Tonight we will board an overnight train to Sapa, in Lao Cai Province. We will be very close to the Chinese border. This is one of the most beautiful places in vietnam, by it’s reputation. I look forward to tremendous picture opportunities. I am told there are many.

I understand that there are internet cafe’s in Sapa, but not in the hotel where we will stay. Updates after tonight may be more sporadic, but I will still try to post stories and pictures. Stay tuned.

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.

This isn’t as impressive because traffic broke just right for us as we crossed, but we hope to show you a little more later. Nevertheless, here’s a little reality tv.

Podcast Video [ 1:06 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I have a whole new batch of photos uploading to the photoblog. Time seems to run away here. You turn around and the whole day is gone. I think it is because there is LESS sense of urgency and impatience. Because you do things in the time you do them, meetings get rearranged, pushed back… you get there when you get there, and that’s fine with everyone.

I’ve had several interesting conversations about the “American War.” It seems that since 70% of the country is under 30, the memory of the war as anything but written history is about to die with another generation. Sherman (our GVI liaison) told us that there were wars with China before and after the war with America and that what happened was, for many here, a small blip in their history.

Western fashions are pouring in here. Though this is a conservative country, I’ve been seeing jeans that look like American’s and even saw a mini-skirt on a mannequin outside a store as we drove by. When I mentioned this to Paul, one of our translators, he said that the fashions were definitely changing. He said that there had been a rise in young men wrecking their scooters while watching girls in scant dress. He saw a moral lesson in the immediate consequence of a wandering eye.

It seems that fashion is far behind behavior, though. Paul told me that sexual promiscuity is rampant here. That is why there are so many abandoned children at these Orphanages. He said that if you open a center, within a year, there will 40 children left there. They are often left at the gate, on the street, with a ring of the doorbell.

That’s the good news. The tragic news is that the rate of abortion here is higher than the birth rate.

Yes.

More babies are aborted in Vietnam than are born. Even those that are born don’t always get a fair shake. Some girls who don’t want to be pregnant will wrap their stomachs with shrink wrap and not eat, so that the baby doesn’t show. This inhibits the nourishment and growth of the baby, which they promptly abandon to a center. The director of SS4, the place we visited yesterday, said that these babies are very hard to care for and frequently don’t make it.

I am going with the other team today to follow up on the questions being asked of me by one of the workers. She is very interested in who we are and asked why we were trying to do what we are doing. I told here that we are compelled to do it. I hope that I can help her understand everything. She wants to write a novel, and understanding us seems to be background research.

Our conversation was clearly an appointment of significance for her. I hope that our next one – later today – will be even more fruitful for her.

We left for SS4 (Sponsor Society 4) early today. It’s about 45 minutes away on the shortest, but roughest road. We took the long way out and the short way back. SS4 Takes in people of all ages, not just children and seniors like SS3. We had an important meeting with the director, and then he took us on a tour of the facility. This director has been with the facility for 24 years, but has only been director for 4 years. One of our translators has worked there before and said that the place has improved tremendously under his leadership. He pointed out several improvements that other NGO’s (Non-Gov’t Organization) have made. He is very open others coming in and helping (others are still very suspicious) because of the history of the place.

20 years ago, a medical team came in and found a heart defect in a small boy. Because of this, they were able to save his life. That young man was trained in fixing motorbikes (the primary mode of transport) while growing up in SS4. He is now opening his own repair shop in Hanoi, with the intent of bringing in young people from SS4 to work there. It has been a tremendous success story.

We ate lunch at a traditional Vietnamese restaurant. I know, those who know me are thinking I am starving. I ate, with chopsticks, everything but the stuff with shrimp in it. It was delicious as well as beautiful. I sat with our Vietnamese friends who have been helping us and they all said I had tremendous form with chopsticks. No kidding. Tim thought that I ate Chinese food all the time. When I told them that I rarely did, they were a bit amazed. My wife is probably going to read this and throw a party, thinking it means more Asian food around the house. Maybe.

After we ate, we went to the Center for Women and Development. We had a meeting with them about what they are doing to rescue victims of domestic abuse and human trafficking. They have only had a domestic abuse program (they are the ONLY center in Vietnam) for a year. They are the only center for the rescue of victims of human trafficking in the north. After the meeting, we toured two shelters. The first was for domestic abuse and the second for human trafficking.

