Catching Up

A lot has happened during the last week or so! Here's a summary:

Recently, the Orphan Voice staff have been practicing the sign language for a powerful worship song. A total of 12 of us, both American and Vietnamese, performed at a deaf conference last Sunday. It was wonderful.

A few days ago, Tony, Enoch, Duc and I took a 9 hour motorbike ride into the mountains. The purpose of the trip was to meet with officials in two different districts to discuss starting a new orphanage and possible outreach projects in the future. The meetings were fruitful and the trip--wow! We passed through fields of Vietnamese in traditional dress working in the rice, some of them plowing the fields with water buffalo. Then, as we wound our way through the mountians we drove through dense tropical foliage. The views were amazing--beautiful rivers, striking rock formations, really neat. We came home sore and sunburned--but happy.

Yesterday, we had class with the children at the Dai Loc orphanage. A volunteer from Australia went with Enoch and myself to model some teaching techniques, and we learned so much from her. It was a blessing.

I've been working on getting patterns for murals. Next week, we're going to start renovating some of the rooms in the Dai Loc orphanage. We will add color to the rooms by painting and adding a mural to one of the four walls in each room. We're gonna use a projector to trace the pattern. I can't wait to get started!

Well, it is Sunday morning here so I have to run. Thank you all for everything.

Love,

Marissa

Starfish

Hello!

All is well here in Vietnam. Last week was our first movie night outreach in the Dai Loc orphanage; what a joy to hear the laughter of a room full of children as they enjoy a movie! This will be an ongoing thing, and we hope to enjoy movies with the kids once a month.

Two of the girls in Dai Loc have special health concerns. One of the girls is losing her hair. We talked to her doctor today--the hospital ran some tests on her but has not been able to determine what the problem is. She is on medication and will be tested again in a week. Another girl is having fainting spells. We are purchasing some dietary supplements for her and hope that will help; nutrition seems to be a problem at the orphanage.

Please remember these two.

Tonight Enoch and I walked to the beach, something we hadn't done in a couple of weeks. We had a special treat--there were starfish all along the shore, one every few feet. I kept picking them up, wading out into the water, and releasing them. I couldn't bear to see them stranded.

When we got back to our apartment I immediately got on Google--I just had to learn more about the beautiful creatures that floated across the sand and that tickled my hand with their tiny fingers. I came across a story that I would like to share:

I awoke early, as I often did, just before sunrise to walk by the ocean's edge and greet the new day. As I moved through the misty dawn, I focused on a faint, far away motion. I saw a youth, bending and reaching and flailing arms, dancing on the beach, no doubt in celebration of the perfect day soon to begin.

As I approached, I sadly realized that the youth was not dancing to the bay, but rather bending to sift through the debris left by the night's tide, stopping now and then to pick up a starfish and then standing, to heave it back into the sea. I asked the youth the purpose of the effort. "The tide has washed the starfish onto the beach and they cannot return to the sea by themselves," the youth replied. "When the sun rises, they will die, unless I throw them back to the sea."

As the youth explained, I surveyed the vast expanse of beach, strectching in both directions beyond my sight. Starfish littered the shore in numbers beyond calculation. The hopelessness of the youth's plan became clear to me and I countered, "But there are more starfish on this beach than you can ever save before the sun is up. Surely you cannot expect to make a difference."

The youth paused briefly to consider my words, bent to pick up a starfish and threw it as far as possible. Turning to me he simply said, "I made a difference to that one."

I left the boy and went home, deep in thought of what the boy had said. I returned to the beach and spent the rest of the day helping the boy throw starfish in to the sea.

I can't help but apply that story to our situation. No, we can't meet the needs of every child in Vietnam...but, by God's grace, we can make a difference to some. We are determined to do what we can for those set before us. I hope you are all encouraged to make a difference in the lives of those set before you.

With love,

Marissa

Fishing

Week three....

As we spend more time in Danang, we discover new ways to be good stewards of our finances. We are walking to and from work each day (several miles), and instead of taking a taxi across the river to go shopping we are shopping at stores close to our house. It is funny--each store has a different selection of items to buy, so we go several places just to get a few groceries.

Tomorrow, we are picking up furniture that has been given to us free of charge. What a blessing!

We have started our Vietnamese language lessons and tried out our new phrases on various people. Of course, no one has a clue what we're saying. Enoch says that we are probably less confusing when we talk in English

In the meantime, we are continuing our lessons in listening...not listening to the Vietnamese language, but to the language spoken to our heart.

