Leaving Saigon....Heading Home!

Well the day has finally arrived to head back home to the States. It doesnt seem that long ago we just arrived. I will miss Vietnam. I will miss the kids, I will miss my new Vietnamese friends,  I will miss my team (after a short break of course, J/k).  This trip has been an amazing adventure for me, Lord willing I will be back, Hopefully this blog challenged many of you to do something beyond your realm of thinking. Hopefully God will use your talents to bless others. Get involved, sponsor a child, sponsor someone who goes on mission trips, plan to be a part of  a mission trip in the future. It will change your life. Please be in prayer for our team as we travel home. We will leave at 10:45am Dallas time Monday morn and arrive in Tokoyo 6 hours later. 6 hour layover then 11 hour flight. Long travel but the payoff will be worth it. Thanks for the prayers, the support and for just tuning in to hear me rant about a wonderful opportunity and the most incredible blessings God provided! Sorry no pictures tonight as I haven't gotten opportunity to upload any. I am excited, I miss my family. Mary Ann, boys get ready, Daddies coming home!
God Bless
Robert
James 1:27

Leaving the Orphanage and Return to Saigon.

Today we left the orphanage and got to spend the morning with the kids laughing, playing, feeding a little ice cream to, and said our good byes for now. It was an emotional morning saying goodbye to all the little faces that become part of your life. It is good to know that they are in good hands and with a staff of nuns and caregivers that really take good care of them. They are loved, not only from the people they live with, but from those who support the orphanage finacially and with prayer. I have said it a hundred times these past days, these kids are incredible.

I hope to be back again soon to do it all over again. How could you not want to come back and be a part of something that changes you life forever? After we said our goodbyes we headed for a long drive back towards Saigon. We had an opportunity to stop by and visit for a short while an orphanage that takes on children who are special needs orphans and kids who are bording home kids. This was very difficult due to the emotional and physical disablities that these kids had. It had been a long week at the orphanage and seeing these new kids was a challenge. Our team showed kindness and compassion as they have all week and passed out lollipops and small toys. We visited with the nuns who happened to speak some Spanish so I got to actually get to do a little translating today instead of depending on others all week. The nuns do a great job for what little they have and the challenging kids they care for. There was one girl who despite her disabilites sang with a beautiful voice, love songs to God. This is her walking in the pink.

After leaving the orphanage we experienced some heavy rainstorms making our way back to Saigon. Upon returning back to town most ate, walked a little dinner off and turned in for the night. It has been a very tiring but fulfilling week. We will be heading home late Monday evening here, Monday morning where you are at. Our time here has been a blessing. Tomorrow we will do a little site seeing, probably some haggling in the market and hopefully finding somewhere to get some american food. Thanks for the prayers.

To be concluded....

Yes He does!

All kids, All day!

Blessings to all those who have been praying for our team. Our trip is getting to its final few days and fatigue is setting in. Some in our group are nursing pains, some not sleeping great, some not eating great, but I promise there is not one here who would rather be anywhere else right now then right here. Although our families being with us sharing the experience would be pretty great I will say.

We started the day out early by taking the kids to the beach! We all piled on our bus and went for a drive                     

                                              

When we arrived it was crazy, but we loved every minute of it. Kids running in every direction at the beach with a strong tide, shells everywhere and 1 adult for every 3 kids. An American moms dream! Shells were found, faces were splashed, crabs were chased and caught, ankles twisted, football thrown, everything a kid could dream of about a day at the beach.

We finished our day at the beach with an incredible lunch under a hut overlooking the South China Sea. Every now and then God gives you a perfect moment that you absolutely cherish. We experienced one of those moments today.

We headed back to the orphanage to drop the children off and go back to the hotel for a quick change of clothes and a little down time. You should all know what happens when the Lost Orphan group has down time.... AHHH YEAH  GAUW TIME!  Some local school kids walking near our hotel didn't know what they were getting into....

Bet you didn't know Gauw could be played in front of hotel on a busy street.... Needless to say these kids ran into a total domination, they never saw it coming! 

Time back at the orphanage is coming to an end soon, some of the kids know this, we are all getting a little emotional thinking of the inevitable. It is hard not to love precious kids.

Meet Truc Giang! I cant stand it she is so cute. She has the most incredible dimples, has the best hugs and loves to get tickled!.

These 3 girls below are the oldest at the orphanage, they have developed wonderful relationships with part of our team for a few years now, they have seen them grow into more beautiful young ladies over the years. They are smart, beautiful, incredible, wonderful young girls.  

