VIETNAM

I’m here! It’s happening! My team and I arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam a few days ago after a week of travel. We left El Salvador and flew to Orlando – being back in the States was pretty great. Reading a sign in ONLY English was surreal. After Orlando was Chicago – so many Americans everywhere! And I ordered my breakfast to someone that spoke English! I paid with American currency! Geeze. Our next flight was to Tokyo which was incredible. Tokyo itself seemed incredible from the airport alone. We then flew to Ho Chi Minh Vietnam! We arrived there mostly in a fog of ‘what day is it?’ ‘What time is it?’ ‘Where are we?’ Haha – everyone thankfully made it there safely and we made it through customs without any problems! God is good. My team and I made our way north to Hanoi by means of sleeper buses which seem to be pretty popular here. I do not recommend them, I repeat, I DO NOT recommend them. The first was about 23 hours long.. I’ll spare you the complaining details. We stayed overnight in Da’Nang, a city along the coast. Then sleeper bus number two, which was about 16 hours brought us to Hanoi! 

It was an experience traveling for one week straight on and off about every mode of transportation. It’s all been worth it. This city is breath taking. The people are beautiful inside and out. The streets are alive and busy and exciting. We’re the furthest north – more north than any World Race team has been sent. Because of that we don’t have a ministry host or assignment set up this month. We get to be in charge of that! Well, with the Holy Spirit’s help of course. 

Vietnam is a closed country. It’s not illegal to be a Christian here, it’s just illegal to evangelize. We found a Church on Sunday that we attended and met some incredible people and made some great connections. Most of the congregation is American or European – about 10% were actual Vietnamese. We met several people that have a need for native English speakers teaching English. We have a few classes we’ll hopefully be attending to teach adults and children these next few weeks. We’ve been getting to know our surroundings well and meeting locals at parks and coffee shops. We’ve had great conversations with those living with us in our hostel as well. God is on the move in Hanoi for sure! I’ll be keeping you updated on my life here!