Vietnam Mission Trip, 3/14/11 (AM), P. Jim Munter

Dear All,

Jeff and I are having a good time and I think he is enjoying all the fun with the team. Binh seems relaxed and Raina is doing a great job with organization etc. As far as I know no one complained about the hotel in Viet Tri, which was a real test of the groups flexibility. The electric for the entire city went out for the whole day on Saturday (the day some of us went to the orphanage where Katie lived). The hotel food was OK, but not great. Mr P, the new director of the orphanage, took us all out to a nice place to eat on Saturday night. He has replaced Twit (the witch) and is a really great man. Interestingly enough, he is a Christian who was appointed by the comrades.

Yesterday morning, Sunday, we did a medical clinic at the Orphanage in Viet Tri. It was an easy one with only 110 kids and adults, but it was a great clinic for the team to start with. It went smooth and the team is working well together including the organization and repacking of the meds etc. Binh and Raina have worked out an organizational structure that has make it twice as fast and easy as before. We had all the medical bins organized in less than three hours.

After the clinic we loaded the bins (about 25) and our suit cases on a truck and "No Yo" and a driver left for Sapa. It is a long drive over some steep mountain roads, but it saved us the hassle of getting them on the train without any security to watch over them in transit. We left Viet Tri at 5:00 pm and arrived at the train station at about 7:00. We ate dinner in a fast food restaurant in the train station and then boarded the sleeper car after walking around other trains etc. Always an adventure! Our train was called the "Orient Express". It was a much improved ride from the last time I made the journey to Sapa. Even the rest room was clean and mostly odor free! What will they think of next! They must have greased the wheels etc. because it didn't even squeak around the turns like the one we had last time. All this to say that I slept most of the night. Binh and the girls had a great party laughing and carrying on wearing some comical animal masks that someone brought along to give to the kids. They even shared some of their wine with us.

We arrived in Sapa at 7 am and had two small buses waiting for us. We stopped to take pictures of each other on the border of China. Then the beautiful ride up into the mountains to Sapa. Everything is so green. The rice and garden terraces cascade down the mountain sides with the farm people working with their hoe and wearing their colorful ethnic clothing. We passed in and out of clouds as we climbed higher and higher. It is truly a beautiful place to visit. As always there are many tourists here.

Our hotel is nice. All our rooms have a balcony overlooking the mountains with the rice terraces and little farm homes. It reminds me of Switzerland. We enjoyed a great breakfast with dozens of things to choose from. The hotel staff would cook eggs, pancakes, omelets, Pho, etc. After breakfast we went for a walk around town. Of course we had plenty women in their colorful ethnic dress wanting to sell us their handicrafts. It is fun to watch our team members trying to be polite only to encourage more and more ladies saying, "you buy from me, I give you good price". The main market was complete with all the smells and interesting cuts of meat, fish, and other things I didn't recognize. Of course there are dozens and dozens of shops, restaurants, and beautiful small hotels with colorful French architecture. Many of them are quite new and others are wonderful older buildings with more ethnic style. Over all this area is much cleaner than Hanoi.

I am typing this from the hotel lobby where they furnish two nice computers for guests to use free of charge. In fact the hotel manager has offered to treat our whole team (28) to dinner tonight.

Tomorrow we have a clinic for the ethnic boarding school, and the next day to a mountain village new to us.

Some folks want to use the computer, so must close for now.

