More Like Mary

"Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away form her."

- Luke 10:38-42 -

"Are you a Mary or a Martha?" - I always hesitated in answering this question. 

Two months into Vietnam, I'm realizing that I was a more of a Martha than a Mary. It's so easy to get distracted with serving. MUCH serving. Living a life running around, panting, so many times we find ourselves anxious and troubled about many things - "What next? Did I forget something? Gotta do this, gotta do that. What about this? What about that?"

I'm sure there are many reasons why God led me to drop everything and come to Vietnam, but I think I may have found one - to become more like Mary. 

Silent Night

M E R R Y  C H R I S T M A S

It's an odd feeling being away from GCC during the Christmas season. No service on Christmas Eve and no GCC family to spend time with on Christmas day. 

Christmas is not a National Holiday in Vietnam, nor is it a day to be remembered as Christ's coming. Everywhere you go you see beautiful Christmas decorations and hear Christmas songs playing, but nobody seems to really know what Christmas is. So many people celebrate Christmas and say the very words, "Merry Christmas," not realizing what this day truly means. 

It's quite a different Christmas experience; one that I've never experienced before. I'm not busy. The holiday season is usually a time of busyness - writing cards, buying gifts, preparing performances, going to retreats, etc. However, this Christmas is seriously a "Silent Night". No running around, no packing bags, no staying up all night writing cards, no eating out late...

Growing up in America, I think I've fallen into the trap of a "worldly" Christmas. Although I attended Christmas service, I can't remember a time when I really spent Christmas thinking about Jesus' birth. "Merry Christmas." Yes, it's a merry Christmas for us, but what about for God? I'm sure He was delightful at the fact that through Jesus He would save the world and be able to restore the relationship He had with mankind, but on the other hand, I think that God may have been very heart-broken. Jesus' death was already set as He was sent to earth. God gave life to Jesus so that He may die. God gave up His perfect Son in order to give us the perfect gift. 

--

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." - John 3:16-17

Carl's Jr.

Bacon Swiss Burger

1st American burger I've had in the past 2 months.

There's a Lotteria right around the corner so I've tried that once, but it's definitely NOT the thang.

Pastor Kim and I went to Carl's Jr. for lunch yesterday. (It was his suggestion, not mine!)

He's from America, so he missed American food as well. Apparently SMN's not a fan of American food so they always eat Korean food, and it's not like the church deacons ever take us to eat burgers....

Bacon Swiss Burger. I LOVE! Carl's Jr. fries. I LOVE!

Finally experienced the "American-FULL" after 2 months of getting full off of Korean and Vietnamese food. Praise God for Carl's Jr. in Vietnam! :)

Christmas Service

"구원 잔치" (Salvation Festival)
PhuMyHung Bethel Church

We had our Christmas Service on Friday, December 21st.
All the Korean churches here are shared with a Vietnamese church. (I'm guessing it's some kind of policy?) Therefore, we're not free to use the church whenever we want.

Apparently in the past years they rented out a school auditorium or something and all the Bethel churches held their Christmas Service together. However, this year they decided to hold their own service at their respective churches.

The Youth Group took charge of 4 parts:
1. MC
2. Praise
3. Choir
4. Body Worship

The teachers put me in charge of Body Worship.
The only Body Worship I can fully remember is "Who Am I," but there is no Korean version of this song so that was out of the question. Thanks to GCC (Shannon Song), I gave them the YouTube link for "Oceans Will Part (주의 나라 오리라)". At first I told them to watch it and learn it on their own, but after a while i realized it's not going to work. (Actually, I think I might have known from the beginning but I was in denial because I didn't want to have to learn it myself and teach them.)

As the day was approaching, there was an URGENCY to get this body worship put together. I'm not a slow learner, but then again, I'm not a super fast learner either. So... I prayed. I told God I don't have hours and hours to learn this and asked him to grant me the ability to learn this in a short period of time.  And guess what? God answered my prayer. I think I learned the whole song in an hour or so :)

I don't think the students have ever done a body worship like this before. I thought I was 몸치 but umm... they're on a completely different level. I had NO HOPE. And so... I prayed. And guess what? God answered my prayer AGAIN. They didn't do as well as I would have wanted them to (ahem. perfectionist syndrome), but they surely FAR EXCEEDED my expectations.

Other than preaching, it was the first responsibility given to me.
It wasn't me... it was all God! I really experienced God's grace through this event.

It's kind of fun and exciting unexpectedly experiencing God in these small areas.
"Greater things are yet to come" :)

진경 . 다운 . 해리 . Anna . 혜진 . 세란 

Father's Heart

Change my heart oh God

Make it ever true

Change my heart oh God

May I be like You

You are the potter

I am the clay

Mold me and make me

This is what I pray

Change my heart oh God

Make it ever true

Change my heart oh God

May I be like You

"You've Got Mail"

Received this in the mail yesterday :)

It's the first mail I received other than bills and advertisements.

