Water buffalo are the “tractors” for the farmers of Vietnam. They use these critters to plow their ground and to pull trailers to haul their crops and other supplies. They are well suited for this farming in that they don’t get foot rot, they are totally resistant to flies with their super thick skin, they can handle very warm weather, and they are very docile. I managed to get some close up photos of some today and even got the one to smile for me😄

In Vietnam they farm every square foot of land that is not roads or buildings. The flat ground is mostly rice and the sloped ground they terrace and grow fruits and vegetables, and on the hills they grow tea bushes, coffee trees, banana trees, rubber trees, and a bunch of others. All the farming is done by hand with the help of water buffaloes. They pack water in buckets hung from shoulder yokes often hundreds of yards up steep hills. The country is so beautiful and the fruit is so tasty😄

Did some more prayer waking on the streets today and went through a large open market again. They are my favorite places to meet and talk to people. Everything is sold in these markets including this meat booth that specialized in pig. As the old saying goes they sold every part of the pig except his squeal.

as we walk the streets in Vietnam people like to practice their English on us. They are always very warm and gracious. This fellow insisted on sharing his pipe with me. They stuff that little tube on the end with tobacco and smoke away. I think he was a little disappointed with my effort to get “big smoke” as he called it.

Lots of motorcycles in Vietnam. These two little boys were waiting for their Dad as he paid for his gas. You will often see Dad, Mom, and 3 or 4 kids all on the motorcycle at the same time. Motorcycles with dozens of chickens or ducks tied all over the bike. I even saw a great big pig on the back of one.

One of my favorite things to do in Vietnam is to walk through one of the outdoor markets. Absolutely everything is being sold. You can watch as they butcher chickens, clean fish, sew cloths. They are crammed full of hundreds of little shops and thousands of people. They are a great place to pray through because of the visual reminders of need and poverty and the sheer volume of people. It is fun to buy things in the market and two of my favorite things is coconut milk right out of the coconut which has been whacked expertly with a machete and pineapple that is still attached to the leaves but cut down to a manageable size to carry and eat. They are very sweet, juicy, and messy but worth it.

i heard it supposed to get real cold and maybe snow at home in Jefferson. Here in Vietnam it was about 72 degrees, very comfortable. We did a lot of praying today, and we also had a very nice day seeing the country and the people. We took a boat ride out into Ha Lang Bay in and around the 1,969 islands  that are there. It was at absolute beautiful experience. We ate lunch on the boat and had squid, shrimp, fish, crab, and clams, it was so good. We got in and went to a water puppet show and a traditional Vietnamese music concert and dance. Both were a great cultural experience of the country for us.

About 30 hours from the time we left Jefferson until we stepped off the plane in Hanoi, but it was quite comfortable. Lots of good food on the airplanes, dozens of good movies that I hadn’t seen, and every person I sat next to didn’t know English and I don’t know Chinese and they were skinny so I slept a lot and read a lot. Nice trip. We drove about 4 hours to Halong, Vietnam and the farms and scenery are amazing. Vietnam is the number one exporter of rice in the world and they farm it all by hand. It is so fun to see all the fields and the water buffalo and the people young, old, woman, men and children working the fields with hand tools. We did a lot of praying as we drove along. Tomorrow we are taking a boat ride out to Halong Bay where there are 1969 islands and is one of the world’s natural wonders with grottoes, caves, and lots of birds. Great group on the trip  that gets along great, and our guide Xe is wonderful.

a group of us are headed to Hanoi, Vietnam for a 10 day missions trip. I am writing this blog in the Los Angelos airport while waiting to get on a 14 hour flight to Taiwan and then to Hanoi. On the way to the airport in Portland today we had a blowout on the van and called and had my son Seth come get us with another van. We made it on time. I lost my baggage claim ticket between Portland and LA and the lady at the ticket counter said she can’t guarantee that my suitcase will get on the plane with me. Oh well, I wore the same cloths for two months on my bicycle trip so 10 days will be a piece of cake, for me anyway, not sure how the rest of the team will like it!! While in Vietnam we will be doing a lot of prayer walking and praying with pastors. It will be a wonderful trip with lots of good food and we will meet lots of very committed believers who love Jesus with all their heart. I expect that I will grow a lot spiritually on the trip and I will work hard not to grow physically. I brought my little portable scale that I took on my bicycle trip and I will be careful not to gain any weight. Love you all. Dee

I preached this weekend from John 2:1-11, the story of Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding feast where the wedding host had made a major social blunder in his day of running out of wine.  This passage has been a favorite of mine for some time in that I often feel after I get finished with my sermon preparation that I am about to give a glass of water to those listening, and I then plead with God to change my offering into some really good wine. I am amazed at how often He actually does that based on response from those listening to me each week. This regular experience of God fixing my sermons doesn’t prompt me to study and prepare less diligently the next time, in fact the opposite is true, I am so humbled is  by God’s obvious gracious gift to me and to those listening that I study and write with even more devotion and passion. The preaching and teaching time is a genuine encounter with the living God as He speakes to us as we have gathered together in His name.