La Gi

Well first wifi is very hard to come by, the hotel we are in says they have wifi, but not so much!

The past 2 days have been incredible...we arrived at the Lost Orphans Orphanage and met the children for the first time on Tuesday the 30th. They immediately ran to us and hugged on us. It was awesome, the kids just wanted to be held and loved on. The sisters who run the place were extrememly glad to see us and are so funny and warm.

There are 4 little girls who are 5 and 6 years old, who have heart breaking stories how they got to the orphanage. They have taken to the guys, and have become our little buddies...we have played ball, piggy back rides, and tickle time with them. They are beautiful little girsl and smart, they are fascinated with our digital cameras and want to play with them...one Yuhm, probably took 200 pictures last night with Aaron's camera. I can not post pictures yet, as the wifif signal is too weak, but will as soon as I can.

We also went to the local childrens hospital and visited the children- 3 of which are Lost Orphans kids. While there the sisters let us help them do a soup kitchen, which they do 5 days a week, for the families there. The hospital does not provide food for patients or families, so the sisters do so 5 days a week. We helped feed 100 or so families. Later we ha a food distribution event at the Orphanage, which the sisters do 1 time a month for the diabled, again we were honored to take part in this. We handed out provisions (22 lbs of rice, 1 qt of fish sauce, 1 lb of sugar, and a box of noodles, with eq of $3 dollars) to 150 families. Many of these disabilities are thought to be the result of Agent Orange used during the war, the area we are in was targeted heavily and you can still see the effects on the land and people.

We finished off the night by taking the older kids 2+ to have ice cream. It was so much fun and the kids were in heaven. I doubt any of us stayed up to see New Years here in Vietnam, we were all sacked!

So Happy New Years and I will try to write more soon.

Peace!

Ho Chi Minh (Saigon)

Today we spent the day as a rest day trying to recover from the long day of travel plus a 13 hour time difference, so we got up ate breakfast and went to the market. What a great place everything you could imagine plus it was the main food market for this part of the city.

Later we went to dinner at a Vietnamese Italian restaurant..go figure right? Then we played hacky sack with a shuttle cock (feather thing from badminton) out on the side walk and in the street with 3 locals. Not sure what we were thinking as we not only had to practice our cat like reflexes to play, but we were also dodging traffic. Tomorrow we head Lagi to start our work.

Gooooood Morning Vietnam!!!!!

Well we are here and just finished our breakfast. We arrived last night at around 11:00 Pm and after driving through a mass of humanity we arrived at our hotel.

Our drive to the hotel was amazing as Vietnam beat Thialland in the IFFA Suzuki cup (soccer) and there was a huge celebration in the streets as all the young people took to the streets on thousands of their motor scooters. I will try an upload pictures soon, as I did not have my camera (packed in a bag I could not access) and used my phone. It should have been a 15 minute drive and ended up taking over an hour, but so worth it to see the chaos.

The flights were long, but bearable, as the 14 hour leg was in a 777 with personal video in each seat, with a large selection of recent movies. We had 4 hours in Seoul, Korea at the airport, where we ate some great sushi.

More later....

One Week

One week till we leave for Vietnam, its hard to believe that it is almost here.

This journey up to know has been so amazing, God put it on our hearts to go only 3 months ago and took what looked like a group of 4-5 and turned it into a group of 21 people. We raised all the money for the trip and for the bible, supplies, and food that we will be distributing in short order, God showed us again and again that when He is involved nothing is impossible.

I will be updating the blog as much as possible while there. Please pray for us; the evil one is already on the prowl, but we know God is sovereign and His will be done!