COPI Mission Update, March 20, 2012

March 20, 2012

Sa Pa, Viet Nam

We had devotions in Mike’s and my room at 6:45. More of Matthew 18… As I finished, we received news a city official had cancelled our clinic. We prayed again and went to breakfast. We prayed after breakfast, and went to our rooms to wait and see what would happen. About 30 minutes later, we had permission to do as we planned. Why? We prayed for God to soften the official’s heart. And the students and the faculty at the school threatened a strike and walkout.

We were 45 minutes behind schedule when we arrived at the school. We set up quickly, and received our assignments. I was the pharmacy assistant again. My job? I passed out worm tablets, counted and packaged as I was instructed, and of course I got to give each child a toy. :)

We served 302 children today. We also served 9 people from the community. As we finished our clinic, the children sang for us and we gave out blankets to 79 new sixth-grade students. We also gave gifts to the 30 top community-building students. We left the campus after 8:30 PM. Every single team member loved and served well today.

We had an excellent meal at the hotel and everyone was eager for his or her bed. I am sitting in the hall to get Wi-Fi, and I haven’t seen a single team member pass since I started.

Our day starts 30 minutes earlier tomorrow. Please continue to pray. I hope what happened this morning helps each of us understand how important our prayers are.

Tired, but ready for more,

James

March 18, 2012 (sorry its out of order) COPI mission

March 18, 2012: After about 30 hours of travel, settling in to our hotel, a day of repacking medical supplies and visiting the King's Temple or an orphanage, today we had our first clinic. We held it at the handicapped school in Viet Tri. Some children live at the school and some live nearby. The range of disabilities is large with deafness, blindness and some mental disabilities. There are two orphans there that have severe mental and physical disabilities. We saw 76 people today including the children and teachers. It is the smallest clinic we will hold but it gets our feet wet to see how things are done. Today I helped with hygiene, washing hands and brushing teeth. The children are very eager to do a good job.

Last night we had a special dinner from Mr. P to thank us for having a clinic at the school. He is the director there. Pastor James learned how to "Yo" and was quite skilled! (If you don't know what that means you will have to ask someone who has been to Vietnam!!) We had a wonderful dinner at a nearby restaurant.

We are leaving now for our night train ride to Sapa. I will write more later. Thank you for your prayers. Everything has been very smooth so far!

Raina

March 18, Clinic in Viet Tri, Hanoi, Viet Nam

Most of us slept less than the night before. The traffic noise, and the hard beds were a little tougher to deal with. We had devotions in Mike’s and my room this morning at 6:45. I read Matthew 18:1-6, and we pondered what it meant to keep a little one from coming to Jesus. We turned the conversation to the positive with the happy thought of receiving Jesus with each child we served today.

The clinic was up two flights of stairs. There are only 7 men, and a mountain of bins to move. All seven of us were dripping wet by the time we got started, or should I say ready to start? We had a line of people when binh and Raina were asked to meet with Communist party officials and explain our procedure. They gave us three observers: two doctors and a pharmacist. Binh welcomed them and we were allowed to start. All three of them were actually very pleasant people.

I was assigned to give out toys at the very end, and to help our pharmacist. This means I got to nod and smile at our observer. She seemed very professional and was courteous with her questions. She stayed an hour, and then left without saying good-bye.

Giving away toys was really fun. I got to help each child choose a toy. Some had “buyers remorse” and came back to exchange it. I couldn’t say “No.”

We served about 85 children. Most of them are developmentally or physically challenged: Downs Syndrome, deaf-mute, blind, or a variety of other issues. I was able to pray for each child.

We had lunch, and then had to haul everything back down two flights of stairs. Wow. My legs and back can already feel it!

We check out of our hotel at 4PM, and then take a train to our next clinic at Sa Pa on the border of China. We will arrive there at about 06:30... We get to rest and prepare for our next two big clinics. These are back-to-back, so we are cautioned to actually try and rest on Monday.

Thanks for praying!

James

PS - Here is where we had our clinic and a photo of Bethany (from Australia) hand-painting with a child.

Clinic in Viet Tri, Hanoi, Viet Nam

Clinic in Viet Tri, Hanoi, Viet Nam

Most of us slept less than the night before. The traffic noise, and the hard beds were a little tougher to deal with. We had devotions in Mike’s and my room this morning at 6:45. I read Matthew 18:1-6, and we pondered what it meant to keep a little one from coming to Jesus. We turned the conversation to the positive with the happy thought of receiving Jesus with each child we served today.

The clinic was up two flights of stairs. There are only 7 men, and a mountain of bins to move. All seven of us were dripping wet by the time we got started, or should I say ready to start? We had a line of people when binh and Raina were asked to meet with Communist party officials and explain our procedure. They gave us three observers: two doctors and a pharmacist. Binh welcomed them and we were allowed to start. All three of them were actually very pleasant people.