I have to say that the latter will, as anyone might imagine, break your heart. There were girls there the age of my own daughter and that always brings it home. I was talking with one of the social workers and she said that the borders (Laos, Cambodia, China and Thailand) are long and have many opportunities for human trafficking.

Speaking of her, she was very curious about what all we were doing and why. We are supposed to talk again later. More pictures up later tonight, so sometime in the middle of the day for those back home.

It’s 4:30 am here and I just woke up. I’ve slept enough, apparently. We were all exhausted last night. I kept falling asleep at the dinner table. Anyway, I’m up now, which is good, because the internet works better in the middle of the night here. I was having so much trouble uploading pictures to flickr last night.

Be sure and keep up with my photoblog . I’ll be uploading a LOT of photos there that I won’t necessarily post on the main blog. If you have a feed reader, you can search for the feed to the photoblog, and that will get all the pictures delivered to your computer.

The travel was actually pretty easy, considering that we came a literal “halfway around the world.” It hit home that we were in Vietnam when I got off the plane and onto the jetway to the terminal. I looked down through the glass window and on the tarmac was a young officer in full uniform.

70% of the population in Vietnam is under the age of 30 . Can you believe that? Younger leaders are beginning to make their way into positions of responsibility within the government. In the 90′s, Vietnam moved to a “free trade” marketplace and just a couple of years ago, they were admitted into the World Trade Organization. The upshot of that is that Vietnam is booming with growth.

The reception for Americans here is very warm. We are greeted on the street with people trying out their English, although we did get down to the heart of Hanoi yesterday, where tourists rarely make it. To say they were shocked to see Westerners down in those alleys is an understatement.

It is not to say that we were anything other than completely safe, though. There is no worry of assault or violent crime here. The worst that you can anticipate is dealing with pickpockets, though we saw none. I guess you don’t see pickpockets though. Anyway, we still have all of our money and stuff. :) If they were working yesterday, they were probably out in the tourist section, anyway. They wouldn’t have expected us to be around where they live. In many ways, we are safer here than if we were at home. The kids play in the courtyard of the guest house in which we are staying – owned by GVI.

We hit the ground running and had some meetings yesterday to look at SS3, an orphanage and Senior Adult facility on the other side of Hanoi. The kids were very friendly and so were the Senior Adults. If I ever get the pictures uploaded to flickr, I’ll post them here on the main site. There is much needed here. Margie will be doing health evaluations in that place on Saturday, while Jimmy, Dennis and I interview the kids, so that the team coming later this summer will know more about them when they arrive. These kids have never been anywhere, so this Summer, there is a plan just to take them to one of the world famous beaches here.

The babies in that place are dealing with rashes and other ailments that we treat or never even get, so we don’t think about it. We brought over a suitcase full of medicine – antibiotics, mostly. We got it pretty cheap at Blessings International, a place that facilitates just that.

I also look forward to giving them the soccer equipment from Mitchel and Peace is the Goal. That young man, by the way, buys the equipment himself with money he earns refereeing games, among other things. He then buys the equipment and donates it to children around the world. Gotta say that I am blown away by him.

Today, we are going to SS4, which is an orphanage that houses children with disabilities. Downs syndrome and other special needs kids will be in this facility.

It is now 5:00 am here and the city is starting to wake up. I can hear the horns blowing. By the way, traffic here is surreal. You have to go to Youtube and search for Hanoi Traffic to understand it. It is a living thing and it flows. The sounds of shrill horns from the scooters are only occasionally accented by the really loud horns of the buses. Lanes mean very little here and stop lights are few and they are just now getting to where people stop at them. They finally put traffic cops at the intersections with the lights and those guys can fine you on the spot, if you break the law. Of course, you can also negotiate the fine, so bring your bargaining skills if you drive. If you are not from here, I suggest you not drive.

The photos all the way through just off of the plane are 73% done now and I can then start working on what we saw yesterday. It may be tonight before I can upload them, because the load on their servers is too much when the city is moving. Internet cafe’s are everywhere here and they are packed.

