Watch what you eat
Today as Chai Fong and I were heading up to class... an empty packaging laid on the floor, it looked strange for it had a vaugely familiar koren woman on the cover.

Upon closer observation, we gasped in horror as we saw.... The 'Da Chang Jing' Beef bean curd skin... It was utterly unbelivable... I mean celebrity endorsements were one thing but a drama serial endorsement? What the hell?

Things I like about Vietnam (4)
I like Vietnam because...
I learnt to ride the motorbike here

Things I like about Vietnam (3)
I like Vietnam because...
We are like minded people
They also believe that if something is in abundence...
EAT IT!

Things I like about Vietnam (2)
I like Vietnam because...
French influence rocks!

Things I like about Vietnam (1)
I like Vietnam because...
It is full of ironies

Vietnamese Wedding Photos
Imagine this... you have your wedding photos taken on an island of grass in the middle of the street during rush hour... You take your bride's hand and kiss it....in the background, hundreds of vietnamese motorbike riders slow down to catch a glimspe of the action (and also in the background is a singaporean man taking photos of the entire scene)..... The shot is taken..... when you look at the picture again all you see are hundreds of faces staring into the camera lens (with a singaporean pointing his camera at you)

In the 'tacky! tacky!' picture, ask yourself whcih is scarier...... The pose the couple is in...or the man who's riding with one hand turning to see the commotion (not keeping his eyes on the road)... ... ... ...

And the situation is?
6 MONTHS!!! I have been in Vietnam for 6 months now and things have still been wonderful… Last month was perhaps the hardest month for me, I had many many problems at the work place

Feeling insignificant and being taken advantage of, I felt crappy and going to work was a chore to me. However God was faithful, He always provides for my every physical and spiritual need. He continues to dig up the really deep and troubling issues of my life and works it out with me and well how this is done cannot be described with mere words but know that the joy which comes with this is unbearable! Woo Hoo!

The big ‘O’
Last Sunday’s sermon was shared by a pastor of the international church in Indonesia and it was on the topic of Outreach. His message was from the book of Acts chapter 13:1, and he showed us how the church was made up of the most peculiar group of people ( namely a former blind murderer, a businessman, a potentially scary dude who was affiliated with king herod and I can’t remember the last person…but go find out)

But anyways… There came a point in time when the pastor challenged us by asking (and asking us to stand) who will INTENTIONALLY make an effort to OUTREACH and in my heart I knew that I wanted to jump up and down from my seat, but when he called for us to stand (eyes closed)… I did it with a very heavy heart

Many years ago a couple of us from church went to Wesley for a talk/sermon on missions and the hall was filled up with maybe 250-300 people and at the end of the sermon we were challenged to make a commitment to God and His mission by standing…So when they called for us to stand, I stood up (with our eyes closed) and when I opened my eyes barely a handful of people stood. Then the seated people around me fervently prayed for me deep in conviction and very genuine…the entire congregation was praying as one… but it felt very lonely standing there by myself….

Well back to last week… I was afraid that I would be standing with another handful of people… But when I opened my eyes 90% of the church was standing together with me making the commitment to intentionally perform an outreach to someone whom God has called us to. It was unbelievably beautiful and that moment I knew I was in the right place. A church where people from every tribe and tongue came together to worship the living God, working together to carry out the will of He who has called us.

The 40 year prayer
I can't remember if I had written about this before but I remembered that I wanted to share this testimony with you guys.

In July, Sharon a singaporean lady after hearing the sermon on sunday felt the need to simply just go to the airport and meet someone and give them a welcome...and she did...at the airport she met an elderly malaysian couple from Penang and she greeted them and invited them to stay in her home as they had no plans...

They came to Hanoi because they got free tickets....and because it was such a sudden thing, they didnt book a hotel or anything....and when Sharon approached them...they eargerly went with her...(not something that i would do...but hey who knows) So in their conversations Sharon found out that the wife was a believer however her husband was not and she had been praying for him during the last 40years (or 30...) That sunday he came to church and I met him and he eyes were brightly lit and he was excited to meet everyone...

During the course of the week the older singaporeans and malaysians brought them around and what impressed this man most was how happy everyone was....as he had always been a skeptic towards christians....however Godworked his way into this man's heart and he accepted Jesus into his life during his week's stay here in vn...

Yesterday during service, Sharon stood up and told the chruch that the man passed away last month... I cried so hard and I thanked God for allowing me to witness him fufilling a 40 (or 30) year prayer... I know where he is today and at times we feel that our prayers are not heard but God answers them in His time (40 maybe 30 years)...that has been a lesson that he has been constantly teaching me here in vn....

Agape
Tobias

O $ PAY $
Its a sad state when you can't trust your own company to reimburse you for the things you've paid for... I now make photocopies of everything and pin them on my wall......

And as for the issuse of the medical expenses claim... I am not allowed to do so as it wasn't stated in my written contract...

(however during the verbal discussion of the terms of my contract, my understanding was that as long as I had seen a doctor at the approved clinics and produced a valid receipt, I could be reimbursed the amount I had spent)

Well I know my fate... here in this company... Its ironic that the have no qualms about sending people on these redundent flights all across vietnam costing them $usd300 each time... (they flew a teacher in from Danang to teach for 3 days until a new teacher came in and they would then fly her back....like DUH!)

I'm amused
Yesterday we had a mini-celebration for the mid-autum festival and the school hired a troupe to perform for the kids. It was 'interesting'...i suppose...

The event started off with a 'raffia-string' Lion dance and it was nice to see a semi-mouldy/faded lion costume (that had obviously been kept in the store room for too long) But it did move very well...

Then there were the animal acts
I was utterly disturbed when they made the monkeys do tricks. There was a chain and collar around the monkey's neck, and the monkey-man would just yank the chain to get the monkets to move wherever he needed them to be. So as he lifted the monkeys up, they would grab on the the chain with their dear life so as prevent themselves from being choked and strangled....The kids were utterly estacticly amused (am i allowed to use a sentence like that?) and well all the expats were throughly disturbed....myself included

There were also the dog acts but those were more erm...humane? dancing dogs, spinning dogs, flipping dogs, rolling dogs, balancing dogs... I mean as long as they're not being prepared for dinner I suppose its ok that they get to entertain children...

As you can tell all the animals featured in today's post are edible :)

Just another day in Paradise
Well Mom's come and gone, and Ive got to say it was a good trip (dispite all the arguements and normal family stuff) I now face to horrors of work and frankly im getting a wee bit tired of everything thats going on here.

Last minute changes and constant unnecessary stress make it more difficult for me to teach and I could see this from yesterday's class. I was prepared for the class but i couldnt execute it well.... Ich habe viel stress....

Ich learnen Deutsch und habe viel stress
And heres the thing that i found appalling in Vietnam...They fine (adult)students for not doing their homework. I was absent for 4 german classes coz mom was in town and I was made to pay a SGD$4 fine......What the hell!

White make-up and red lipstick
Here are pictures taken during the week mom was here