From the Love Ministry. "Awwwwwwwwww" <3

Musical

"Fame"

Korean International School, HCMC

Korean International School of Ho Chi Minh City is the only Korean school in this city, so the majority of Bethel Youth students attend this school (except those that attend American, British, Australian, etc. international schools). 

I was invited to a musical by a student at Bethel - Kyung Ryul Park (Deacon Park's son).

I would say it was one of the most exciting things I've done after coming to Vietnam.

Although they're not "professionals", I was actually quite impressed. The musical was performed by a club they have in the school, and the whole musical was organized and run by the students - acting, singing, music, lighting, etc... 

(For those of you that watch Korean television shows, this school and the musical team came out in 무한도전. 무한도전 annually makes their own calendars. This year they had people send in requests for personal delivery by a 무한도전 member. A teacher at this school was selected so 하하 came to deliver the calendars. The musical team happened to be at school practicing on the Saturday that the calendars were delivered! They recorded a clip of their musical and it was actually shown on the TV show. Pretty cool!) 

"FAME" Musical . Park Brothers

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There are so many talented students out in the world. All they need is an opportunity and a place to bring out those talents! I hope that churches today can be a place where students are encouraged to bring out and develop their talents; a place where they will be taught and encouraged to have bigger dreams and visions; a place where they will learn to use their gifts & talents not for this world, but all for the glory of God!

Com Suon Trung

Rice w/ Pork Chops & Egg

This is Com Suon w/ egg, Com Suon Trung.

Everyone was surprised that I've never tried com suon.

(Um... you never took me?)

So Park JSN took me and Pastor Kim for dinner. 

I guess it's a famous Vietnamese dish.

It's not much. It's literally just rice, pork, and egg (w/ cucumbers on the side). 

BUT! It's good. Good & cheap.

26,000VND (just a little over a dollar)

It's supposedly a breakfast meal.
So if you think American style, it's like Steak & Eggs. 

It doesn't look filling when you first look at it, but I was actually pretty full after I finished it. 

Oh the joy of eating one dollar meals :D

Job

Book of Job

Living Life QT

Its been 3 long months of meditating on the book of Job. (We're now moving onto 1 John. Yipee!)

The book is quite repetitive and not that "fun" to read. However, it was a great opportunity to meditate on a book that I would probably never choose to read.

Job went through a lot. Although there were some complaints along the way, he endured through it all - the struggles and hardships - and by God's grace, Job's latter life was filled with all the more blessings. 

I may be a bit young to be saying something like this, but I think we can all -whether young or old - agree on this one fact: Life's not easy.

The ride will not be smooth. There will be ups & down, some bumps (maybe even hills) along the way, but one thing is for sure - we're NOT in this alone.

"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, 

and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us). - Matthew 1:23 -

God is with us.

All we need to do is cling onto God. 

Persevere!

Endure!

It's all a growing process.

LET US FINSH THE RACE!

Undergrace

It's so easy to forget about God's grace,

and the fact that I am living under grace. 

I believe Satan is making a great effort to:

 Pull out all the grace that is within us, 

make us forget about His grace, 

and have us turn our backs on God and the church. 

So many times I just want to give up.

So many times WE just want to give up.

We just want to let everything go, turn around, and never look back.

Why these emotions?

Why these temptations?

Because His grace was forgotten.

Because we have left the umbrella of His grace. 

It is time. 

Time to go back under God's umbrella of grace.

Time to be filled, inside and out, with His grace. 

Starvation

"When we are spiritually hungry, we get spiritually annoyed."

- Pastor Loren Chong

Tired. 

Frustrated.

Lack of motivation.

Stressed.

Annoyed.

 I must be hungry.. spiritually hungry.

God's always here. 

Immanuel. God with us. 

He ALWAYS provides the food that we need.

Interestingly, it never rots!

Even after days, months, years.. 

it's still there. 

Still in its best condition.

But even more interestingly, we tend to take advantage of it.

Why? Because it's always there.

Because we know that even if we don't take it now, it'll still be there later.

We're hungry. I'M hungry.

But why did I not seek God? Why am I not eating?

Because I wasn't hungry enough. 

I wasn't starving.

Starvation.

Sometimes we need to experience a bit of famine and starvation.

Why? So we can eat and be satisfied.

So we can have the energy to run and to finish this race.

Togetherness

Thursday, December 6th

Vietnamese Village Visitation

I was able to take part in a one-day 'mission trip' to a Vietnamese village 5 hours from Ho Chi Minh City to hold a 헌당식 (google translate = dedication ceremony) for a newly built Vietnamese church. 

