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.)