the small things

This is an article that I wrote for one the AOG World Relief project sites...

"On Tuesday we drove about an hour and a half away to the village of Dai Chanh. Our destination- a small school for children ages 20 to 36 months. We drove up to the small building, cheerily painted a mint green outlined with purple trim. We were warmly greeted and entered one of the rooms to find 13 precious little faces staring back up at us. These 13 children come to the center from morning to early evening so that their parents can work. The school is somewhat of a hub for the area as it is home to the clean water filtration system that AOGWR previously helped install. Being home to the filtration system means that they are the clean water suppliers for all the other schools.

Though neat, cute and efficient the school is far from luxurious. Upon entering the room with all the children my eyes quickly did a scan and found only a few toys on a shelf. So imagine the kids’ pure delight at the sight of a big box with a promising picture of some sort of brightly colored contraption! The kids watched in wonder as some of the men started on setting up the new toy.

The real fun came when the “installation” was done and the new toy was ready to be played on. At first, though the slide was set-up and ready, the kids weren’t sure if they were set-up and ready! At first, they just stared, unknowingly at the slide. They didn’t know what a slide was! They didn’t know how to use a slide! After some coaxing and coaching a few brave souls dared to try. Shrills of delight from the sliders and fits of laughter from the spectators began to fill the room.

The ice had been broken, but it would still take some time for all of the kids to warm up. In the meantime, the men took apart the slide to morph it into a kind of rocking toy (the slide had 3 different set-up options). While the kids waited for the new toy option they decided to entertain themselves. The actual slide piece wasn’t needed for the rocking toy set-up so about 7 kids quickly climbed on the now horizontal slide. They sounded as if they were just about having the time of their lives. It’s the small things.

They played on the rocker for a bit and then waited as it was returned back to its slide-form. In the time between the different set-ups more children had summoned up the courage to give it a go and pretty soon all the kids were lining up to have their turn!

It’s the small things; indeed…it’s the small things. Not to discredit the small things but to in fact shed light on just how important and just how crucial they are; to in fact shed light on just how important something as simple as a play-set can be.

All too often, we are caught in the trap of self-defeat. “There is so much need in the world. I can’t do anything to even begin to tap that need. What can I do as one person? Or what can we do as a group/church/whatever?” It’s the small things. It’s a play-set that 13 children in the village of Dai Chanh village in the country of Vietnam…now have.

“Making life better” is AOGWR’s motto. We believe that making life better happens person-by-person, story-by-story, and relationship-by-relationship. We believe that making life better happens through money contributed by an individual to buy a play set-up for 13 children J We believe that making life better happens through the seemingly “small things” that actually end up to be anything but small."

Grace and peace and the third way,
Kait

No one won, everyone lost...

I have had the privilege of meeting some pretty incredible people while I have been here. One such person, I will call him…Mark. Mark is Vietnamese and worked with the American troops during the war.

I knew that he was fairly well known around town, but I had no idea just how far that reached. Come to find out this week that he has had a book dedicated to him in North America and is known within the Vietnam war veterans' circles. He is a very humble man, so it has taken me 8 months to find all this out.

He was telling me today of a story that just about brought tears to my eyes. He is often sought after by veterans looking to come back to Vietnam. The story he told me was of a vet who wanted to come back to find the family of a man that he had seen killed. Apparently, the gruesome story goes that an old Vietnamese man was tied to a board-dropped down a well and shot at by American troops. The vet witnessed all of this from the tank that he was driving.

Decades later, the images still haunted him. He wanted to go back and see how that man’s family was doing. Mark was the literally the middle man between the two parties-translating…translating more than just words though. He recounted how the situation was so stressful that he went through 10 cigarettes in 30 minutes.

He told of how initially the Vietnamese family was very angry. The vet’s return conjured up all the emotions from their father’s death-though decades ago it was still painful. Mark stepped in the middle and lectured both sides. This was the point of the story that I had to fight back tears. He told me how he told both sides…in this war there were no winners, only losers. Everyone lost. He told the Vietnamese family, don’t be upset with this veteran…he lost many of his friends here and can’t you see that this has haunted him for decades? He told both sides, hey we can’t identify Vietnamese or American anymore, the war is over. The war is over.

Reconciliation. What hard work. What brutal work. What heart-wrenching work. Yet, what exquisitely beautiful work.

I told Mark that I thought what he did was incredible. He responded, in his modest way saying that all he wants to do is help “release” people. He said that he could see how much the war affected this vet and if he play a part in releasing him from that burden-that it was well worth it.

That is a picture that I will take with me.

Reconciliation.

Grace and peace and the third way,

Kait

Sally Came to Town...

Sally Came to Town…

The day after I got back in Vietnam my best friend/sister/kindred spirit- Miss. Sally Stemple came to stay with me for a week. Sally is currently teaching English in China and is actually familiar with Vietnam as she spent some time here last summer. She and I have pretty much been inseperable (in spirit at least) since junior year. We were in the same social work cohort (which believe me, says a lot-your junior and senior years as a social work major are pretty much lived with your cohort) and were on the same RA staff senior year. From the very beginning of our friendship, I just had a feeling about her…had a feeling that we would become very close friends…and indeed, we have.

The timing of her visit was incredible, completely divine. Coming right off of my trip back to the states, I was exhausted physically yet in need of debrief. Having Sally with me for a week, forced me to slow down, forced me to relax. I am not very good about doing either left to my own means but having her there reminded me to do so. And we talked, boy did we talk-about everything and anything. We went from the most frivolous of subjects to those that warrant tears. She listened to me…listened to my ramblings and stories. She asked me good questions-helping me process all that had happened while in the US. We slept in, drank French press coffee in the mornings, were “artsy”, went to the beach, ate good food…medicine for the soul.

If you know me well, you have heard me say this many times…and I will say it again. I believe that a big way that the Lord reveals himself is in and through relationship with others. Like it says in the word-we become Jesus to others/we show Jesus to others when we care for one another, feed one another, clothe one another, etc. I think we learn more about the Father in relationship with others. I think one of the reasons why Sally is my best friend is because I feel like she is constantly teaching me about the Father-she is constantly showing me Jesus…and she doesn’t even have to try, it flows so naturally and abundantly from her heart…and it is beyond beautiful.

Thank you Lord for blessing me with such a friend!

Grace and peace and the third way,

Kait

Party in the USA!

(I wrote this awhile ago but forgot to post it)

Just got back yesterday from 2 weeks in the states. It was a whirlwind of a trip-completely exhausting and wonderful all at the same time. I spent the first half of the trip in Seattle and then the second half down in California around the APU campus.

It was so great to spend time with family and friends. It was so nice to talk face to face rather than email and skype. People kept asking me if it was “weird” to be back. I think the weird part about being back…was how not weird it was…does that even make sense? I think I was expecting for it to feel strange to be back, but it wasn’t. Relationships fell right back in line-no awkwardness or sense of distance. (Granted there were some things that were weird-like stores…oh man, l avoided those like the black plague-so overwhelming).

I think to an extent, it was comforting that home didn’t feel “weird” because it normalized life over here for me. I have always told people that I am just living life…it happens to be in Vietnam right now…but at the end of the day, I am just living life…and that’s the way it truly felt when I was back.

I think there was a certain amount of anticipation beforehand…wondering how I would react to being “back”…wondering if it would mess with my head…make me question being over in Vietnam. But you know, it did nothing of the sort. It was so good to visit but also so good to get back. I woke up the first morning back in Vietnam feeling so glad to be “home”.

Grace and peace and the third way,

Kait