Day 3 Sunday in Saigon

Sunday morning began early with church at the Evangelical Church of Saigon. We had gone to this church the last time we were in Vietnam and it is located in District 1 of HCMC which is where our hotel is. The church is very large and there were approximately 1000 people in attendance this morning. The church has a section where English speakers can sit and listen to an interpreter through a set of headphones. At the end of the service there were four young Vietnamese men who professed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The pastor prayed with them all in front of the church. It was a very moving experience. Five years ago when we were here I witnessed the baptism of about 40 new believers. At the conclusion of the service we shared in the Lord’s Supper with the congregation.

I talked with two Vietnam War veterans after the service who were seated in the English section. One of them was from Kentucky and he told me that he travels to Vietnam twice a year. He has a number of friends and contacts that he does various things with. He shared with me that there is a Southern Baptist church in Saigon called Grace Baptist. I got his contact information and I hope to speak with him some more before we leave.

A church of 1000 seems like a very large congregation, but Saigon is a city of around 9 million people. Very few Vietnamese consider themselves Christian, only about .5% of the population. Approximately 10% of the population identifies as Buddhist and 6.5% as Catholic. About 80% of the Vietnamese population consider themselves non- religious. The Vietnamese government has been oppressive to just about all organized religion in the past. Over the last several years a number of doors have been opened and I am sure even more will be in the future. Religious materials and proselytizing are strictly forbidden in Vietnam, but some areas are more tolerant than others. I noticed that the bibles and hymnbooks in the church were labeled “For Internal Use Only”.  Pray for the Vietnamese people and that they might be given full access to the gospel through missionaries, teachers, and materials in the future. The gentleman from Kentucky shared with me that there are now over 30 Gideon camps in Ho Chi Minh City.

When I met the man in the park yesterday (the one who gave me the ride on the moped), I asked him if he knew who Jesus was. He shared with me that he did not go to church anywhere, but he knew who Jesus was because he had learned about him when he was refugee in Hong Kong many years ago. It is amazing to me sometimes to see how the Word is spread, even in areas where the “doors” are often closed.

Tomorrow we are going to take a trip out to the Cambodian border to the city of Tay Ninh. The city is the birthplace of the Cao Dai religion. Cao Dai is a mixture of multiple religions including Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Taoism. The religion has been made famous by the ornate design of its temples which are crowned with the all-seeing eye. After visiting Tay Ninh, we are going to take a trip to Nui Ba Den (The Black Virgin Mountain). The mountain was the scene for years of bloody fighting between American forces and the Viet Cong. I hope to have some pictures to share tomorrow.

UPDATE: Don't know how I left this out, but our luggage arrived today. They located it yesterday in Beijing, China and were able to get it to us this afternoon. DeanAnne and I were both so happy to see that suitcase. I have been wearing the same pants since Tuesday and washing the other stuff in the sink at night. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers.

Day 2 Excitement

Our second day in Ho Chi Minh City was really an interesting one. The boys really wanted to go back to the playground area again, so we decided to take them again. The particular playground that they really like is only a few blocks from our hotel. On the way to the park we pass by the Reunification Palace which is the renamed government building of the South Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. The area is very beautiful. We pass right by the front gates which were the sight of a very famous scene that the North Vietnamese spread throughout the world after they captured Saigon in 1975.

We spent all morning at the park and I talked for a long time with a Vietnamese gentleman who had two children at the playground. (Any time that we stay in a place for very long I am approached by someone who is looking to try out their English skills with me.) He wanted to talk to me and have me clarify some different words that were confusing to him. I am amazed at the desire that so many of these people have to learn the English language. This man had a book that he had used to teach himself with. Many of the people go to schools and pay private tutors to help them. There are so many Americans here who make their living by teaching English as a private tutor. Many of them have no formal credentials. They are just meeting the demand of the market.

After talking with the man at the playground for a while, we said goodbye and DeanAnne, the boys, and I began to pack our things to leave. After the boys got their shoes on I noticed that the man had stepped away from the playground, but his two children, a three year old boy and a five year old girl, were still playing. I didn’t see him anywhere, so I assumed that he had gone to get his moped out of the parking area. His son who was three years old left the playground and began to walk up the street. This particular area was not very busy so I assumed that he must know where his father was and he was just walking to him. We left and began to walk back to our hotel. After we got away from the park and back on the main street, I noticed the little boy about two blocks away. I told DeanAnne, “That is the man from the park’s son.” He was walking down the sidewalk of one of the busiest streets in Saigon. Nobody even paid him any attention. He began to just walk out into the street and the mopeds would just drive around him. DeanAnne said, “What should we do?” I told her that we couldn’t grab him because there was no telling what the people would think. I told her and the boys to follow him while I went back to find his father. I immediately started running the few blocks back to the park. When I got closer, I saw the man frantically asking around about his son. He saw me coming and he ran towards me. I told him that his son had wondered away and that my wife and sons were following him. He ran to get his moped and I told him we would meet on the next street.

Meanwhile, the little boy has realized that DeanAnne and the boys are following him. He begins to run out into the street to get away from her. She has to get JR to go and try to get him to stay on the sidewalk because he is terrified of her. He runs down the street and a woman who is selling things stops the little boy. DeanAnne tries to explain what is going on, but the woman cannot understand her.

By this time, I am convinced that I will not see DeanAnne and the boys again because they are nowhere near the area I last left them. The man from the park has driven along beside me the whole way as we were looking. He keeps insisting that I get on back of the moped with him and his daughter, an idea that I have resisted so far. I just can’t envision how such a small man can hold that thing up with such a large man on the back of it. All I can think about is the two of us riding a wheelie through Saigon with that poor little girl on the front. We had already gone so far that I knew we might not catch up to them if I didn’t get on. I wish that I had a picture to show you, but thank goodness none exist. I’m sure some tourist snapped a shot of us and it will show up on some blog about the amazing loads that Vietnamese people can shoehorn onto their tiny motorcycles. I got on and we shot off like a bullet with both wheels on the ground. After ten minutes of racing around I had a sick feeling in my stomach. I prayed, “Lord please don’t let some danger come to my family in our efforts to protect someone else’s family.” I think the Lord looks after children and giant men on the backs of tiny motor bikes. We made a turn and there was DeanAnne and the boys. I was so happy to see them. The woman that had gotten the little boy had stripped his clothes off of him and was washing him from a pan of soapy water right there on the side of the street. The man was so happy and I was too. He just kept saying “Thank You” over and over. We said goodbye and parted ways, paths forever linked by a moment of excitement and a mad dash through the streets of Saigon on a grossly overburdened Honda moped.

After resting in the hotel for a little while, we made a trip to the Golden Dragon Water Puppet Theatre. Water puppetry (Vietnamese: Múa rối nước, lit. "puppets that dance on water") is a tradition that dates back as far as the 11th century CE when it originated in the villages of the Red River Delta area of northern Vietnam. Today's Vietnamese water puppetry is a unique variation on the ancient Asian puppet tradition. The puppets are made out of wood and then lacquered. The shows are performed in a waist-deep pool. A large rod supports the puppet under the water and is used by the puppeteers, who are normally hidden behind a screen, to control them. Thus the puppets appear to be moving over the water. When the rice fields would flood, the villagers would entertain each other using this form of puppet play. The show was really funny and the boys loved it. Water puppet theatre is a truly unique Vietnamese tradition and one that no trip to Vietnam should be without.

We ended the day with a trip into the downtown area where I took this picture of the Ho Chi Minh City Hall.