable amount of money to do it, but it was all worth it. Why?
We all were able to experience how life is lived in a very different culture from ours and how rich life can be even in very different surroundings.
We were able to hear a different perspective on history than we had heard it told before.
We were able to see more displays of God’s beauty on the earth.
We were given the opportunity to eat more of the delicious food God gave us that we can’t try in the United States (some, like drinking bird’s nests made of swiftlet saliva softened in a liquid, eating fish eye balls, and cow tongue, required our adventurous side). Their fruit and yogurt are the best, and I love their banh mi (French bread sandwiches), pho (soup), pork, and rice!
We were able to make new friends and revisit old friends from years past, playing games with them (Clayton helped lead games for the older kids), getting up early to play soccer with them on the beach, swimming with them, leading them in crafts (Evangeline and Jeremiah helped with that with the younger kids), watching them perform in Vietnam’s Got Talent (I helped judge the competition), eating meals with them, praying over them, bringing them gifts, and visiting them in their homes.
I was able to teach 85 or so adolescents with God’s guidance (and an excellent translator–a girl I met back in 2006 when she was a camper), helping them understand the gospel better and encouraging them to share the good news with others. Greg was able to lead them in discussions about their faith.
I was able to see a young woman for the first time since 2012 (although I met her in 2006) when I used to teach English to her and her foster sisters via Skype once a week for about a year. She’s made huge progress since then, and she was even a translator for the camp! She’s on the left in the first and last pictures.
I was able to see a young man for the first time since I met him in 2007 when he was new to his foster home, young and shy and scared around all the new people. I had held him then, comforting him and trying to make him feel welcomed and loved then. To see him now, all grown and happy, helping with the camp himself, successful as a piano teacher, was amazing!
We were even able to meet the family that this organization has connected us to as we sponsor the organization as a whole.
But even if we were given none of the other blessings, if we came to Vietnam for only one reason, this one would have been worth it. The reason is this.
My family sponsored a boy in this organization for many years, but ten years ago, he left the home to try to make it on his own. He ended up out of communication with everyone, and we were sad not to hear any more news of him. We were concerned for him, too, and continued to pray for him. His foster parents were particularly sad to lose him, as were his foster brothers.
Then, in the past year, he became in touch with a foster brother who had also left, and he began living and working with him. That brother came to visit his former foster family for Chinese New Year, and the parents were able to finally get some news about the boy we used to sponsor. When my family signed up to go on this trip, the organization reached out to this boy to see if he might come to the camp to see us since all five of us were attending. He agreed! They kept it as a surprise to us, and I was in tears when they showed me that he (and his now roommate and coworker, who I had known as a child, too) had come into the room at camp. We were able to share three meals with them before they had to go home, and they also spent time with their foster parents.
The first picture is him in 2007, the second picture is our former sponsored child’s now roommate in 2006, the third picture is of us having just met them again, the fourth is of me and our former sponsored boy, and then last, the two roommates with their former foster family together again (there are many more boys who were a part of that family who couldn’t make it to camp this year)!
You have to realize that Greg and I were foster parents for a short time. Our foster kids were moved out of our homes, too, and we haven’t been able to see them. I long to see the babies that were with us, but we will probably never see them again. How meaningful it was for me to see our sponsored boy back, but how much more meaningful it was to know that his foster parents, who raised him for about eight years, were able to see him, too! Plus, God used our family to make that happen! God is so good! I pray that he will now be in communication with us and his former foster family.
Praise God for all His blessings!