Tram, Nyung, Truc Mai, They invited us to their dinner tonight. How could you say no? These girls are what Lost Orphans is all about. Unwanted, Unloved. They have become the wanted and loved! I would take all 3 of these girls home in a minute if I could. I think all of us would. Tomorrow will be hard.

I will close with this, these 3 girls are just the tip of the surface of all the incredible children here at the orphanage. There are so many wonderful kids that Lost Orphans supports. It is a great organization doing great things....

                                                              THE END!
To be continued.....

Poorest of the poor.

I hope everyone had a wonderful, blessed Thankgiving. I have never looked that forward to having Thanksgiving dinner leftovers, but right about now some stale stuffing and cold turkey with a semi hard roll sounds pretty awesome.  When you are away from the normal things you eat, it is funny what you miss the most. Mine is a big ol' juicy cheeseburger! Funny thing is, is that the things I am getting tired of eating here are the things that the people of Vietnam eat daily meal after meal. 

We started the day out early today by getting the opportunity to go out to a remote village. The drive was absolutely stunning. Lots of beautiful mountains, river and rice fields, old small villages and small dirt roads. Never in my wildest dreams had I ever thought I would be driving in the countryside of such a beautiful country.

It was a region where one of our Vietnamese leaders called a "very poor area". When someone in Vietnam says this is a very poor area, it is probably very poor. The people in the projects in the inner city have nothing on these people.  We got to distribute food and supplies for 100 families in this first village. What a privledge.

The people of the village were amazing. I have never seen people be so excited to receive something so simple as rice, noodles, oil, a little sugar and a small gift. What a blessing. We passed out some candy and lollipops to the people, they enjoyed "american candy". Simple blessings in life.

This little girl became my friend. I had a plasic little ring from the candy bag I was passing out. I got down on one knee and placed the ring on her finger, just wanted her to feel like a princess like many american girls get to experience every day. Sometimes all these people want is to be treated special for once in their lives. Every team member has had someone they made feel special. This little girl blessed me more than our supplies blessed her family, I know I said that before,  but thats the reality. We headed back to the orphanage to "reload" our bus with supplies, we are heading out to a second village another hour away.  The second village was going to be a little more "challenging" to hand out supplies. You see this village was people who were homeless. The homeless back in the states usually sleep in the streets or under bridges or if you are lucky enough maybe a homeless shelter. Here if you are homeless you are a scavenger in the truest sense of the world. Your diet might consist of some old fish bones, a little dirty rice, whatever you find in the trash near the beaches nearby. We again were blessed to give out supplies for another 100 families or so.

I posted yesterday about the woman who cut hair of the disabled children because she felt that was her only gift to give, well this is her on the right cutting the finger nails of the poorest of the poor. There are absolutely no words I can ever use to describe her love for God to do this act. 

One of the things we try to do after we hand out food is to get in a circle and "hacky sack". Its the little thing you kick and try to pass it using feet, head only. Well here it is called a "GAUW" or "CAUW" not sure been told both, Its made differently but same game. You want to get the attention of anyone in Vietnam, get a game of "Gauw" going.

"Get your Gauw on!", "Get up stand up come on get you Gauw up", Everybody wants to play the Gauw!... Ok Its late, I will stop. I have to admit, I stink at soccer but my Gauw game is getting better each day! Thinking of going pro one day! 

I will close with this, We finished the day with some dinner back at the orphanage, the nuns made us a "thanksgiving dinner". They purchased some fresh crab and fish when we were near the beach, I didn't eat everything as right now my taste buds are all jacked up, but I have a feeling they just wanted to say thank you for serving the people of Vietnam.  Now I want to say thanks to all of you who help provide funds for me to take this trip as well as the countless friends and family who are praying for us. Without you I would have never been able to experience this blessing.  I look forward to tomorrow as we get to spend the day with the children, medical checkups and record updates and lots of playing karate and games. I am looking forward to getting to love on these guys all day. Goodnight from the South China Sea!

To be continued....

Give Thanks and count your blessings!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my family and friends, Thank you to those who spend a few minutes reading my journey and my hope is that a little bit of Vietnam touches each of you through this trip.
Many of you today will celebrate the day we in America give thanks for our blessings that we have, I know many of you know this, but our country is blessed more than you will ever know. Our day started out in a hospital feeding people who were in the hospital for various illness or injuries, you see when you are at a hospital back home they feed you when you are hungry, in some places if you have no family to bring you food, you don't eat. That simple. Shout out to the nuns whos ministry is to do this 6 times a week starting at 4am. Dedication. You will find that word to describe a lot of people here.

Yes all those are patients who need to eat! Thanksgiving meal today for them consisted of a rice type soup with a small baggie of sugar, a can of condensed milk and small gift, oh and some hot water for tea if they have any tea to make. We are blessed!

