Oh so high
It’s been a hectic month and so many things have been happening in my life, many of which would really just suck every ounce of spirit out of me.

On the 14th of August I got really sick with an intestinal infection and whilst I was traveling to work (all bloated and ready to explode across the street) a wonderfully cool breeze blew through me and at that moment an overwhelming love for Vietnam came pouring into me. It is a difficult description however I shall say that it felt like a deep, rich golden honey slowly oozing out of my heart and it was such a wonderful feeling. I knew that gud had placed this in me, for only he has such power to change one’s heart and wow it was beautiful.

And so I couldn’t keep this feeling inside me and I had to tell everyone about it. The Vietnamese were overwhelmed that I suddenly loved Vietnam and they could see that I was genuinely happy. Thanh was especially ecstatic.

Thung Thanh (Cheung Thang)
Last November when I was here backpacking(I didn’t write much about it but you could still read a little about it in my Nov blog post), I met Thanh who was working at the reception of the guesthouse I was living in. He’s a really friendly guy and we just hit it off chatting for hours, but on the last day of my trip I told him that I hated the country and that I would never return and I bade him farewell thinking that I would never meet him again.

When I came in here in April and met up with Thanh again, he was rubbing the ‘I hate Vietnam and would never come back again’ statement in my face but it was ok, and now when he heard that I loved Vietnam he couldn’t stop laughing ( I told him this when I went with him back to his village and he went about telling everyone in his household and they were laughing too, sigh what’s this fat city boy to do?)

And there were the phone calls home
I called a couple of close friends and told them that I loved this place and a couple of them were really surprised coz the words ‘love’ seldom parted my lips. I mean those who knew how I was back in Singapore would also know that I was a pretty miserable soul, always living by a thread, parents who continually break my heart, hating the job situation and failing to meet my objective of getting my university degree.

But Vietnam has been really kind to me over the past months ive been here and that could only happen through the grace of gud. And its true ive never been happier, I no longer worry about not having money, neither would I have to worry about the problems my family would give me, the stress level here is really low and I can appreciate the wonders of this world a lot more. The air seems sweeter (dispite the pollution…but that’s probably what made the air sweeter in the first place), the skies are always filled with stars, falling raindrops feel like kisses, the sounds of the blaring traffic seem to fade into nothing as you take it all in.

Ah Mah
I called home 3 weeks ago and my Ah Mah told me that she had a lump in her left breast and that they needed to perform a mastectomy (cut the breast off) and I called my aunt, but what she told me was that it was only a minor operation to see if the lump was cancerous. I could hear from my grandmother’s voice that she was afraid and I was worried for her to. I then fasted food for the last 9 days of the 40 day fast, for I asked gud to revel himself to her. One night I suddenly awoke and started writing a letter to my grandmother,

Dear Ah Mah,
From the phone call I could tell that you are very afraid, please don’t be. I remembered that when I was young you would always give me joss sticks and ask me to pray to ‘Tee Gong Zhor’ (which literally mean Heaven’s Lord) Ah Mah, do understand that ‘Tee Gong Zhor’ is the creator of heaven and earth and that his name has never changed in the history of the Chinese people for thousands of years. Ah Mah ‘Tee Gong Zhor’ is “Shang di” (shangdi is another name for the creator, it is also the name that cris’ians use for gud) and we know of his holiness, his power and his sovereignty but we don’t know of his love for us, Ah Mah Jesus is ‘Shang Di’ and he was revealed to us through the jews. Je’sus wants to build a relationship with us so that we can understand gud’s love for us and he wants to reconcile us with gud. But we as men have sin and the price for sin is death but because gud loves us so, he has allowed his own son to redeem us from the price of sin. Ah Mah know that I love you very much and that you are very important to me, I ve been very afraid to say these things to you but this fear has been taken away because I love you so much so please let Je’sus take your sin from you so that you can be reconciled with gud. Ah Mah don’t worry because many people in Hanoi and in Singapore are praying for you. And don’t worry about me because gud has always taken care of me and im in good hands with the people from church. Love you lots Toby

Dear brothers and sisters who are reading know that my Chinese is terrible but the holy spirit has given me the grace to write all this out in chinese and I was overwhelmed....


Styrafoam Bubbles
Poverty is still around but the pe ple here are much simpler and contented. As I was riding home for teaching, my heart ached to see 3 street children (a boy and 2 girls of which one was probably 4) all dirty and tattered. But they were laughing gleefully as they let handfuls of Styrofoam bubbles into the wind which carried them into the river off the bridge they were on. Believe me it was so beautiful… for that I know that I have a purpose here and that I am to fulfill it. The lord of hea’ven and earth has a plan for the salvation of all man and we are a part of it. He has no desire to see anyone perish and I know that this is where I am to carry out his will. So continue to pr’ay for me and yourself that we’ll all be obedient to him when he calls and that we will not doubt or worry for he will provide…I am a witness to these things.