dimanche, août 06, 2006 Back from Mission Trip in Vietnam!  Vietnam was spiritually refreshing for me - I feel more sleepy than usual, but I don't feel weary or tired. And this after waking up three days in a row at 4am (we were with Ks) to pray and do prayer walk every morning for ministry! Only God could refresh me like this.The long and the short of the trip: 3 days of ministry, 5 doctors, 8 non-medical staff, seeing 2000 patients in Vietnam. Due to some problems along the way, this worked out to approximately 140 patients a day per doctor. To give you an idea of how heavy this load is, polyclinic doctors consider seeing 50 patients a day a "killer day". You should have seen the way that our doctors looked at the end of each day - wilted, faded, yet all still so joyful. It was a very, very good trip for me - my body is aching and my back is rather sore from hauling around medicine, and from bending over trying to explain prescriptions in broken Vietnamese, but ministering to the people there has been extremely rewarding despite the cultural and language differences.  It was harder than my regular trips too, with the Ks in the mix - there were so many different groups there! There was our team, then there were this group of Ks from EA who spoke K and Chinese, then there was another group of Ks from K itself, and they spoke ONLY K, then there was a group of Vietnamese who spoke Vietnamese, K, and English! Translations could be done three or four times (because there were some (NOT ME!) in the group whose Chinese really cannot make it), so it could occasionally run from Viet > K > Chi > Eng!Despite the crazy translations, it was a beautiful sight to behold. It's an amazing thing to see so many people coming together as one - I thought it was a glimpse into how the body of Christ functions, but this is only three countries in the world coming together to work together. How much more beautiful would it be to behold the sight of the real McCoy?  After three full days of ministry, we bid goodbye to the patients and ministry, and went off to enjoy our final last free day in Ho Chi Minh City. But before we managed to lay our heads down to rest (after a hot shower), we had to handle a miscommunication with our hotel - we had paid a deposit, but when we got there, there was no room at the inn! After about half and hour of wrangling by our guide, Barnabas, we managed to get rooms at another hotel about 200m walk away. Talk about living the great adventure! (And this after the excitement of getting our medicine confiscated and having the police hanging around every day!)Ho Chi Minh CIty is a beautiful place, with lots of noise and bikes everywhere - though not everyone's cup of tea. It's really chaotic, so people who like order will find it immensely nerve-wracking. There are bikes everywhere, and nobody obeys traffic signals. Check out this very Harry Potter bike - it's REALLY called Sirius! Potterites will know that Sirius Black rode a BLACK motorbike in the HP books, so this is really cute.  We visited the Reunification Palace, which has been the location of some crazy scenes- imagine being bombed by American B52s, then having two Soviet tanks storming your gates, headed for lunch at this place recommended by Lonely Planet (Quan An Ngon - SUPER DELICIOUS and we all had a full meal, drinks and dessert for only S$5!!!), then went to the post office and the Notre Dame Cathedral, which was located across the road from the Madonna statue. It is said that the Madonna statue occasionally weeps, and the Vietnamese take it as a sign that calamity is about to befall their country. I asked our guide when the last time it wept was, and she said it was earlier this year (2006.)After the Cathedral was shopping at Ban Thanh market for an hour and a half, where I managed to replace my dying sports shoes (bought on my last mission trip to the Philippines), a waist bag which I've wanted for about 2 years but couldn't bear to spend S$80 on, and a bunch of other presents and stuff. And then it was off for a final dinner and cruise with the Ks, and then it was back to the hotel for a 2 hour long evaluation session. The next day was a last walk around the vicinity of our hotel, and a quick stop to eat pho, and that was it, we were back at the airport, back in the plane, and then back to Singapore. Thank you for all your prayers and SMSes - we really NEEDED and appreciated them over there when so many crazy things were happening. Thanksgiving newsletter coming up soon, so if you're interested in getting one, SMS or email me. [Back from Mission Trip in Vietnam!] |
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