We left to a cemetary after the hospital to visit a site where literally thousands of babies are buried because they weren't wanted. John and Christine whos life has been dedicated to orphans took us here because this is where their passion began! This is a epidemic of sorts in Vietnam. Each tomb contains anywhere from 50-100 babies. It starts by saving one...The picture says it all.

                                                    

We next were able to get back to the orphanage where we were going to have the opportunity to give out food and small gifts to the lame and disabled of the area. Emotions running high for our team.

                                   

I can't thank them enough because their lives touched our teams lives more than the bag of rice and noodles we provided for them touched theirs. Their smiles and hope were all the thanks I needed. 

We are blessed!

You want to know what loving God is?

This Vietnamese sister started cutting hair of all the disabled children, God gives us all each different tools to use, she cuts hair. She wanted them to feel special and loved anyway she could. Dedication.  I didn't get to take a pic of the young men clipping nails of the hands and feet of the disabled kids. They wanted to do something for them, anything. To make them feel loved.



After the feeding, we got to hang out with my new friends again, I think they got more adorable today then they were yesterday. I got more hugs, more love and more attention then yesterday.  They are absolutely incredible...                                                

And lastly on a lighter side, as much as this pains me... This is for my wife and all my Aggie friends who play Texas this friday....

WHOOP!

Happy Thanksgiving, if you remember our team today say a prayer. God bless!

Thuan and Esther & Love at first sight!

Let me start off by saying I have a new vice, I have discovered my crack cocaine here in Vietnam... it is called simply Vietnam Iced coffee. I am hooked!

Today has been a day of travel. We left Saigon this morning and packed up our bus along with about 8 others from a local church to make the 4-5 hour trip to the orphanage.

We brought with us 6 members of a local church who have been helping out as well as building relationships with the nuns at the orphanage. Every few times in a persons life I think you run across a person who after meeting them and talking to them you can't help but get the feeling that they are destined for great things! Meet my new friend Thuan  pronounced THWAN, in the picture up above. Thuan is a pastor at a local church in Saigon. He is as soft spoken as they come, but what makes him a wonderful person is his wife Esther. Esther has an amazing testimony! If you have time watch both parts of these, part 1 cuts off at the end and about a minute is missing but it concludes on part 2. I had the privledge of meeting both of them last night with some of their members. and got to visit with both on the ride in to the orphanage today. I am blown away by them both. Not to put any pressure on them, but I got the feeling I may have just met the future Vietnamese Billy Graham? I know thats putting pressure on him, but even if he isn't, I know these guys are going to be part of huge things here. Here is Esthers testimony if you are interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InYWyaqMwhE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrh9qdNTgYE

We finally made it to the orphanage late in the afternoon. When we did this what was waiting for us...my new little friend here tasted my sunglasses, tried to eat them then decided my hat tasted better! Never thought I could feel so crazy about children that weren't my own, but that theory was just shot!

I have met and talked to many who have made the trip to Vietnam and the orphanage and I have heard the overwhelming joy that these kiddos can't help but bring to your heart, but OH MY GOD! is all I can say...if there is anything in this world that will melt your heart, It is these children. They sang, danced, and entertained us for awhile. It was pretty cool to see the team members who have been here before to reconnect with the children who have seen them in years past who have now grown up some.

We got to eat dinner with the nuns and then we wrapped things up for the evening with a little night time meeting with some of the kiddos present.

I couldn't help at some point tonight but be overwhelmed by the fact that these kids are orphans. Some given up because they were simply not wanted, some because their moms couldn't keep them or take care of them. They are truly beautiful kids! Loved by a group of dedicated nuns on a daily basis doing their best, supported by many finacially from the states, local church members getting involved. They may not have a mom and dad in the traditional way, but they are loved! I have found some new people this week I have fallen in love with, Love at first sight!

