Hello to wonderful family and friends from the Kingdom of Cambodia. We arrived safely on the 22nd in the capital city of Phnom Penh by bus. But before I get ahead of myself talking about Cambodia let me explain our time in Vietnam.
Vietnam
We stayed in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam for ten days. Ho Chi Minh City has a population of around 3 million and is the southern most populist city. Most of you know that Vietnam is a communist country and, religiously speaking, is “closed”. In other words, you cannot talk about God and Jesus publicly, and especially cannot do this in an evangelistic way. This is quite confusing because Vietnam is supposed to be a “religiously free” country but the communistic government makes it clear that “open airs” or unsponsored religious events are a “no no”. Let me try to explain: In Vietnam there are “open” churches and “underground” churches. The open churches are registered and approved by the government. These churches plan activities that have to be approved by the government, and in most cases would almost never include an evangelistic event, kind of like China. Open churches are monitored by local officials and the pastor is constantly under the microscope as well. All this to say that it would obviously be hard to have a “Spirit-filled” congregation under so much scrutiny.
The underground church, on the other hand is an “unofficial” church that is not recognized by the government. This frees the church up to plan whatever they want—evangelistic activities, Bible studies, etc. But, of course, the men in green (police) do not like this very much and throw these Christians and their pastors into prison quite regularly, torture included. I had a chance to visit one of the underground congregations and shared my testimony, played a couple songs on the guitar, and even taught the Bible. Then we prayed for the pastor and his wife at their home which is where the church is located. I also visited an open church a couple times, once for Easter once for the following Sunday service and it was OK I guess. The preaching was translated in English so that helped but other than that, you do not dare to raise a hand or shout an “Amen”.
One of my highlights in Vietnam was spending the day with pastor Bob (can’t use his name here). He is a local pastor who led an underground movement and spent nine months in prison because he shared Christianity with others. A few years ago God used him to convert over 700 people to the Lord and the officials didn’t like it very much. He explained to them that “Aren’t these better citizens? They stopped smoking, drinking, doing drugs and are better people now.” They couldn’t answer him but told him to stop. He didn’t. Then the government actually offered money to all 700 people if they converted back to their former religion or just dropped Christianity. Unfortunately, 400 of them did but 300 stayed true to their faith. Then they threw him in prison for nine months after repeatedly being told to stop proselytizing. He told them, “I’m not evangelizing, people ask me why I am different, and I tell them—I am doing anything wrong or illegal.” Bob is correct of course, you can share you faith in Vietnam if someone asks you or the topic of religion comes up so many times he stumped the officials and they let him go. In fact, he’s been arrested over ten times. The normal police officers can’t even talk to him now, or they don’t want to; only the chief of police will talk to him. God gives him these amazingly clever answers that they just can’t respond to logically. Just like 1 Cor 1:19 states (quoting Isaiah): “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
In Vietnam we prayed a lot, since we couldn’t talk about God openly. The government was holding significant elections from the 4/19-4/22 (right at the time we were there) so we prayer walked around various government buildings until they got suspicious and “shooed” us away. That’s the tough thing about Vietnam, you never know when someone is listening or watching and it makes things very stressful at times. It was the first time I had ever experienced not being able to read my Bible in public or talk about God openly. In Bali we had a taste of that but in Ho Chi Minh we got the full course meal of religious suppression.
Also during our stay, our team worked at an orphanage twice and played with the children. This home was for children with mental and physical disabilities and many are that way as a result of Agent Orange from the war. In addition, three or four times we shared at an English club that met at a Christian coffee shop. All in all, Vietnam, especially HCMC (Ho Chi Minh City) was really exciting and fun. It’s a hustling, bustling, up-and-coming city. Lots of technology, digital billboards, river walks, parks, and shopping. You can buy anything you want: Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Louie Vatan (sp?), and its copy for a lot cheaper J The city doesn’t go quiet until late in the night and our hotel was right on a big tourist strip which added to the excitment.
Cambodia
Yesterday, the 22nd we took a six-hour bus trip from HCMC to Phnom Penh. It wasn’t bad but the driver picked us up at 8:45am and started yelling at us in Vietnamese and broken English quickly throw our bags in the bus. What happened to the storage compartments? Not here. I had my huge travel pack, guitar and day pack and lugged those all onto the seating area that as crammed with people. There was one seat that had others’ bags on it so I threw mine on there, put my guitar overhead, my day pack in-between my legs and sat next to a foul-mouthed Aussie for three hours. He warned me that we were going to drive around the block for an hour but I thought he was kidding: nope. So we drove around the block in circles about five times for one stinking hour, picking up random passengers or I don’t know whom.
So we finally left HCMC and I started my conversation with Gary. Gary was an interesting fellow, 39 years old, single and had been working odd jobs and traveling around the world for about nine years. After this next trip to South East Asia, he was going home to Brisbane to visit his mom he hadn’t seen in seven years. I’m not sure why because we changed seats before I got all the details but I could tell he wasn’t happy with his lifestyle, mostly because he said he was tired of traveling and hinted at settling down. Basically our conversation consisted of him giving me traveling tips which were fine by me, considering his vast experience and me wanting to improve my listening skills.
The highlight of our banter was when him and his friends (who were sitting behind us) discovered that three English girls traveling with us wanted to stop the entire bus at an ATM because they didn’t take out any cash before coming. To this, of course, Gary and his friends were astonished and used a plethora of explicatives which, although offensive, made me laugh considerably. Because who in their right mind would travel to another country and not have any on-hand money? Not sure. So I agreed whole hardily, and prayed our team leaders had our funds as to not invite the wrath of these seasoned travelers. The three irresponsible Brits did find an ATM and convinced the bus driver to stop, amidst the fear of government officials fining him and his company. Its always interesting how money can change a heart very quickly even in the face of a communist government. And not just any money but American “green backs” of course. In Gary’s words, “If there’s one things you know, mate, it’s the green people want, wherever you go.” Insightful words that I will no doubt put in my bank of travel knowledge.
After taking a ferry, traveling for five more hours, and enduring the onslaught of Cambodians trying to sell us everything you could imagine at one of our stops, we made it to Phnom Penh around five in the evening. Today we worked at a local slum with an American, a Sweden, and a Cambodian. These kids were crazy and very fun! More on Cambodia later.
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