My Time in Vietnam!

Hello everyone! It has been so long since I’ve blogged so let me catch you up! From December to January I was in Da Nang, Vietnam. I’ve been quite busy, which is why Vietnam is only going to have one blog. My time in Vietnam was probably one of my favorite seasons of life ever. It was truly so fruitful and the Lord did so much. I have hope that God will bring me back to Da Nang one day. I made so many connections there and I just don’t think my time there is fully over. There’s so much to tell about Vietnam so let’s just get started!
First, I’ll give you all some background about where we were, the culture, and what the ministry was. Like I mentioned earlier, I was staying in Da Nang, Vietnam which is pretty much right in the center of the country on the coast. A lot of foreigners live there but it’s not the most touristy city of Vietnam. I could say I grew to love Vietnam during my time there, but I actually think I loved it instantly. I LOVE Da Nang, Vietnam. The beach and mountains were quite close to us and the city has so much to do. I don’t know if I’ve had as much coffee in my life as I did in Da Nang. Coffee culture in Vietnam is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. The coffee is so strong, cheap and delicious. It is very common to hang out with people at coffee shops and many have lots of low to the floor style chairs so you can stay for a long time. You’ll find coffee shops the most busy at nighttime in Vietnam. That’s when students are doing homework and people finally get free time. So it was not uncommon to see a fully packed coffee shop at 9:00 pm. I spent so much time writing about the coffee culture in Vietnam because my ministry revolved around it a lot. Vietnam is a closed communist country which means evangelism is illegal. You can be a Christian in Vietnam but you cannot publically declare your faith. Due to this, we had to work around a lot of rules in order to do ministry. It was important we weren’t too obvious in sharing the gospel. So our ministry was heavily focused on relationship building. We did this primarily through English classes at coffee shops. We taught many people English in the evenings and also got to know them better each time. There were around 5 classes I went to and would return to the same ones each week. Each class and student had varying levels of English speaking, but I met very few people in Da Nang that knew no English at all. It was really fun to hang out with the students. They were very kind and easy to relate to. All of the students were in university and ranged from 18-24 years old. Vietnamese people also place a lot emphasis on relationship building. So everyone I met was very eager to ask questions and make a friendship. Despite the fact they knew I would be leaving soon, everyone I met put in the effort to get to know me and my team. That was a piece of Vietnamese culture I really grew to love. In America, it’s very common to tentatively make plans with friends. Even if the friendship is real, Americans are so busy with life that they don’t have the ability to spend time with friends. Plans get canceled easily and quickly without ever being truly rescheduled. In Vietnam, students were making plans to meet for coffee with us hours after meeting us for the first time. I really love this about Vietnam. I hope to put this into practice in my own life.
Many of the students I met were already Christian. It was cool to hear their story and see how much they cherished their faith. In a country where being a Christian is rare and restricted by the government, Vietnamese Christian’s hold their faith so closely and dearly to their hearts. They have so much zeal for the Lord and it’s so cool to see. There was still a lot of students I met that weren’t Christian though. It was tricky to share the gospel with them. There’s very specific rules about evangelism in Vietnam. However, what we could do was show God’s love and kindness to them and build a true friendship with them. Through that, they would ask questions and we were usually able to be open and honest about our faith. Overall, I really enjoyed the ministry. Some of my favorite times came from the hangouts outside of technical ministry. Many of the students liked to get coffee with us not at English class and it was such a sweet time.
My most impactful relationship I made in Vietnam was with a girl named Annie. She wasn’t actually a student. I met her at the tattoo studio I went to for my first tattoo. She’s an apprentice there and talked to my friends and I for a while we got tattooed. We really liked her so we invited her to coffee after and got to learn about her life. She was 26 (so 7-8 years older than my friends and I) but we had so much fun with her. There was one time she took me, and my teammates Adeline and Savannah, on a mountain hike. It was so beautiful and we wouldn’t have known about this hike if Annie hadn’t taken us. She told us that she had done the hike a couple of times. There was a local coffee shop at the top of the mountain too that had probably some of the best coffee I ever got in Vietnam. There was views of the mountains and ocean and trees everywhere. We also saw so many monkeys on the way up and down. That hike with Annie, Adeline, and Savannah was one of my favorite memories of Vietnam by far. What was truly amazing was hearing about Annie’s fascination with nature. She is probably the only person I’ve ever met that is that captivated by nature and its beauty. I truly believe that through her love of nature, God will reveal himself to Annie. If she finds this much awe in creation how much more awe will she find in its Creator? I’m so excited and expectant of what God will do in Annie’s life. I really believe she will come to Christ. Hopefully I’ll get to come back to Da Nang and hang out with Annie more. My love for Vietnam and the connections I made there made it very hard to leave. I’m so thankful for the time I got to have there. God truly did so much in me and my teammates. Individually, He grew each of our personal relationships with Him so much.
The biggest area God grew me in was in surrender to Him. God showed me how to surrender my plans, pride, expectations, fear of man and so much more. In Colombia, my trust in the Lord was strengthened so much. Because of this, I was able to willingly surrender everything to God. Never in my life has that been the case. In worship and prayer, in my plans and expectations, God led me in willing surrender to Him. He’s so cool because I could not have done any of that without Him. Also, as the Lord made my teams relationship with Him stronger, He also strengthened our relationships with each other. I’ve never had friendships like I have in this time and I thank God for my amazing teammates each day. Some passages that God really moved through were Psalm 8, 1 Corinthians 13, John 15, Isaiah 43, and Psalm 42. But that’s just what I can remember in this moment. God showed me so much of His face through His word and there’s so many passages that are deeply personal to me now.
All in all, God is so massive and sovereign and amazing and cool. He’s so worthy of our praise and surrender to Him.
My time in Vietnam was full of the Lord and I got to see His handiwork everywhere I turned. That’s not just because I was in Vietnam but because God wants to show us His glory that we may praise Him. So perceive what God is doing and praise His beautiful name!
As you may have guessed, I’m in the Philippines now! I’ve been here for a few days and it’s already so cool. We’re doing children’s ministry at a local elementary and high school and I love it so much. I’ve already made a lot of sweet friendships with the kids. It’s also really refreshing to openly share about God here after coming from a closed country. I also will not be getting WiFi during my time here. So unless I’m at a coffee shop, I have no WiFi. Because of that and my busy schedule, there will probably not be another blog until the end of my time here. However I want to thank you so much for reading this and keeping updated as I travel! It means a lot. I also want to share that I am not fully funded at this time. I’m at 87% and need to be at 100% by February. If you feel led to support financially I would greatly appreciate that! Thank you so much for those who have supported me already. It’s a massive blessing to get to be on this mission trip and I’m very grateful for those who helped make it happen.
Thank you so much for reading!!
Maddie