Vietnam Trip Sharing! ⛰️🚗👭🏻❤️‍🩹

hello dear, how are you? miss you 🤍

I’ve been pooping the whole day today, I took a chill day at work half resting and half working. But that also makes me finally having the time and space to journal about my Vietnam trip.

(Caution: This is a really long writing :))

I came to this trip without any specific expectations. I actually intentionally tried not to think about the trip before we went, because I wanted to be in an open posture to fully receive what God has prepared for me to experience in this trip. It turned out to be such a refreshing trip, both spiritually and mentally. And it wasn’t because of any dramatic miraculous moments that happened, but all the details and conversations where I constantly experienced God’s gentle touch throughout the trip.

During this trip, we actually had a lot of long car rides especially when we travel between Ho Chi Minh City and Dak Lak (where the village is). It created a lot of opportunities for deeper conversations and bonding with the others that I went with:

1/ There are 8 adults and 3 kids in our team. I became quite close with the trip leader towards the end of the trip. We actually have a mutual friend, that is the girl I hung out with a lot when I was doing my masters in London. Because I sat with her when we had an 8-hour car ride back to HCMC and also on the plane back to HK, we had a lot of time to bond and I gradually shared some of my stories that I’ve not talked about with anyone for a long time with her, such as my unhealthy church life in the past when I went to another church, my relationship with my parents and brother. She then would also share her stories with me too, which is very different because she’s from the US. She also asked if I’m dating anyone, and I told her a bit about you.

I guess what really moved me was that I used to think I’ll probably never bring up some of these stories of my past with anyone because they can feel very heavy and triggering for me. I signed up this trip on my own without any company. As an introvert, that’s a really big step for me especially with my tendency to be socially isolated. But in the setting and atmosphere of this trip, I could really feel how God set a stage for me to open up gradually without getting overly-emotional. There were still moments when I felt a bit uncomfortable during our chat, that’s when I would pause for a bit to ease myself. But overall, I feel like I really bonded with her in a unique way.

👇🏼 a very ugly photo I took with her phone, haha

👇🏼 we two went to a coffee farm in a moutain, it was an unique experience hearing from the owner.

2/ I mentioned to you here that during the trip, I volunteered to share my testimony/faith journey with the team. I was actually quite sleepy and slightly nervous when I did that, I also didn’t prepare myself enough, so I thought I only did a “OK” job in the end. But after that, I chatted with another teammate in the car, and she told me she related to my story a lot because she shared a similar background as me. I was quite encouraged because I thought I didn’t do a great job, but God somehow still used that to touch another person. It reminds me again that I am such a high achieving, perfectionist person, but that sometimes also becomes what’s stopping me from seeing God’s grace and mercy. Just like how I stressed out about leading songs for the kids camp, it was never really about how well I play or sing, but how we connect with those kids during this camp through love.

👇🏼 this is how it looked like, when we did our sharing during breakfast

3/ There is also another girl who is the only other girl from HK in the team, she is 3 years younger than me and actually a recent convert. She shared her story with us and it really moved me and reminded me that there is no soul too lost that God can’t redeem. On the last day, we had some alone time together at the airport, and we ended up having a really good conversation about career. She’s on a career break now and she is feeling quite lost. I shared with her about my career paths, how I used to also be very lost after graduating in marketing and tried switching career, doing a Masters etc. As I was revisiting that journey as I shared, I felt really touched because I was reminded that even though there’ve been times when I felt really lost in my career, God was in all of those moments and eventually guided me to find purpose in my job. That was another conversation highlight that I had during the trip.

4/ The last one I wanted to share is out of the 6 nights during this trip, there were 3 nights that I had to share room with another two girls, one is the girl from HK, another is her friend from Malaysia. On the 5th night, the Malaysian girl shared with me about her relationship trouble with her crush. I was very surprised because that guy sounded so similar to Edison (a bad texter, cold on the surface but it’s actually because they are too logical and so bad at processing emotions), except that this Malaysian girl has just been so brave to talk with this guy and help him open up and process his emotions, so that they can connect at a deeper level. I was really impressed and that made me reflect on my recent relationship struggles with Edison. I feel like God used this chat I had with the Malaysian girl to help me understand why it wasn’t working out between the two of us. I don’t think I’ve ever properly opened up and expressed my feelings when I am with him, and that has been what’s blocking us from connecting further. I know that if we ever want to develop anything further, that is where I will need to step up in and make the first step. But I also feel like at this stage, I have resolved to just go with the flow to see where God takes us to in our relationship, and not to try too hard to push for anything.

👇🏼 the one holding the camera is the girl from hk, next to her is the Malaysian girl :)

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As the trip came to an end on the 6th day and when we were on our car ride back to Ho Chi Minh City, I was looking out at the windows and I suddenly had this really strong feeling in my heart to realise, that God has really designed this trip specifically for me in so many ways. Whether it’s the deep conversations I had with the teammates, the kids and leading worship in the camp, the long travelling journey, and even the unexpected coffee shop visit in the mountains on the last day in Dak Lak, these experiences all somehow speak to a certain aspect of my life, either the past, present or future, and that has brought so much refreshment to me spiritually and mentally.

I was actually also stretched in different aspects during this trip. Having to be stuck with the same group of people that I didn’t know for 7 days, sharing room with someone for 3 night, staying in 1/2 stars hotels in an underdeveloped area etc, these are all really big steps for me as someone who is not very mentally healthy and experiences social isolation. But it’s also because of these slightly uncomfortable stretches that allowed me to experience all the blessings and growth from this trip. You know how I sometimes mention that I have a gut-wrenching feeling whenever I go on trip, I never really had that same serious feeling during this trip. I was also supposed to experience very bad PMS on that few days, but I was quite okay physically and slept quite well throughout the trip.

As I came back to HK, I feel like my heart is just so full because of God’s presence throughout this trip, and I am just really grateful for all the things he’s shown me in this trip.

👇🏼 a few more photos :)