Did You Miss It?

SS3 is a smaller orphanage with a little bit of a walk, especially when you’re carrying a five gallon bucket of paint. The first day we arrived to SS3 was to paint a small room; which, was an interesting experience. It started off ass all of the newbies applying the primer, while the ones who did it the year before played with the kids. Since there were only a couple of kids, some of us played various games with one another. Some helped the staff hang up clothes that needed to dry, and everyone waited to rotate in and out on painting.

It was interesting to see that some of the kids remembered us from the year before, and as usual every kid has a hard time with my name. I think it’s about time to get my Vietnamese name that they can all remember, then again I’m scared what they would come up with. I started off playing a game that seemed to be similar to our Sorry, a little bit different, but same in concept. As usual, in Vietnam rules don’t really apply, but it was still fun playing until they got bored. From there we kicked around various sorts of Vietnamese object, some of the oddest creations anyone has come up with, but at the same time they are awesome. I don’t know how to describe them other than a hacky sack with a feather, and a soccer ball that looks more like a tumbleweed. Since there weren’t that many kids around to play with, this time was more bonding with the translators, and coming together as a group.

Thank God this year we finally got some real paint, and we didn’t have to make our own paint brushes out of left over’s from the rice stalks. If you ever want a clear definition of what stubble is, and get a better idea of what the Hebrews in Exodus went through, let the Vietnamese show you what they use to paint with. This year we got real paint brushes, and real paint. We spent all the time before lunch applying as much primer as we could on the walls. The problem, was the heat mixed with the fumes from the paint in a small area made it so that you couldn‘t paint for too long.. Still, we trudged through it all, and some how got it done. After lunch a smaller group went back to finish painting as quick as possible, then the rest went on prayer walks. This year’s prayer walk was amazing, because everyone’s stories were a little bit different, but at the same time interconnected. Some, as they were praying about the drug situations ran into people trying to sell drugs, others ran into someone from the Bogotá’s, others felt a calling to go out to get some answers. I was able to pray beside one of our Vietnamese translators who wasn’t a believer; which, for me was difficult in trying to help him understand why exactly we were doing everything we were doing. After we all finished with our prayer walks, we met up to talk about what each experienced. I can’t fully describe in words how powerful this was, of all of our meetings nobody shared anything close to what was shared during this time. If you wanted a clear picture of how alive God is in Vietnam, all I can say is you should have been in the room during this time.

Finally, we took the kids from SS3 to water park. It seemed like there were more of us than there were of them, so for me it was hanging out with a couple of the translators. It took me a while with one of them to figure out if I was really listening to them or not. It’s easy to get caught up with everything you’re doing. The one that I hung out with most of the time at the water park was really worried about finding a host family for this next school year, so he could come to school here, but at the same time wanted to make sure I was having fun. While I played with the kids some, for me it was also figuring out that those translating for us are just as important as the little kids. While we have lightly hung out with them over the years, I can honestly say that it wasn’t near to the degree we did this year. I honestly assumed that most of them were Christians, while I knew there were a couple of them who weren’t the last few years, nothing to the degree of this year. As we were leaving for the airport, the guy I had been talking to a lot of the past few days expressed interest in going to TCU, but was scared he wouldn’t get in because he wasn’t a Christian. All I could tell him was to do everything he could to get in there, and then everyone will work on the Christian part later. I gave him a few email addresses of people to contact to help him write his papers to try and get in, and then told him to keep in touch. Unfortunately, the few that were beginning to ask questions, we had to leave just as we felt we were getting somewhere with them.

I’m really having to learn to just shut up and listen this year. I felt horrible as I missed dinner with Bic and her family the other night, as she had been planning this dinner for a while now. I came back to find out that I’d just missed them, and should have asked the front desk if they left me any information, but didn’t think about it. Still, it helped remind me of how wrapped up in things I am, and how busy I can make myself. Now as I get ready to leave things get a little bit harder. As almost everyone talks about being ready to go back, I’m thinking of how to get back to Vietnam. As I was talking with Brian about everything, he took it as there were a lot of things going on at home. While, there’s some truth to that, it’s more I love it in Vietnam. You become attached to everyone, and you don’t really know if you’re going to be able to come back the next year. I made by the grace of God this year, and have no idea what’s going to happen next year. I’ve been thinking of all of the amazing things that have happened this year, and have realized it was in the small things that the most joy occurred. It was the eating with the orphanage kids, the being invited to families houses, the conversations, the finding out how proud the kids in Sapa were of their new computer lab, and what everyone did in order to be able to hang out with us. It has been in this pursuit of being genuine, and not having a life filled with pointless rhetoric, the test has been just asking: did you miss it? I wonder how much this year I missed something. simply by losing track, getting caught up in things, and just not fully listening.