Jim

Vietnam Mission Trip, 3/14/11, Raina Zeeh

Subject: Sapa

We took the all night train to Lao Cai and arrived at 6:30 AM. Most people said they were able to sleep okay on the train. It rocks a lot of people right to sleep. We laughed a lot before bed and had a great time. After arriving at the train station we went to the China border to look at China across the river. We saw an "engagement" happen on the bridge. The "bride" and several men from Vietnam met a group of other men from China at the center of the bridge. They all talked and shook hands (except the lady who stood away from the crowd) then walked back to the Vietnamese side. Binh said that it was probably an arranged marriage that was coming together. It was interesting to see. We made our way up the winding road to Sapa which is high in the mountains in the North. It is actually sunny, making it very beautiful!! They have terraced farming along the mountains with red dirt in a patchwork with green. The clouds just nestle into the valleys and hang along the mountains. Our breakfast overlooked a valley that was beautiful. We have a free day in Sapa to shop and see the sights. Many people went on tours/hikes to visit the indigenous villages and a waterfall. Everyone who did that said it was wonderful. Some of us shopped at the market and bought a few new things for the COPI fundraiser and a few things for ourselves. At the end of our shopping day the clouds have rolled in and the fog is very thick. You cannot see very far at all. Hopefully the clouds will lift for tomorrow. Tonight we will have a special dinner provided by the hotel manager. He loves the work that COPI does in Sapa. Last year when we had a change in plans for clinics he found us a new place to do a clinic. He is quite nice and very accommodating. The dinner should be wonderful. Tomorrow we will have a clinic from early morning until late in the night. We will go to a boarding school for indigenous children and see 304 students. We will stay until we're done to not leave anyone out. We will provide each student with a gift of a blanket, gloves and writing tablets. This afternoon we folded and packaged the gifts we will give out. It will be a long but rewarding day tomorrow. More later! Raina

Vietnam Mission Trip, 3/11/11, P.Jim Munter

Vietnam Update, Friday, March 22, 2011

Pastor Jim Munter

Wow! I can't believe the change! We picked up our luggage and twenty some bins, loaded them on the carts and pushed them out into the lobby without one word or hassle from anyone! binh told us later that she went through the usual humiliation this morning with the comrade in charge of that part of airport operations.
The bus driver never used his horn once on the trip to Viet Tri!
The road is now a divided four lane (narrow) highway all the way.
I hear very few car or bus horns out front of the hotel (what a change).
And the hotel has a big Children of Peace International banner over the entrance to the hotel!
It's almost no fun without dodging the livestock and ducks on the road and the thrill of drivers daring each other to head on collisions. However it was fun to help Jeff see all the rice fields etc. It is an overcast day, but the temperature is mild.

I took 33 hours from SLC airport to our arrival in Viet Tri, needless to say we are all tired. I did sleep for about 4 or so hours last night. In a few moments we will walk to the orphanage and tomorrow is a rest day. I am going to see if I can find a ride to Katie's orphanage tomorrow. Not sure it will work out.

I have to get ready to walk with the team to the orphanage. Will write more tomorrow and let you know what happens.

Jim

Vietnam Mission Updates

Pastor Jeff is posting regular updates on the 2011 Vietnam Mission trip in the Pastor's Blog. Visit http://www.goodshepherdutah.com/pastorsblog/pastorsblog.php to read all about this year's trip.

Royal Family Kids Camp Banquet

SAVE THE DATE!

RFKC Annual Fundraising Banquet Saturday, March 12, 2011, 5:30-8:30 PM Hidden Valley Country Club, Tickets $45.00

Please join us for an evening of fabulous food and fun at Hidden Valley Country Club. Shop for unique and exciting items in the live and silent auctions, with all proceeds from event used to support the 2011 Royal Family Kids’ camp.

For more information on tickets, or how to donate, email info@rfkc-gslc.org or contact Victoria @ 801-809-1112 or VBushon@msn.com

GSLC Salvation Army Outreach

When Is a Sandwich Not a Sandwich?

by Pam Palmer, Mission Journalist

They look like ordinary sandwiches. Two slices of bread with layers of lettuce, tomato, and cheese, and piles of sandwich meat, egg salad, or tuna salad in between. But to those who made them, members of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church’s (GSLC) Salvation Army mission team, they are handmade packages of love and care that are part of building the body of Christ. Once a month, members of GSLC makes sandwiches, to help feed some 300-500 of Salt Lake City’s homeless people, for the Salvation Army at the Catholic Community Services Community Dining Room (CDR) across from the Road Home homeless shelter south of The Gateway.

"The ones Christ ministered to are people from all walks of life,” says Lindy Carlton, a member of the mission committee at GSLC. Lindy is part of the dozens of church members who team up to serve the dinner meal and offer God's peace at CDR from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on the third Sunday of every month. Congregation members donate fresh fruit or make sandwiches from two loaves of bread that are delivered to the church by 3 p.m. on the third Sunday. Other members go to the CDR to pass out trays, ladle soup, and serve a choice of sandwiches, a dessert, and beverages. A few team members also offer willing dining room patrons communion, prayers with anointing oil, and English and Spanish pocket bibles.

