#14

"Hello! I hope that you are having a good new year!

We spent the weekend in Dà Nẵng visiting the teachers and meeting again with the administrator from the university that we are hoping to send teachers to. We invited the administrator out fo

r dinner, and it went really well. It’s hard to tell with Vietnamese people if they really like you or not because they are so polite. I thought it was a good sign, though, that she invited us to stay at her home overnight whenever we come to town. While that might be a little too much pressure for me, however, it really meant a lot to hear.

While we were eating dinner, she asked about our rel*gious beliefs. I felt nervous, wondering if that would make her leary. She got excited, and said that although she isn’t a Believer, she often used to go to ch*rch with her foreign friends when she lived in Ho Chi Minh City. I breathed a huge sigh of relief! We also met with the other ESI teachers who are living in Dà Nẵng. One of them is really struggling with teaching, and they are all struggling financially. Please pr*y for Andrea, my boss in California, and me as we seek to make changes so that the teachers will have a livable amount of money. We will start working on renegotiating with schools in February or March.

On Sunday night, I helped Hannah with her kids class. I took in chocolate cookies. The kids said that they had never tasted a dessert that was that good. Trust me, though. I’m not that great of a baker. Vietnam is just really short on sweets and desserts!

I also took in a gift of some new clothes for one of the students. Her father died, and her family can’t afford new clothes. In Vietnam, everyone, including adults, gets new clothes for the new year. When she opened the gift, she got teary eyed. The boy beside her, who is a good friend of hers, started screaming and jumping up and down when she opened it. He was so excited that she now had new clothes for the new year. It was really a blessing to me in many ways, but especially to see a child get that excited for another child in need.

After class, Hannah took us out to eat. She asked if we liked frog meat, and I told her I had never tried it. So, she ordered a big dish of spicy lemongrass frog stir fry. I have to hand it to Hannah. She has never led us astray with food. It was actually delicious. Susan and I both liked it. I included a picture. Sorry, it's a little bit blurry.

'

While we were at the table, Hannah’s son said that he knows who Je*sus is. I was surprised, because most people in Vietnam have never even heard of J*sus. Then, a few minutes later, he asked why J*sus had to die on the cross. I was thrilled to hear Hannah explain the plan of salv*tion to him. Although she hasn’t made a decision to accept Chr*st yet, she definitely has been listening to what I’ve talked about and also what she’s read in the Chr*stian fiction books. I am thrilled to see forward movement in her knowledge and acceptance of Him!

Please continue to lift up our friends, as well as the other American teachers in their homesickness and financial struggles. Also, please pr*y for me as I am still trying to learn more Vietnamese. It is quite a challenge for me, and sometimes I want to just throw in the towel. However, I know that it’s important, so I keep on studying. Thank you so much for your pr*yers and support! We appreciate it so very much! I hope that you have a blessed new year!

Love,

Yogi"

#13

"Happy New Year! I began the New Year battling bronchitis and my stomach ulcer, but things can only get better from there. I thought that by explaining my illnesses to our friends, we would have a very quiet, uneventful New Year celebration! How quickly I forget that we are in Vietnam, and if you are sick, that is even more of a reason to have visitors.!

We managed to have a quiet New Year’s Eve, but by New Year’s Day, David and his girlfriend, as well as Hannah and her friend, insisted that we all have a party in our room. I told them that I would bake a cake for them, and that we could just eat cake and talk together. Well, they showed up with their own cake from the bakery, a LOT of candles that they insisted must ALL go on the cake, and a bunch of fruit. The cake really was a fire hazard. I included a picture at the end. I could barely hold it because of all the heat coming off of it from the candles. They loved the cake that I baked, and insisted that American cake is much better than Vietnamese cake. Their only complaint was the icing. They about choked when they took a bite of the icing, exclaiming “Ngọt quá!!”, meaning “too sweet”.

They gave me “lucky money” for the New Year, which is a tradition in Vietnam of giving small bills to young people to bring luck and happiness in the New Year. David started to sign the bill he gave me, but then stopped when he remembered that last year he signed a piece of lucky money and then the person died. They stayed for about three hours, and by the end, I was very tired, but also very happy. They told us that they just couldn’t stand to see us alone on New Year without our families. It’s a blessing to have such caring friends in Tam Ky.

