Love Beyond Borders: What I Learned from Vietnam

If someone had told me in high school that I would go on a mission trip halfway across the world to Vietnam, I would have laughed in their face. I am from a small town in New Mexico. The farthest place I have traveled to is Florida.

Somehow, though, I ended up at Southwestern Assemblies of God University, surrounded by the missions’ call. And here, God led me to go on the Vietnam trip during my junior year of college. It seemed crazy, but I knew God had called me, so I obeyed.

Leading up to the trip, I was terrified out of my mind. Not only was I going to be living in another country for a whole month, but I was also going to be traveling for more than 36 hours. One of my flights was 16 hours long! The thought of being on a plane for that long freaked me out. Let’s just say, I was really dreading the travel.

Since then, I have tried to block out the memories of the travel days, but the moment we landed in Vietnam is still fresh in my mind…

After a grueling 36 hours of travel, feeling sweaty and exhausted with a pounding headache, the moment I stepped off the plane and entered the Vietnamese airport, the culture shock hit me. I was bombarded by the chattering sound of languages I had never heard, people rushing all around me in every direction, people who did not look like me. There were eyes everywhere, staring at us, and I just wanted to hide away. The feeling of normalcy back home in America was gone. In its place, I felt this strangeness, so uncomfortable in this unknown environment.

I looked outside the windows of the airport and saw gloomy clouds. But when we stepped outside, this humid heat hit me, and I felt the sweat already forming. It was so hot!

We then saw our missionary walking towards us, a big smile on her face.

“Hey guys! Welcome to Vietnam!”

I can’t say I remember the rest of that conversation. I was exhausted and just wanted to sleep.

We followed her to a bus and got on. When we got on the road, I was astonished. The streets were chaotic, with motorbikes honking and zooming from every direction, no one staying in lines or stopping at traffic lights. This was not the United States!

Looking out the window, I was in awe of what I saw around me. But then, I felt myself feeling so overwhelmed by everything. My head hurt so bad, and my eyes felt so heavy, wanting to shut. I put a smile on my face, wanting to be happy and excited, but truthfully, I just wanted to be back in my warm, comfortable bed at home.

As we got off the bus onto the side of the street, my nose was met by many strange smells. The streets were bustling with activity, with street vendors all around, motorbikes zooming on by, and dogs digging through trash.

We followed our missionary down the street and walked into our first restaurant in Vietnam. We got a lot of stares as we walked in, a group of nine American women. I felt so strange, with all these Vietnamese people just staring at us. I was used to feeling invisible in America, but here in Vietnam, we were not.

As we sat down, I opened the menu before me, the weird words just looking back. Our friend Joclynn, who had been in Vietnam for a month already, helped us pronounce the words. But when the waitress came around, I just pointed at what I wanted. I felt too awkward to try and say the Vietnamese words. When the food came out, I looked around and saw there were only chopsticks. My heart sank. I did not know how to use chopsticks. Looking around the table, I realized the other girls on my team knew how to use them. I fumbled with the chopsticks, trying to get my fingers to cooperate. But they didn’t. I felt so embarrassed as the waitress walked over, smiling, and handed me a fork.

Pho Bo (Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup) at one of my favorite restaurants!

But when I tasted the warm, flavorful Pho Bo (Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup), all my embarrassment faded. This was delicious! When I tasted the fried egg rolls dipped in the spicy sauce, I was in heaven.

As we left the restaurant and headed to the hotel where we would be staying, the bus was silent, all of us exhausted, just ready to get to the rooms. I sat there thinking about what had occurred so far. I realized that this would be a challenging experience for me. But I also felt this sense of excitement hit me. I was in Vietnam, another country halfway across the world. I decided that I was going to make the most out of every moment in Vietnam.

Looking back now, being in Vietnam was not an easy thing. There were many things to get used to in this new country and culture. But as time passed, I grew more comfortable in Vietnam, and I came out of this trip with life-changing mindsets and memories.

