Cảm ơn, Hanoi!

Here's the last part of our experience in Hanoi! If only I could do this at least once a year, hoping that God would blessed me with more opportunities to go out to the nations :) This is definitely one of the most memorable moments in my life! Clingy-ness and sepanx mode on!

Oct 4 2016

We landed in Manila last night and after zoning out at past 12am this morning, I woke up at 11am giving me almost 11 hours of sleep today! Yahoooo!!!

Days were long in Hanoi. Our team is usually up by 7am for our morning devotion then we would call it a day by 11pm or 12am (pag sobrang kulit namin) after the day’s debriefing. Packed between those hours are spent meeting up with students, engaging them, doing the trainings and events that the church has scheduled.

Days are long but the days came by so fast. Is that ironic?

I was feeling sad the day before we left. Being in a different nation is like being plucked out from your old world and life, then plunging into a world wherein everything is new. Somehow I had a hard time imagining how my life was before THIS. (#FnaF ko ang Hanoi haha!)



These memories change you, just as they say it would and I hope and pray that these memories and revelations would stay for as long as it could… because I know people can forget, and I don’t ever want to forget what happened in the mission field because I know that God wants me to use those moments to share what He has been doing in the nations of the world.

Every person has a void in their hearts that only God can fill although sometimes they don’t know it yet…

Remember the university girls we were about to meet in my last entry? That morning, I had this idea of doing Godtest to them… I was praying what we would say to them and how we can insert Jesus in our conversation and the word Godtest came to mind.

We resolved to meet at the university then eat a nearby milk tea place after lunch (not at at the dormitory’s cafeteria anymore). When they found out that we haven’t had lunch yet, they took us to eat buncha – which was really good btw – wherein we chatted about hobbies, music and life.

Vietnamese are very hardworking people. Most of the students that we met are working students so when they tell you that they’re busy, they are really busy. They are also hungry and passionate to learn. So after work, they even have additional classes that they attend which are usually foreign language classes such as English and Chinese. Ang sipag talaga!

So there we were, sitting in the milk tea place, sipping our drinks chatting about life. I turned to face my buddy, discreetly bringing up the Godtest idea I had. She asked me whether I felt that God is really leading me to do this, and I said yes.


I quickly downloaded the app on my phone and my buddy talked to 2 of our Vietnamese friends who are already attending our church there, to help us translate certain words that the university girls may have a hard time understanding… I told the university girls that we are just conducting a survey and that there is no right and wrong answer so they can answer honestly… I added that this is a global survey and it is being used by millions of people around the world.

First question: Do you believe in God?
Answer: NO.
We were surprised on how certain and quickly they answered. Their answers to the next questions confirmed their answer to the first. They don’t believe in God. They believe that the universe and everything else created itself.

We continued on until the very last question. By the end of the survey, there’s this tension and awkwardness hanging in the air. They weren’t open to the gospel, that much was clear. So we knew that this wasn’t the right time to share about Jesus… so we diverted our topic to other things… we even sang “we don’t talk anymore” with them and took photos so we’d like to think that we were able to salvage the situation somehow.

We invited them to a training the next day, they said that they would try but at that time we already had a feeling that they won’t come. True enough, a few hours  before the training, two of the girls messaged me to say they couldn’t make it.

There was a part of me that questioned whether it was right for us to have gone through the Godtest.


Was it really a call from God or was it just me? But I also knew that I wouldn’t have been at peace if I didn’t do the Godtest that day… so although there is no fruit in sight, we know that it’s still a seed that we have sown in their hearts, asking them about their faith.

Maybe it wasn't the right time to share about Jesus but I will still try and do my best to introduce them to someone who could. So I introduced them to one of the leaders in church this afternoon through Facebook messenger. They said that they’re really busy this week but next week maybe they could meet with her. I really hope and pray for that.

Nothing is impossible with God and I know that He will meet them where they are at His perfect time…