Conversion and Re-education Camp

We were able to share dinner with some of Mark's friends that he used to work with and then were invited to join them in their home for more conversation. Their stories were amazing.

When Chom and her family first came to the states, they were supposed to arrive in LA, but when the plane landed, they were not allowed off. The plane continued on to Tampa, FL where they knew no one. Her family lived there and she married there. When her family was finally able to move to LA and rejoin the rest of the family, she stayed in Tampa with her husband but cried every day because she had never been away from them. She and her husband drove from Tampa to LA to rejoin them. Chom was the first person in her family to convert from Buddhism to Christianity. One by one, every member of her family converted. She spoke about the day she talked to her older sister, the last one in the family that remained Buddhist, about the love of God while they were driving in the car. Chom said that she wished she could live that day over and over because of how happy she was when her sister finally gave her life to the Lord and she knew they would all be together for eternity.

Long and Thu were married in Vietnam. They were from Christian families and sent to re-education camps. They tried to escape and were caught. They were separated. Long eventually did escape and went to a refugee camp in Egypt. There he happened to run into Thu, who had also managed to escape and ended up in the exact same refugee camp in Egypt!! They spoke of their story so humbly, yet to all of us in the room both old friends and new, the hand of God in their lives was obvious.

Cultural Plunge

I went to LA for a conference but traveled with some PBA staff and students who went out early for a cultural plunge. Mark is the Director of Campus Ministries and Missions and he used to live in LA and work for an organization relocating refugees. So he took us to all things different from our usual. We went to a Hindu Temple, a Buddhist Temple, an Islamic Mosque, and a Temple for some religion that I had never heard of before and can't pronounce. We went to the observatory and looked through the "most looked through" telescope. I ate snails and Pazookie and used chopsticks. We had Pho with a crowd of Vietnamese, chum chum in little India, French-dipped sandwiches from Philipe's, walked the market in little Mexico, and tagged the wall by Muscle Beach to name a few. When it was time for me to fly home, I really did feel like I was re-entering the USA. But I never left.

In the Beginning

Initially I just wanted to write a letter once a month to let my friends and family know what God was doing through the ministry organization that I am now a part of. But there is so much more going on than I could ever possibly fit into that one letter! Today I heard a handful of stories about what God is doing, and it was not an unusual day.
I think that it is important, not just to talk about this organization, but to tell the stories of what God is doing around the world today in and through ordinary people. These aren't great and powerful people or the super rich. My stories are about my friends. People that I have relationships with. And the great God that we know.