Lindy first served sandwiches about 10 years ago on his birthday, and he has been serving in the ministry ever since. “I fell in love with serving them,” he says. “It’s like a moral compass. After a few weeks away from serving I forget how blessed I am. I get caught up in worldly things, my struggles, what I don’t have. Once there, I again realize how blessed I am and how much I do have. I have a house to go home to. I have a car. I go to my pantry and take food out for someone who would go hungry if I didn’t give them something to eat, and I’m able to go back home and still have something to eat in my pantry.”

GSLC has brought beneficial additions to the Salvation Army’s dining program over the years. “We give them a choice of sandwiches because there are so few choices in their lives”. GSLC also began donating fresh fruit like oranges and bananas, which are easy on dental problems, and more seasonal fruit like grapes and melons. A “pickle ministry” began with a jar of pickles, and members brought ice tea one summer when temperatures reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit. When servers began running out of coffee provided by the Salvation Army, GSLC members brought the church’s big coffee urn to the dining room to keep the hot beverage flowing, and the team has since added tea and hot cocoa for the patrons. Here again is another opportunity to offer the diners a choice. A few times a year the team is able to offer new socks and hygiene kits. GSLC has also donated coats, hats, gloves, and many other articles of clothing.

One Saturday during prayer at GSLC, a prayer team member said the Lord told her to serve communion to the Salvation Army dining patrons. The team agreed and now three or four members offer to serve communion, or pray using anointing oil, or are blessed through donating bibles. This is the area of service where Lindy has gravitated. “We feed them living water and the bread of life. They will eat sandwiches, but they’ll be hungry tomorrow. We need to give them the bread and water that will cause them to hunger no more.” Often team members hear patrons say they aren’t worthy of communion. “I haven’t been to confession” is a common reply they give. The response is, “I’m not worthy either. I’ve sinned since I took communion this morning, it’s my nature; we’re human. That’s why God wants you to come to Him.” Once you explain it to them, some of them will say, “OK.”

In the cacophony of hundreds of voices, banging trays, and shuffling feet filling the dining hall, the team unfortunately sees many of the same faces month after month. We feel kinship with many of the people we serve. Others struggle with mental disabilities, alcoholism, or narcotics addictions. A few are transients, like the woman passing through Salt Lake City recently on her way home to Indianapolis from Las Vegas where she had visited her son. Lindy heard how it had taken her a month to get to Las Vegas in the spring. She expected the same travel time to return. Most of us would fly in a plane for a few hours to get there. Unfortunately many new faces seen are unemployed people and families hit hard by the recession these past few years. “They can either pay the rent or buy food. So they end up at a soup kitchen.”

Seeing the Spirit alive and active, witnessing God's work in the dining patrons’ lives is what humbles the mission team members. A Prayer Team member once slowly approached a man who was suffering severely, rocking and chanting, staring down at the table. “I felt he was possessed by demons. Whether they were satanic or it was an illness, I don’t know.” Standing behind him, the PT member put out his palms toward the man’s shoulders and poured out his heart in prayer, asking the Spirit to calm him. “And the Spirit did! For that one moment the man grew silent and had peace.” Today that man is better, and while he still does not speak to others, he smiles and nods at the PT member. Last month a team member gave Lindy a piece of paper with a woman’s name written on it. The woman wanted to get a message to Lindy thanking him for praying with her. “She said I had given her support,” says Lindy, “and led the Spirit to her so she was able to go on and be uplifted by God. This is how God works in helping people. I now carry that piece of paper in my bible.”

The next time you open your refrigerator or pantry to get something to eat, consider volunteering to make sandwiches or donate fruit for the Salvation Army. It’s a very fulfilling and rewarding experience to do Gods work. It is awesome to be the Lord’s vessel, to be his hands and feet here on earth.”

Who would have ever imagined that the body of Christ could take shape from merely serving a sandwich.

Family Promise Ministry

Family Promise is a Salt Lake area ministry seeking to meet the needs of families in need of housing and support during very difficult times in life. Good Shepherd hosts Family Promise guests several times a year. This is an amazing ministry and we are always in need of volunteers during our weeks of hosting. Check out this promotional video to find out more about Family Promise.