| "I really don’t see my luggage coming out, Kimmy. Every other luggage has been picked up." Kimmy, Tim, and Linda all frantically searches for my generic-looking luggage that did not come out from the plane. Something had happened to it. I thought to myself, "Why do these things always happen to me, God?" We filed a report and according to the Seattle airport, they should have it delivered by 11 PM that night. However, they did not, and little did I know, they would not deliver it during the entire trip. Being at Hoi Dong without my luggage was definitely a challenge for me. However, I tried my best to have a good attitude and I believe that I struggled a lot at it, but I felt that God really helped me to have a good attitude for the people surrounding me, especially the kids. I tried not to complain or get upset at the situation, because I knew that it would not help anyone, and rather it would discourage and only annoy other people there. God taught me a lot through that experience/trial. He helped me to see that the "items" in my luggage are ultimately temporary. Even if I did lose it, it would not mean anything. I learned that the community that I am apart of will be there for me. Throughout the trip, Jenney, Rose, Kimmy, Emily, and others let me borrow their clothes, makeup, etc. They truly took care of me. I was reminded of that verse in Galatians that we should carry each other’s burdens, and although mine wasn’t even a burden, they carried it for me. As I sit here and gaze upon this computer screen attempting to the find the correct words to describe my Hoi Dong experience, I find myself stumped. Seattle is filled with magnificent naturalistic scenes that California doesn’t seem to display. As I sat in the car, I felt as if I were lost in a magical forest filled with hundreds of trees. We first went to our furnished dorms. Kimmy and I’s dorm was facing the campus, therefore we were bless to have a nice view. The dorm room was quite large compared to the others that I have seen. The first night was just filled with many last-minute preparations, new sometimes not-so-great surprises from the Seattle staff, and I also began to realize that I have a lot of idealistic expectations. My task at Hoi Dong was to co-lead games with Phil. My personality and his are quite different, but I learned that when we both have a common purpose, then our differences would not overrule that purpose. Our purpose there was to care and love the children as Jesus, and the practical way to do this was to facilitate vacation bible school. The games went well and I could see that the kids enjoyed it. They ran, jump, yelled, encouraged one another, looked frightened, got wet, had wacky faces as we made an explosion, but through each game, their energy level was fantastic. Each day as I come back into the room and worship God with the children, I am filled with joy because they really worship God in spirit and in truth. That is how God is to be honored in worship. Each time they sang, "HE’S GOT THE POWER!" their arms would flex up and their mouths would open wide to scream out those four words. Throughout the four days, watching and waiting for their parents to pick them up has been the one of the most memorable moments that I have had with the kids. Each time VBS was over and we were all sitting in the worship room, they would ask that we play games or sing with them. Typically they would ask that we would play the song, "You never let Go," so they could do the motions to it. Despite feeling tired, I always felt as if I had this rejuvenated energy while I was doing each move to the song with them. On one of the nights, we were able to attend "The Concert Prayer for the Youth." The theme of the concert was LIGHTS. We would pair up after each song was sung, and pray for a different topic that MSD asked of us. My partner for many of these was Emily from Philadelphia. I was lucky enough to hear her testimony, and it was extremely moving. It brought tears to my eyes and I found the Holy Spirit moving me to ask her if I could pray for her. I believe that to be at such a place of vulnerability, it is where God is close to us the most. I was reminded of the verse in Psalm, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." We pray for multiple topics, such as Vietnam and that their growing intolerance for Christianity, our churches and the leadership, and our youth groups. We prayed for about two hours, but to me, it felt like thirty minutes. Each night we were there, we would end by going out to eat and by playing games in our Ordal Hall lounge. Being there with the youth reminded me of being with SPARC. We laughed until our stomachs ache, play games until morning despite our exhaustion, and continued to fellowship with each other as if we had known one another for years. Again, God reminded me how big He really is and how faithful He is to his people. He reminded me that when the common purpose is for Him, then everything else flows thoroughly. Our endless wrestling with "Who are the killers?" in Mafia took up most of the night, followed by our apparent competitiveness in "KEMPS"which usually occupied us until the next morning, literally. However, each morning, as I woke up, I never felt lethargic despite having only four to five hours of sleep the previous night. Throughout the trip, I kept asking God to make me weak, so that He could be made strong in me. I asked this same prayer when I went to Philly for the last two years. I think that God really did continuously answered my prayer, because at times, I felt extremely weak, spiritually, emotionally, and physically, but I really felt God’s strength leading me on throughout the rest of the day. One of the other lessons that I have been able to acquire during this trip is a lesson that God continues to teach me and I continue to struggle with. The lesson is that God doesn’t need me. God doesn’t need you, Tran. I have a task-oriented personality. I like to do things, get tasks done and be a busybody. I have this mentality that God needs me to serve Him and other people in ministry needs me to serve, but I realize that it is just my pride tugging at my heart. Although there were many tasks that needed to be done, I tried to have peace about each task because I kept trying to remind myself that those tasks will get done either by me or someone else. Even they didn’t, that would be fine as well. I also tried to remind myself of each task’s purpose because a lot of times I just focus on the task that needs to be done rather than the bigger picture of the task. I’m sure that I failed a lot in attempting to be less task-oriented, but I also learned that God continues to test us at our weakest spots, because like in sport, you want to get better at you’re most weak at and the only way to do that is to practice the weakness more. One of the best parts of the trip was the peace that I was able to feel in my heart. I believe the scenery and the atmosphere of the campus had a lot to do with this. I had a chance to take many walks within the serene campus and do prayer walks by myself. I felt in touch with nature and was reminded of my Creator’s creations. Many times in Orange County, I fail to acknowledge the beauty of His creations, and Hoi Dong was a good time for me to be reacquainted with His strength and majesty. The other best part of the trip was the cooperation between the two churches, Orange and Midway. I was very ecstatic that I got to know Binh, Dennis, Robin and Kevin more. Serving with them helped me to learn how to work together, hanging out with them helped deepened our bond, and talking to them brought me many laughs. C.S. Lewis once said in "Mere Christianity" that "A Christian must neither be a Totalitarian or an Individualist." I saw that this statement proves to be true at Hoi Dong. I truly enjoyed our cooperation and teamwork. If there were any areas of improvement that I could describe, it would be that fact that I did not get to attend the youth meetings as much I would have liked to. I wanted to spend more time with the youth, for example, in a bible study setting, or a worship setting rather than just playing games and hang out with them. However, I did enjoy the time that I got to spend with each of the youth members. Dorming there at Hoi Dong helped me to deepen this relationship with the youth. I think that is also one of the reason why I did not enjoy Hoi Dong when it was in California. I did not get to dorm and sleep and get to know each person on a personal level. As I end this reflection letter, I pray that God will continue to open doors for me personally to serve God at a different place such as Seattle, and allow me the opportunity to be stretched spiritually for His Kingdom. |