It's about a five hour drive on a bus. Five hours there and 5 hours back in one day is NO fun. If you've been to Southeast Asia, you know how the bus rides are... bus driver honks every 2 seconds. BUT according to Pastor Hyuk Kim, I have a gift in sleeping. Yes yes, if you've ever traveled with me, sleeping in airplanes and cars are no problem for me. I'll sit & knock out before the vehicle even moves. Praise God? :) 

Bethel Church is actively helping the minority population living in the villages - building churches, passing out rice/clothes to the needy, and of course, through prayers. 

The first picture seen below was taken in front of a church in the village pastored by Pastor Tuan(?)'s father-in-law (Esther's father). 

The second picture is the church that was recently built for the church that is pastored by Esther's brother. (This is where we held the Dedication Ceremony. I would say more of a Dedication Service?)

Below is a picture of the Pig Farm in the village. Can't get there by car, so had to ride a moto. It was quite a bumpy ride (thought we were going to tip over) but I guess I underestimated the Vietnamese peoples' moto-driving skills. 

The Pig Farm was set up by a deacon of the church to help the villagers. I believe they started off with about 12 pigs? One just had 7 babies, and more to come. There will be about 40 of them in a couple days. Their plan is to continue to breed pigs and pass them out to the villagers as a source of living. (Not just for a one-time meal, but to train them to procreate so that they can have a stable food source.) It's kind of like Bethel's method of CAM. 

It was a short trip, but I was glad to see how God is slowly but surely working in this land of Vietnam. It was also a blessing to see all of Pastor Tuan's family (more so, Esther's family) really devoting their lives in serving God and His people. Bethel, GCC, and the Vietnamese church are really working together to bring the lost souls back to God. I am once again reminded that missions isn't all about proclaiming the gospel message through ones' mouth, but that there are many ways we can take part in making that Name known. What a privilege it is to be taking part in God's work. It's pleasing to see Christians coming together from all over the world and working together to build God's kingdom. I'm sure God is ever more pleased at this sight :)

--

On a negative note:

I got a sick. Bleh.

All I did was sit in the bus and sleep for 10 hours, but I guess I was drained?

As I laid down to sleep on Thursday night, I felt it coming. THEN I really knew I was getting sick when I started getting cold and I pulled up my blanket to my neck. (It's hot here so I can sleep without a blanket..)

Stayed home all day Friday drugged off of Dayquil,

but praise God it only took one day of rest to recover :)

Devotions... one step at a time

"청년들에게 두 가지를 부탁하고 싶습니다. 첫째, 대학 기간을 5년으로 생각하라는 것입니다. 대학 2학년 때 1년을 휴학하고 선교지에 가는 겁니다. 1년을 그렇게 보내는 겁니다.... 둘 째, 직장을 갖기 전 1년을 다시 한 번 헌신하라는 겁니다. 그렇게 최소한 생애의 2년은 하나님께 바치는 겁니다. 빨리 졸업해서 뭐하겠습니까? 월반(skipping grades) 해서 어쩌자는 겁니까? 많은 사람을 만나 보고 얻은 결론은 사회에서 빨리 성공하고 승진해도 행복하지 않다는 것입니다. 헌신은 자꾸 연습해야 합니다. 1년 해 보고, 그다음 1년을 더 해 보고, 또다시 1년을 해 보고, 그리고 그런 식으로 계속 1년씩 헌신해 보는 겁니다."

"나는 선교에 목숨을 걸었다"

하용조 목사님

Translation

I would like to request two favors from young adults. First, think of your college life as 5 years. In your second year of college, take a year off and leave for the mission field. Spend one year like that... Secondly, devote another year before you find a job. Devote a minimum of 2 years to God like this. What are you gonna do if you graduate early? What's the point of skipping grades? After meeting a lot of people I concluded that people are not happy even if they are successful in society. We must continually practice devotion. Try one year, then try another, and then another, and then continue to devote one year at a time.

Coffee Bean

Hazelnut Iced Latte

We not only sell donuts at Donut's Donuts, but we also sell fresh juice, smoothies, and coffee.

There's really no need for me to purchase coffee outside of our very own store.

However (dun dun dun).... I found a COFFEE BEAN!

There's a mall called "Crescent Mall" that was built about a year ago.

I heard it's the nicest mall in Ho Chi Minh City? 

It's about a 30-40 minute walk from Donut's Donuts. 

A friend and I went for a walk, and I couldn't resist the calling from Coffee Bean.

It's about the same price as America, so it's quite expensive for coffee in Vietnam.

BUT it tastes the same! The ice shape (coffee bean's specialty, I say) is the same too!

Can't drink it often, but I think I can treat myself out from time to time :)

Hazelnut Iced Latte <3 Oh how I missed thee~

(oh btw. Vietnam doesn't carry large sizes. Americans...... we're so fat.)