Last Thursday night I was hanging out with a bunch of friends for a little birthday party. I was talking with a Vietnamese friend, just random conversation, when seemingly out of the blue she began pouring her heart out to me about her struggles as a believer and how she feels that she has fallen away from her faith. She and I have never talked about anything like this before and have not had that close of a friendship, so I was taken by surprise when she began sharing so much of her life with me. She told me that she had been watching me and just had a feeling that I was the person with whom she could share these things. She has had some very bad experiences with pastors and other people at her Vietnamese church when she has tried to talk to them about what is going on in her life and hasn’t had any sort of support and encouragement. It is in moments like these that I am reassured of my place here in Vietnam. I came to love on the orphans, but also to love on all the people that I meet. I had no idea that I would meet this girl and that for her, I would be the person she has been waiting for, an answered prayer. It’s pretty amazing how God works, isn’t it? I told her that I would love to meet her for coffee or something on a regular basis so that we can talk more about what she is going through and how I can be there for her. Please pray that I would be able to continue building this relationship with her and that God will speak to her through that.