Airplane ride and first day in Ho Chi Minh city

We left DFW Sunday morning at 10:15 which because of some mechanical issues with the plane wound up being 11:30 before we could take off. The airplane ride was quite an experience for me, needless to say comfort was not top priority. I have never been in a plane ride for 13 1/2 hours before or 6 1/2 either so I was challenged to do both in one 24 hour period. we were great, God really put together a great team of people for this trip. Bill met a young couple on the plane and immediately made conversation with them, they were travelling to Japan and had a small baby with them, he was a soldier. Needless to say Bill was holding their baby for them later. After I saw this young man who was a soldier, my thoughts on the plane immediately went to thinking about the thousand of soldiers who made this trip  some 40+years ago. I started to think what it must have felt like being 18, 19, 20 years old making this trip over the pacific ocean not knowing if you were ever coming home again. I realized that this trip gave you lots of time to think and evaluate your life along the way. I started thinking about how the mere mention of the word "Vietnam" brings alot of harsh, emotional, difficult feelings in alot of people in America still today. I began to be saddened by the loss of  some 58000+ Americans and 3,000,000 Vietnamese people during the 60's and 70's.  America has made up with alot of countries they have been in conflict with over the years, England, Germany, Japan, but in Vietnam this has been a slow process. Lets hope that changes soon.  God is doing some amazing things here in Vietnam, His presence is starting to spread more and more with the Churches and Missionaries doing wonderful things. Christine helped a lady on the plane who passed out, upon waking up she was so thankful to Christine for helping her translate to the flight staff she heard the story of the orphanage and donated money! Our team had lots of plane stories. I got to sit next to a lady from Beijing China who was going home for the holidays, she was amazed  that a group of people would travel all this way across the globe to help small orphans!

I met a man here in Vietnam from DFW who many from Lake Pointe church and around Mckinney area already know named Tim C. I have never met Tim before so this was a chance to get to know someone who is help leading this wonderful organization. Tim is a man who has a heart and passion for orphans around the world. When I say around the world the man has a vision. He is helping do some great things here and in Kenya Africa and is going to Romania soon. Be in prayer for this guy he is being used to do wonderful things for orphans globally. We definately have tired face in this picture. Thats what 20 hours on a plane does to you.

Today in HoChiMinh city (formerly Saigon) we had a day today to get our legs back under us, I have never experienced Jet Lag before but WOW it punched me in the head. I am greatful for this extra time to get my head back together. This is one amazing city. It is New York but with a million mopeds and bikes everywhere blending in with vans cars and trucks. Crossing the street was the big adventure for me! Dont know how they do it but it works here. We got to have lunch today with some of the nuns from the orphanage we leave for tomorrow. They brought some of the kids with them. These children are beautiful.



The little girl on the left in the lap of the nun has to have surgery in the morning for a cyst growing on her left neck/shoulder area. The little boy on the right is Phung (spelling?), he is saying the Lords prayer in Vietnamese for lunch. Sister Mai is in glasses, she runs the orphanage. Dedicated doesnt even begin to describe her commitment to the children.

If I haven't said this before, John and Christine, John on the right, are an amazing couple, they are our liasions and translators for the week. They are the ones who helped start the orphanage and you can see the love and compassion in their eyes for these children. Not to mention Christine is a great haggler at the marketplace. We leave for the orphanage in the morning, a 4 hour bus ride to the orphanage, I am looking forward to continuing the work that many men and women have put into the orphanage. Great things are happening here! Contiue the prayers.  To be continued...

Why in the world am I going to Vietnam?

This is the question I have asked myself for the last few months, Why Vietnam? A little over a year ago my friend Bill hosted a golf tournament for an organization called Lost Orphans international and he invited me to play,he had shared with me how he had taken a mission trip to small town in Vietnam called LaGi. 

Bill had told me stories about his mission and about how God had really opened his eyes to helping orphans around the world. I didn't give much thought to it but was really proud of my friend. I also had met another guy named Aaron whose son Ethan was on Noah's baseball team and Aaron come to find out was part of this Lost Orphans International group. Small world huh? Fast forward to this past spring, Bill asked me if I was interested going to Vietnam with a group they were organizing for November 2010. I naturally said Let me think about it. I tried to think of every reason not to go, I just couldn't come up with any.

I have always wanted to seek and do those things that people do that you only read about in books or come see them talk in church, or see them on Today Show or Nightline. I wanted to go someplace in this world and do something for those who need help the most, I want to be that person who helps build orphanages in different parts of the world, I want to be that guy who helps give children in different parts of the world medical treatment and vaccinations and I want to be that guy who says yes to loving on children that are abandoned in this world. I prayed and prayed seeking out wisdom for what I should do. So I said yes. I was tired of being the "maybe next time guy" or "maybe someday guy". I wanted to be a "Yes" guy!

 So what was next? How do you raise over $3000 in just a few months? Great friends and family! To all those who gave, you are tremendous and thank you for sharing in my blessing. Thanks to my Garage sale friends, wow, what a blessing to have generous friends! To those who times are tough with right now, its ok I can definitely relate to that so Prayers are not only accepted, but encouraged.

So whats next?  Follow this journal and find out! Flying out Sunday morning 10:15. 13 1/2 hours, 3 hour layover, 6 1/2 hours flight from Tokyo to Ho Chi Minh city (Saigon).  My knees are not happy! I will live though.
Prayers for our team, safety, health, and our families back home.

God bless

Robert