12 Witnesses

I don’t know how to condense the fullness of the day yesterday and put it into a post that you would be willing to read. It would be a good hour’s worth of reading, and people who read blogs don’t give it that much time. Some of my church members might do it, but even then, it would be a stretch. Frankly, I don’t have that much time to spend writing such a piece.

It breaks down into three segments: The morning, the afternoon and the night.

Healing: Mentally and Physically

I went with the team from Northwood briefly to hear the start of their presentation on family counseling to the University. They were full to overflowing. The original expectation is that there would be 40, but they had over 100.

I then came back and our team went to the pediatric hospital hear. It is the only pediatric hospital in the north. GVI had already coordinated the donation of some equipment to their Autism Department and some play equipment for the children.

Then they took us on a tour of their Cardiac Care facility. Remember that this is a children’s hospital, so some of the pictures will be heart breaking. They have only one nebulizer to perform breathing treatments. These cost about 50 cents a piece and in America, we throw them away after each use. Here, they pass the germs from child to child.

Also, there is one heart monitor for the entire unit. One monitor.

Margie thinks that we can write some grants to get some of this stuff donated and we will also start asking for doctors to come and do seminars here in conjunction with the equipment.

Getting to know you

In the afternoon, we went to SS3 again and did some follow up with the residents there. While Margie did check ups, Jimmy and I visited with some of the orphans. We gave them the Soccer Balls and I played with them a little.

I want to introduce you to three of kids there. All ages are estimates, because none of them know their birthdays.

[Be and Art]

Be is an outgoing young girl who was beaten and tortured as an infant by a man who had captured her. He would lease her out to beggars who would use her to engender sympathy. After she was old enough to stand and talk, he put her on the street and forced her to beg for money. For some reason, someone put out cigarettes on her face and beat her until her right eye no longer works at all. Still, she is the first to approach you and make friends. They said she was actually pretty smart, despite the neglect. She needs a skill to make it in the world.

Be’s best friend is Yuam (pronounced Yume). She is very bright and pretty. Her parent’s are in jail for murdering someone, and she has never met them. All she knows is SS3. She is very good at Math, which is her favorite subject, and she wants to be an elementary teacher.

[Yuan and Art]

[Jimmy, Tim and Tuan]

Tuan (pronounced “tune”), is Be’s older brother. He, too, was enslaved by the man who forced him to beg. They have been rescued for about ten years now, so Tuan has had the opportunity to grow and study. He is going to apply to a cooking school here and, if he gets in, he will become a chef. He helps the cooks at SS3 and they say he has a lot of talent. He needs to get in. Jimmy asked if he was happy, and he was sort of happy. If he gets in to cooking school, he thinks that he will be really happy. Then he asked us if we were happy, and we told him that we are. Then he asked the big question: Why are we here doing this? We gave him the big answer: We are compelled by God to serve the people of Vietnam. It was a good conversation.

I love the night life

We went shopping in downtown Hanoi, last night. That was amazing. Of course, for the first time all trip, I forgot both cameras and both would have been perfect last night. Anyway, we got some great deals and saw some amazing things.

At one point last night, Jimmy and I got roped into a funny little scam. An older lady carrying produce in two baskets hung on either side of a tick got us to pick it up. It was pretty heavy. Then she gave us each a banana, said it was a souvenir, peeled it and insisted we eat it. Jimmy and I looked at each other and discussed that it had a peel, so it was probably safe to eat. We did. She then stood there looking at us like she was waiting to get paid for the bananas. We each gave her a dollar and when she saw our money, we couldn’t get rid of her. She started telling me about how many kids she had and how bad her clothes were, etc. She followed us like a lost puppy, only worse. She kept trying to press our friends into the same scam, but we warned them off.

Finally, Dennis showed up from buying a painting and we told him that we had eaten the bananas. He just looked at us with shock and asked us why in the world we would do that. We told him we thought it was safe because of the peel. He said that the outside was filthy, though, and we might as well have gotten down in the gutter and slurped up the street water.

Jimmy and I just looked at each other. We decided that we had high powered antibiotics back at the room, so there wasn’t much use in worrying about it.

We woke up this morning feeling fine, so it seems that God blesses fools. Thankfully.

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