Nam to Cambodia! Swim Lessons Bonus!

Xin Chao!

As our time in Vietnam is over I figured I would hop on here and give everyone a quick update of what happened in Vietnam and how the Lord is moving there. Also we have arrived in Cambodia and there is a unique opportunity to teach swim lessons! I’ll share more about it later.

Last blog we left off in Ho Chi Minh City, where much needed rest and time with the Lord was spent. Our Squad then hopped in a bus and drove about 20 hours to Danang where we dropped off the entire squad except for team DOGS. We continued in a van for about 2 more hours until we arrived at Hue, Vietnam.

The next day we were introduced to our ministry host and his family. They then explained a little bit about Cru and what it looked like in Vietnam. The ministry is fairly new to Hue yet it continues to grow quickly. Right off the bat our team all saw the heart that Mihn our ministry host and his wife Thu had for Jesus and the college students that he worked with.

Our ministry consisted of a lot of time in coffee shops teaching English and playing charades. A lot of the college students were very shy at first and the language barrier was definitely a challenge. But over time these students became our good friends and I greatly enjoyed hanging out with them and hearing about their life. We also spent a lot of weekends at the church where they were extremely welcoming.

The remnants of the Vietnam war and communism are still very evident in Vietnam, yet the Holy Spirit is clearly moving in an amazing way here especially in the younger generation. New people are giving their life to Jesus every week there. There is a fire there that is growing and it was so cool to be in a little part of that.

While in Hue we celebrated Christmas and New Years! While being away from family was really tough. Our team had a fun time celebrating with the students. They did a phenomenal job and made us feel like family.

Our team spent basically all of our time together. I was rooming with Luke and had the privilege of getting to know him a lot better. He is very mature in his faith and I learned so much from being around him a lot. During our time in Vietnam the Lord really laid on my heart the cost of following Jesus. In 1st John 2:15-17 it says
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
Truly following Jesus calls us to put off the things of this world and Pursue the Will of the father. You can’t have both.

Vietnam was a place of growth and time to really press deeper into intimacy with the Lord.

Vietnam to Cambodia extravaganza!

For 2 days we were Illegal aliens in Vietnam!

Originally we planned to travel 20 hours by bus from Da Nang to Siem Reap. When we got to the border we got rejected. (Not due to bad planning we were just misinformed, love our leaders) We were told that we had to drive ten hours to another border crossing. So we joyfully (haha) hopped back on the bus and drove ten hours back to Ho Chi Mihn City. When we got there we got rejected once again. Because we had this delay our visas had expired! After a lot of phone calls and in the moment problem solving, we got plane tickets and flew. We eventually made it out of the country and made it to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

The day after we arrived we started ministry! This week has been long but extremely exciting. We are teaching English in four different villages. One village each day. While five of us are teaching English, three of us are doing construction. We are helping build a future Adventures In Missions base.

Swim Lessons!

Okay this is what I am most stoked about!

Shannon and Vickki Bobb are two of our ministry hosts here and they have been working here in Cambodia for the past four and a half years! They are an awesome couple and have really lived a life dedicated to seeing the kingdom come to earth. They have some absolutely wild stories also!

The first couple days here they found out that I was a big swimmer before the race. They then told me that they were looking to put on a swim program to teach the kids some basic swim skills. A few weeks ago one of their students was playing in a rice field and drowned and died. Sadly this is not uncommon here in Cambodia. Swimming has always had a special place in my heart so Shannon and Vickki asked me if I would like to organize a swim program and immediately I said yes. We have an opportunity to teach around 200 kids basic swim skills that could potentially save lives!! That being said, I am raising money in order to pay for transportation for the kids to and back from the pool, pool entrance fee, and food to feed the kids that day.

We are incredibly grateful for anyone who would like to partner with us either prayerfully or monetarily. With your help we will teach these awesome kids the fundamentals they need to keep them safe in the water. Let’s teach some kids to swim!!!

I have set up a GoFundMe for this project if you would like to read more about it and possibly consider monetarily supporting. Love ya’ll.

https://gofund.me/a5faad84

I am so grateful for everyone who has supported me and made all this possible. The Lord is moving in incredible ways and I can not wait to see how he will continue to work through his people!

Until Next time.

God Bless!