I was assigned to give out toys at the very end, and to help our pharmacist. This means I got to nod and smile at our observer. She seemed very professional and was courteous with her questions. She stayed an hour, and then left without saying good-bye.

Giving away toys was really fun. I got to help each child choose a toy. Some had “buyers remorse” and came back to exchange it. I couldn’t say “No.”

We served about 85 children. Most of them are developmentally or physically challenged: Downs Syndrome, deaf-mute, blind, or a variety of other issues. I was able to pray for each child.

We had lunch, and then had to haul everything back down two flights of stairs. Wow. My legs and back can already feel it!

We check out of our hotel at 4PM, and then take a train to our next clinic at Sa Pa on the border of China. We will arrive there at about 06:30... We get to rest and prepare for our next two big clinics. These are back-to-back, so we are cautioned to actually try and rest on Monday.

Thanks for praying!

James

PS - Here is where we had our clinic and a photo of Bethany (from Australia) hand-painting with a child.

March 17, 2012 from Viet Tri, Hanoi, Viet Nam

Hanoi, Viet Nam

I was up at 5:30 AM. I switched on the light hoping not to wake Mike, my roommate. He was waiting for me to get up, and so we had instant coffee (thanks, Martha). I had beef pho (soup) for breakfast at 7 AM, and then we started sorting the bins. Wow. There are a lot of bins = large plastic containers full of: medial supplies, dental supplies, hygiene supplies, pharmacy supplies, toys, and hats and gloves, etc. It took us until almost noon to be ready for our first clinic tomorrow.

We had lunch and then eleven of us were off for some sight-seeing to the Temple of Kings. This temple and burial ground has been used since 1,200 BC. It is rich in Vietnamese history. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a single sign in English.

Five others went to another orphanage. They had a good time even though their driver got lost. They thought that was exciting because they saw places they wouldn’t have seen. :)

We returned from the temple at 5:30, and upon the recommendation of Raina and binh, I visited one of Pastor Jim’s watering holes. Four other men were already there, but none spoke English. It didn’t matter. We shared some water buffalo jerky with a VERY hot jelly. We smiled, I listened, and I bought a round when it was my turn.

We had dinner at a restaurant about 3 blocks from the Hotel Hanoi. It was hosted by the school master of the place we will have our clinic tomorrow. 28 for dinner with white table clothes, wonderful food, and great company. All four other men were there, and we nodded at the idea we had started early. The dinner was fun. No one at my table spoke English. Again, a smile and gestures can get you a long way with good-hearted people.

Tomorrow starts early. I am giving devotions at 6:45 in Mike’s and my room. Breakfast will be the same, and then we will have our first clinic.

Thanks for praying. I may miss a day with the blog because tomorrow we sleep on the train!

James

Viet Nam COPI blog

March 16, 2012

Hanoi, Viet Nam

I asked for this, didn’t I? We left Salt Lake City on a Southwest Airlines flight at 3:30 PM on Wednesday. SLC to Las Vegas, Las Vegas to San Francisco, a six hour layover, and then a 1 AM flight to Taipei, Taiwan. Boing’s 777-300ER is huge. It seats 2/4/2, and I had a middle position. Hmm. Raina Zeeh on the right, Rita C. on the left. Rita reports that I snore. Those who have traveled with me on mission trips will think, “That is not a news flash.” The good news is that I slept well enough to do so. Raina and Rita also reported some good sleep, and so we were ready to start our day in Hanoi. There was nothing remarkable about our flights, and I always think this is good news.

We had a 3-hour bus ride from the airport in Hanoi to our first hotel in Viet Tri, (trace a 40 degree diagonal north west from Hanoi, and you will cross Viet Tri). We were told ahead of time that this hotel is a little rough. Yes, it is. But we will be okay, especially with lights out early tonight.

Saturday, we sort stuff into all of the right bins so that we don’t have to take everything everywhere.

Thanks for your prayers!

Pastor James

30 Hour Famine

Good Shepherd Youth Ministries recently participated in the 30 Hour Famine event sponsored annually by Word Vision. The goal of this ministry event is to educate students to the reality of global hunger and poverty and help see how they can actually make a difference.

Our students spent two months preparing for the event by collecting donations from family, friends, classmates, and people in the community. All of the funds that the students collected goes directly to fight hunger - our students decided to have their funds go to the Horn of Africa. All together our youth collected $3800 which supports a little more than 10 kids for an entire year. Praise God!

The event culminated with an 30 hour lock-in event where the students experienced hunger first hand. We spent time volunteering at Concordia Prep School in the morning and then spent the date in tribes, learning all about hunger and poverty. The highlight of the event came when we had four teenagers from Somalia come and share with the students about life in the Horn of Africa. This visit gave a real life experience to the whole event.

Good Shepherd, you have every reason to be proud of your youth! They are truly amazing and I continue to be impressed with their hearts for the Lord. God is going great things in their lives and I look forward to many more tremendous ministry experiences with these amazing young people.

Blessings,

Jeff Stephenson