A Silent Night is really a Violent Night

Hue, Vietnam was an adventure I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget. The first four weeks of Vietnam I grew extremely sick, leaving me in the hospital for a week and a week of recovery. This brought me into a low spot and alone with my thoughts a lot. I grew very frustrated that I couldn’t be with my team or be able to do ministry. Looking back over this though the Lord provided me strength and comfort in these moments. He highlighted that while I am weak He remains strong as said in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. I had one of my leaders ask me if I was disappointed in how Vietnam turned out for me and after thinking about it my answer is no. While in the moment I was frustrated and wanted to do more and was so tired of what I am limited to do-I look and see the Lords goodness in these moments. He was right there with me in everything moment and He highlighted in both Colombia and Vietnam that the physical body is fleeting but my soul is eternal. I wouldn’t change my Vietnam experience for the world because the Lord was so good to me.

The last two weeks I was able to go back to ministry and be with my team. I got to began to build relationships with some of these students. Not only teaching them English, but to encourage them in their faith aswell as they did to me. These young adults are the start of revival in Vietnam… where we were living there was only one church in all of that city. Where being a Christian in a closed country isn’t common nor is it always safe. These students lived out Christ’s love boldly-whether that was inviting their friends to church or English club or team builders-these students were not scared. They reminded me of Paul in having joy in all circumstances. It didn’t matter what was going on these students always had a smile on their faces and were so eager to learn.

One of my favorite moments in Vietnam was when we went to go do team builders at the soccer field with our students… my experience was way different then my teams. Before we started I noticed a volleyball court and just one guy about mid twenties playing by himself. I went over to see if he wanted to play for a few minutes. After 10 minutes of us just taking it lightly some other men showed up- all over the age of 50 to play volleyball. These men were amazing at the sport and were so joyful-whether they aced it or hit the ball in the net they were laughing and having fun. I ended up playing with these men for almost two hours. The Lord definitely provided me with this natural comfort in the sport that I have to remind me how ultimately my comfort rests in Him. It was amazing to move my body the way it used to. To feel the ball on my arms, my feet moving accordingly to what was happening and where the ball was. It was something that I didn’t realize how much I missed until I was back in the moment playing.

Let’s not forget about Christmas! This wasn’t a typical Christmas. I was missing my friends and family back at home and spent a lot of free time on the phone with them or looking at pictures. My team didn’t do anything on Christmas Eve but Christmas Day we had church from 8-10 then a church brunch. I was feeling sick so I spent the next two hours in the bathroom throwing up. When we went home we opened our secret Santa gifts and watched Santa Clause 1 & 2. Afterwards I went to my room and listened to a sermon. My mind was spinning with how little my team talked about Jesus this season so I went downstairs and gave a mini sermon-thank you Pastor Brandon for giving a sermon on Christmas Eve that I could base what I talked to my team about! For those of you who don’t know what I am talking about:

We all hear about during Christmas about Baby Jesus and the Manager and the Three wisemen as told in Matthew and Luke. But there is a third story that doesn’t get shared as often. This is found in Revelation 12:1-11. I highly recommend you go read it! It talks about what happened in the spiritual world when Jesus was born. How a so called silent night was really a violent night. When Jesus was born all of heaven went into war. The women in this chapter is believed to be Israel, the dragon is satan and the male child is Jesus. You see a spiritual war raged when Jesus was born-as prophesied in Genesis 3. I think we fail to recognize that Jesus being born into Earth was an invasion into enemy territory; everything broke in the heavens and war was waged. Evidence of this in the physical world would be King Herod slaughtering all the male children under three in Bethlehem. King Herod was just a puppet of the Great Dragon. This was a satanic attack trying to stop the savior before His mission ever began. So a silent night was really a violent night-both on earth and in heaven. It’s also important to note that while this dragon to the human brain is terrifying and it is considered foolish to send a baby to defeat him… but to a sovereign God a baby is all He needs to destroy the greatest opponent of the world. You see baby Jesus couldn’t be defeated. The dragon failed to attack the baby in the manager and later to keep in the grave as told in the gospels.

Ephesians 2 reminds us that all of mankind had fallen into sin, we are all following the Prince of Sin. Revelation 12 though tells us that Jesus was born to shut the mouth of the great accuser to restore us in right relationship with God. The accuser had been silenced by the blood of the lamb!! Hallelujah!! We are called to step out of the devils shadow and into the Sons light. While the peace of the manager that we all hear about on Christmas is very real it came at a very high cost. King of kings set aside His glory to enter into our battlefield. In my opinion that is the greatest Christmas story of all.

So long story short and to wrap this up… I wouldn’t exchange my time in Vietnam for anything else. He’s given me the greatest gift of all-Himself. And He made that more evident to me in this time.

Prayer requests:

• team to grow closer-while I had individual sweet moments with people there has been a division on our team.
• Continual growth in my health. I’m still trying to learn how to navigate GERD and what foods are safe for me to eat and which ones aren’t.
• Safe travels to the Philippines
• God to continue to reveal parts in my life where I am following the Prince of sin.

Praises:

• Jesus came! Is here! And is still living today!
• My physically body has improved so much!
• I grew close to Kyah on my team
• WiFi… so that I can call my family when I miss them

That’s all for now! I love you all back at home and miss you!

me and Heidi at an abandoned waterpark

me climbing a building I probably shouldn’t have 

after English club

looking at Catholic Churches with English students 

 

drive to Hoi An

Christmas Day service 

Minh and English students visiting me in the hospital 

Minh and elvish students praying over me 

me and Carley waiting for test results 

getting an ultrasound sound

1st English club with “the kool kids”

that’s all for now!!!