One of my favorite memories for me was at the orphanage.

At the orphanage we visited, the children only spoke Vietnamese. There was a translator with us to help run things and give directions, but when interacting one-on-one with the children, we did not have the translator’s help.

This language barrier was challenging, but I learned from interacting with these children that it is still possible to communicate with others despite not speaking the same language. That is because human communication runs deeper than language.

Me playing tag with one of the children at the orphanage.

On our first visit to the orphanage, we were brought into this room, the air sticky and the space crowded full of children.

Another mission trip team from a different college was there leading the lesson. After acting out their skit, they announced the activity: we would be making friendship bracelets!

They had the children get into groups and told us to help them. As the groups started forming, I awkwardly walked around, trying to find a group to help with. Whenever I tried to enter a group, someone else would sit down. I saw a group of boys sitting alone, so I sat down fast and just stared at the boys, my mind going blank as I forgot the Vietnamese word for hello. The boys did not acknowledge my existence, and I felt the dread in my heart building. I picked up the string and pointed to the beads, showing the boys what to do. They still just seemed to ignore me.

I looked around me and saw the other girls on my team connecting well with the children. Girls were drawing on their faces and putting stickers on them, hugging them, and playing with their hair. My heart dropped. 

I then noticed a boy to my right, and he looked at me, giving me a smile. I smiled back. I remembered the word for name and asked, “Tên?”

He answered back quietly. “Tên là Megan.” I pointed at myself.

He smiled at me. I handed him some string and beads and started helping him make bracelets. I noticed he was using the orange beads and wearing an orange shirt, so I pointed repeatedly at the beads and his shirt, and he nodded excitedly, smiling. When he finished his bracelet, he put it around his wrist and put his arm forward, and I helped him tie it. He started making more bracelets and putting them on his wrist. More volunteers had sat down to help in the group, so I asked them how to ask what “Play ball,” was and then asked the boy. He nodded excitedly.

As we were cleaning up to finish, he took off all his bracelets, handed them to me, and pointed to my wrists. He wanted to give me his bracelets. The instructions had been for the kids to give their bracelets to their friends. My heart warmed as I realized he was telling me I was his friend. When it came time to play outside, I lost him, but as we left on the bus, all the kids were waving at us. I looked out the window and saw him waving. And when he saw me, he ran and waved excitedly at me. And I knew he remembered me, just like I would always remember him.

I made so many special memories like this on the trip, and there is one that I was very honored to experience. One of our Vietnamese friends we made who had been recently saved was getting baptized, and so she invited us to her baptism. It was such a beautiful thing to witness, seeing people who live on the opposite side of the world from me, but were my brothers and sisters in Christ, taking this step in declaring their faith in Jesus.

One of the last people to get baptized, was this older woman, and I was brought to tears witnessing this powerful moment; in a culture deeply rooted in the Buddhism religion and traditions, here was an older woman who had been touched by the life-changing power of Jesus. It was amazing! And a moment I will cherish in my heart forever.

On this trip, my heart was also so blessed by the friendships I made with Vietnamese college students. We played games with them, went out for food, and joked and laughed. I remember one night, I laughed until I could not even breathe.

Some of my pretty cool friends I made in Vietnam :)

Yes, these students live halfway across the world, but they are still college students. They like to go to concerts, watch movies, and shop. Despite race or culture, we are all people. We all laugh, we all cry, we all love to eat good food. We are all human. We are all people that Jesus loves.

This is a big world we live in, full of so many different people and cultures. Sometimes, we can get so caught up in our differences, but I don’t think God’s intention when He created the world was for there to be divides between cultures. He wanted unity, a beautiful mix of different races and cultures. He wanted His love to bridge the gap between our differences.

On this trip, God taught me that loving others does not have to be something big. It can be a smile. A hello. Playing with a child. We cannot let differences in culture, language, or appearance stop us from loving people. To love like Jesus is to embrace all people with open arms. ❤️

See below for more pictures from my trip: