Snapshots of the Vacation

Tet holiday (Lunar New Year) is over and for a few weeks the city has been recovering the normal routine. The woman who sells egg sandwiches at the corner by the school seems to be taking an extended holiday, to Bryan's and my dismay, while her kiosk is tarped over and chained to the telephone pole. Maybe today will be the day.

My parents left a week and two days ago after spending 10 days here. Seeing them, as one friend put it, had the healthy effect of connecting the two worlds I live in--home and here--and we thoroughly enjoyed the time together. Highlights were having them visit the school, relaxing at the house with my teammates, and bopping around Danang on rented/borrowed motorbikes.
(Picture: an after-church stop to drink coconut milk with Mom and Dad. It was the first time for all of us.)

I met my parents in Hanoi on the night of the Tet holiday itself--in fact, we were in a taxi from the airport to the hotel on the stroke of 12, creeping through throngs of partiers and motorbike traffic, seeing fireworks explode here and there out the windows.
A few hours prior I had been with all the ESI teachers and our stateside director, Rick, winding down our mid-year retreat. As a group of 9, we spent a few days in Halong Bay, about three hours from Hanoi, relaxing together at a ghost-town of a hotel. Doing the tourist thing is always novel, but wears out fast. February was the month for touristy activities--more than in the rest of the year combined!

Here are a few photos:

Bryan, Rick, Mary (ESI teacher in Vinh), Heath, Nicky, and me.

Dad and I co-teaching!

M and D on their rented ride. 5 bucks a day...helmets included.

February 13th update

Here's an email I sent out before the vacation:

Dear friends and family,

Chuc Mung Nam Moi! That is, Happy New Year!

Like an expectant mother--as I heard someone make the comparison yesterday--Vietnam is preparing for the lunar new year this weekend. It's the biggest event all year--hands down. Shops and schools are closing, people are repainting their gates and buying new outfits, and Danang city has been flooded with yellow flowers and little mandarin orange trees.

As of Saturday night we began a ten day vacation from school, and what a blessing it is! On Sunday our regional director arrived from the US, along with another ESI teacher from a northern city, and in a few hours this morning we will all fly to Hanoi for a time of retreat,
sightseeing, and fellowship. We are really enjoying swapping stories and continuing the friendships we started last summer at training.

Other exciting news: my parents will be arriving to Hanoi this Friday night, where we will hopefully rendezvous at the airport. I am going to relish the ten days of being their host and guide in this place I have come to call home.

Our God is good. To give a fair report, teaching is still difficult, though my confidence is higher, and the mundane parts of life often take center focus. It might be easy to picture life overseas being wild and different and entertaining. It IS, it is; but the same things are inside me. Still, my overriding thought is thankfulness. I am profoundly thankful to be in this place at this time, learning what I am and serving who I am. More than ever I enjoy the relationships with the
staff at the school, learning more Vietnamese and using it when I can, getting to know the neighbors, and observing the Vietnamese people from a close vantage point. *Living in another country is an incredible opportunity; for any of you in the position to do so, seriously ask the
Lord if it is an opportunity he would have you take. *

Our team is getting along wonderfully; in fact, it is a little sad to picture life without them. We all laugh a lot together. I appreciate more and more their gifts and personalities: Bryan's wisdom, Nicky's servant attitude, Dawn's thoughtfulness. Bryan spent a miserable week of January knocked out from a kidney infection, but has recovered now and is, Lord willing, on the rebound to regaining the 30 pounds he has lost since last summer (!) from the problem which caused the infection.

Despite the good things happening, this has been a difficult period for me spiritually. I feel stretched and challenged, not from external things but from the consideration of my own heart and life with the distance that this place has offered. I know that God has placed me in a
season of maturing, yet I often feel resistant to that process. It is, I feel, as if God is stripping away the false parts of me and I am scared when I see how little remains. For certain, the only thing we have to put confidence in is Jesus! May we all grow more and more into his image.

As ever, thank you for your support and blessing to me! Send news and prayer requests my way and I'll try my best to respond.