Nice to meet you, Hanoi!

I know, it's been a long time! 

Xin Chao! That's hello in Vietnamese! :) I have learned 4 basic phrases when we were there and the entire 10-day experience was a life-changing one! Grateful for the opportunity to see God's hands and heart for this nation.

Here are excerpts of my written thoughts when we were in Vietnam. I wrote 3 parts of it, here's the first one:

September 28, 2016

Wednesday

11:57am

Kathy and I are sitting here in the buffet area of Western Hanoi Hotel where our TenDays team is staying at.

We resolved to write down the things that have been happening for the past 6 days we are in Vietnam. God has been so faithful and amazing! We are overwhelmed on how He is opening our eyes to see the landscape that this nation is in… First impression doesn’t last, I’ll tell you that. We thought that we would just be engaging students, and one of our fears is that the people here would be aloof to foreigners given their history, but they are so open!

Just last Monday, we went to one of the universities there… Kathy immediately engaged one of the students, then I joined in, little by little our small group of 4 started getting bigger that by the end of 30 minutes of chatting with each, we became a group of 10! To say that they gravitate toward foreigners would be an understatement, they are so friendly that they will go out of their way to meet with you…

Case in point, after adding them on Facebook, they asked to meet up again so we can chat more (Vietnamese love to chat), so a day and time has been set… and we are now an hour and a half away from meeting them near their university.

Their receptiveness is a wide-open door for the gospel that we are planning to take advantage of. It is so opposite to how we are (or maybe I am just speaking for myself here) in Manila, wherein we are discouraged to talk to strangers and foreigners… Like I doubt I would be so friendly and bold to meet up with people I barely know no matter how seemingly nice they are. My parents would always caution us to be careful and vigilant… so this openness of the people here in Vietnam is a God-moment!

Rewind a couple of days back and one of the leaders in Manila gave our team a prophecy that we would be meeting many girls at a place where people eat… and when I was talking to one of the girls in the university to set a place as to where we will meet today, our conversation went something like this:

HER: we intends to take you to Guom Lake for chatting

but it is a bit far from my university

moreover,we don't have much time

ME: No its okay, we dont want to take up much of your time especially when you're busy with school.

We can just hangout at a nearby place in your school.

Where do you suggest?

HER: do you like DING TEA or canteen on our domirity?

I had goosebumps after reading her reply… because the invitation came from her, so the prophecy just clicked making us just dumbstruck-ed on the awesomeness of God! We really hope and pray that we will be able to minister to these women today and plug them into one of the local leaders here in Hanoi.

God is in the business of setting divine appointments. He goes before us, showing up in our dreams and visions that we may get a glimpse of His glory.