Just want to let you know that we have arrived and are safe. It’s 3:00 pm on Thursday here, so 2:00 am on Thursday in Tulsa. We have a meeting at the Orphanage and we are on our way out of the door.

I will be uploading pictures – more to my photoblog than to the main blog here – later. The internet is sketchy where we are, so I may have to find an internet cafe’ to do that. It’ll be sporadic, but I’ll give you what I can when I can.

Thanks for praying.

Pictured above is the market at Sa Pa, a small town near Hanoi in the north of Vietnam. It is one of the things for which the region is most known. In the bottom, left of the picture is a woman selling the fruits of her family’s labors.

One of the reasons that we have been invited into Vietnam by the Communist Government is that Glocal Ventures and Northwood Church are firm believers in bettering the lives of the people to whom they are ministering. The Government really wants to help the people and we can be of assistance to them.

As a result, they are allowing outsiders who are willing to invest and make a real difference in the lives of the poor and the needy. Funny, that. It so happens that this is what Jesus often did and what we ought also to do. It convinced the masses to follow him and, I believe that it is still convincing the masses when done in His name.

One of the ways that we can do that is called Microfinance. In short, it is loaning what we would consider a small amount of money to people who are too poor to qualify for conventional loans. For a loan of $100, a family can begin to establish their own business, creating a product and selling it for a profit. We get paid back the money with a reasonable interest and they are able to lift their lives to something more stable and healthy.

I know that downloading and watching video is a time consuming task, so I won’t give you hours of video, but I do want to show you what I see when I go overseas in just over 5 weeks.

As a result, I have set up to video blog. Below is the opening video, which you can dowload or stream, whichever you choose. I have also loaded it to youtube.com/12witnesses, but the quality bottoms out significantly. Of course, WordPress and YouTube don’t always play nicely together, so I won’t depend on them to get you the videos.

I intend them to be short and worthwhile. Here’s the index for this one:

• Why I’m doing it
• Future pre-trip posts – tech and travel
• Run Time: appx. 2:31

Vietnam Video Blog Opening [ 2:31 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

BTW, if you are picking this up in a feed and want to stream the video, click the “enclosure” link at the bottom of the feed. If you want to download it, right click the link and then select the “save as” option in IE and the “save link as” option in Firefox. It is a .mov file which you can import to your iPod, should you care to take me with you. :) All you have to do is import it in iTunes, right click on it to pop up a menu and then select convert for iPod.

[edit] Future videos will, I hope, be in mp4 format, which is what iPods use, so you can skip the conversion proces as I’ll do it myself. Your Quicktime player (which plays .mov) will play mp4 as well, so you should notice no difference on your computer.

Several people have expressed some curiosity about us doing missions in Vietnam, because it is still a Communist Country. Some have even asked what our “cover” will be, assuming that Communists wouldn’t let us into the country unless we lied to them.

Those who know me know that I have a problem with deceiving people and I particularly have a problem doing so “for the greater good” – the ends justifies the means, kind of stuff. I was delighted, then, to find that Glocal Ventures & Northwood Church also believe in going through the “front door” by telling the government exactly who we are and what we are doing.

There is a difference in going through the front door. You cannot be given over to the process of evangelism that culminates with someone saying the “sinner’s prayer” and your departure. That process gets you to doing all the things we do in America that we are now finding create a backlash among those we seek to save. We want to do large scale evangelistic meetings and street encounters with people we don’t know.

The government is not likely to let anything like that happen and I think that is probably for the best. It forces those who would take the Gospel to the people to invest in the lives of those people. The government lets missionaries in who make a difference in the every day lives of the people in their country. Making a difference in their lives opens the front door.

In the next few weeks I look forward to sharing with you some of the possibilities that we look forward to pursuing in the lives of the people of Vietnam.

In conclusion, though, let me say that growing up in the 70′s and 80′s in America, during the culmination of the Cold War, had left me with several predispositions about Communism that I have had to deal with in preparing to go to Vietnam. While I think a free trade economy and the American democratic republic government in which I live is far preferable to me, I have also come to the conclusion that despite Ronald Reagan calling the Soviet Union the “Evil Empire,” communists are not evil. At least they are not evil because they are communists. The government of Vietnam wants the lives of the people in their country to improve.

I hope to help and be a witness to the love of God in so doing.