We’ve been having a love hate relationship with Butter flavored Crisco that we found in a city nearby. I love baking, and we both love eating sweets, so I’ve been baking up a storm. We give most of it to our students, but we can’t help but eat part of what I bake. We heard that Hannah’s son tried to eat the entire half the cake I gave them without sharing any with his parents.

Thanks so much for your pr*yers and support again in this New Year! Please continue to lift up the university that I am communicating with. We hope to have teachers there next year if it's His will, but we have a lot of work to do to get to that point. We appreciate all the cards we've received! We hope that you each have a blessed year! We appreciate each of you, and all you do to enable us to serve in Vietnam!

Love,

"Yogi"

#12

More from our friends in Vietnam!

"Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Vietnam! I imagine that it’s cold wherever you are right now. And, believe it or not, we are “freezing” here, too. It’s gotten down around 60 degrees, so we have our long underwear, sweatshirts, thick socks, and scarves out now. It’s officially winter here! I never thought that my teeth would chatter when I was in 60 degree weather, but I guess I am now almost adapted to the cold here.

We had a really good Christmas! I have to admit that I wasn’t feeling festive for mos

t of December. As I mentioned before, we were really homesick this year. Thankfully, our friends here surrounded us at Christmas and helped us have a great day. We started out by going to Dà Nẵng to meet with the teachers there. We shared a traditional Christmas meal together on Friday at a western restaurant run by deaf people (Bread of Life). The restaurant was decorated beautifully, and we had a really good time together. After our meal, I had a meeting with the director of the English department at a reputable university in Dà Nẵng.

We’ve been pr*ying for new positions in universities in Vietnam. "Boo-Boo" and I are very happy in OUR CITY, and plan to stay there, but for the other teachers, it’s time to find new schools. Right now, we work only at English centers, except for "Boo-Boo" and I. In the future, we really want to transition into all university positions. I had a really good meeting with the director. She was quite an intimidating woman. I was so nervous during the meeting, and kept telling myself to think happy thoughts so that I didn’t look scared to death. Well, it was only G*d who made it turn out well, because at the end of the meeting, she told me how much respect she had for me because she could tell that I really love Vietnam. She also told me that she would like for me to come to Dà Nẵng often so that we can hang out together. I was really surprised, and know that it was only G*d who could have made the meeting turn out well. I will have to do a lot of pr*ying if I am going to hang out with her again! Please pr*y that if it’s His will, we can come up with a contract with this university for next year.

On Christmas Day, Hannah asked me to please help her teach the class and have a small party for the children. I took in some stickers, cookies, and other goodies. When I walked through the door, they burst out in “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”. They presented me with homemade gifts and cards, and took turns singing Christmas carols.

After class, David, his girlfriend, and I went out for cow heart and seafood hot pot. No, this was not my idea. My suggestion was banh xeo, which is a dish made of fried rice patties with shrimp. I could tell that David really wanted hot pot, so I relented. The cow heart was not as bad as you might expect. I wouldn’t order it on my own, but after seeing it raw, it wasn’t as bad as I expected. I brought along some sugar cookies that I had made, and they were absolutely thrilled. I really meant for them to share them with the other people at ch*rch, but they ate all of them. They ate them at dinner, while riding the motorbike, and even at the ch*rch service. I don’t think that anyone has ever enjoyed my baking quite that much. We headed to the ch*rch service, which was really wonderful. It was an outreach service, and it was really done well. They had skits, dance performances, and lots of singing. I attached some photos here. My favorite part was when “Mary” got “J*sus” out of the manger. “J*sus” was a blond, curly haired baby doll. I had to laugh. I guess it was a very multi-cultural manger scene.

One more thing that made our holiday complete was receiving a deluge of cards. We hadn’t gotten any cards the entire year, and then they all arrived at one time! Thanks to ALL the people who sent cards and gifts!

We are so blessed and thankful to be living and serving in Vietnam. Thanks for all you do to make this possible!

Love,

"Yogi"