The Vietnamese are predominantly Buddhist. Scattered around our area are Buddhist temples--there is one at the head of our street, in fact. One of our nightly rituals is to walk down the street to the beach where we talk and relax; on this walk, we go by the temple. A few nights ago as we started out on our walk, one of our neighbors motioned for us to follow him. He led us to the temple where several people were gathered--not in worship, but in conversation--and went in to get a mat so that we could sit. Enoch and I froze at the gate, waved "no", and kept walking.

As we walked to the beach, I wondered if that had been the right thing to do. I mean, was there any harm in going into the building as long as we didn't worship? Did we hurt our relationship with this fellow by turning down his offer? Did we lose future opportunities to compare cultures...and beliefs?

Later, as we walked along the shore, I watched the crabs scurrying under our feet. The small ones want to catch fish on the waves, but they run away when the water comes towards them. They are too small--to weak to keep from being drug off. The big crabs do just the opposite--they run toward the tide to get their food. Spiritually, am I a small crab or a big crab? Am I mature? Are the waves a danger to me, or could it be that by running toward the waves I can catch fish? I need to listen and follow.

And the Winner Is... (Enoch's Blog Part 2)

Hello everyone,

Since my last email about roaches, lots of things have happened. I could tell lots of stories, but I’ll only talk about one:

Cindy Brewer (our co-worker from the States) homeschools her 5 children. At the moment they are learning about bugs in science class. Cindy is always looking for interesting things to do with the kids in class. She heard about our little bug problem and thought it would be great if we could try to catch one for an experiment called the “Lazarus Effect”. What a great idea! We’ll give them away! Well Marissa catches one in a can and I stab the can with some scissors to give it air holes, trying so hard not to stab the poor roach in the process *sarcasm*.

The next day, we take the nasty monster to work with us and give it to the children. We start to work in the office down the hall and the children start class. Minutes later we hear a loud scream (which isn’t unusual in a house with 5 little girls.) I look over to Marissa and say, “The roach got out”.

Soon after, the children come running into the office screaming and yelling; one is crying…. It was hilarious.

OK.

Here are some of the suggestions that I received in the past week:

“When we were in Venezuela they had trouble with large bugs. They would take a piece of tile, turn it over (so the rough side is up) and spread some glue/paste on it. They'd lay it in the corner of the room and I think they put some sort of crumbs on it to attract the bugs. When the bugs were all stuck to the glue, they'd take a scraper and scrape them off in the trash…or somewhere safe (so they can't return!!!). I suppose you could also use some strong tape...maybe duct tape?”

ROACH SOLUTION:
1- PUT A BOWL OF FOOD FOR THEM OUTSIDE, SO THEY WILL STAY THERE.2- WRAP SOME FOOD AROUND A PILL, LIKE TYLENOL, ETC... OR GRIND IT UPINTO THE FOOD AND PUT IT OUT FOR THEM
3- PUT UP A SIGN...NO ROACHES ALLOWED (BETTER WRITE IT IN VIETNAMESE)

“I have heard that bay leaves are good for keeping away bugs. I don't know if that would be the case with roaches but it would be worth a try. That is, if you can find any bay leaves. If so, I would put them everywhere - in every cabinet, closet, under furniture, etc.”

“As far as the roaches go the best I've come up with so far is to purchase a snake or lizard of some kind and let him wander around the house. It will eat all the roaches and no doubt provide many funny stories for the blog. My wife’s suggestion, while not as fun but a lot more practical, is to Google organic or home remedies for killing roaches.”

And found on the internet:

Set Out a Mixture of Baking Soda and Sugar. Cockroaches have a very high acid content in their stomachs. When they ingest the sugar, and the baking soda along with it, the subsequent reaction between the soda and their natural make-up results in death.

Mix Up a Non-Toxic Bait. Also taking advantage of the adverse effects of baking soda, mix up dough made of baking soda, bacon grease, minced onions, sugar and flour. The bait is easier to distribute and cleaner than the above mentioned strategy, with the same deadly results. Try Boric Acid. Boric acid isn't non-toxic, but it isn't as volatile as most insecticides, either. You can purchase it as a powder that you sprinkle in areas where you suspect roaches are congregating. It's not exactly organic roach control, but your roaches in house will get the boric acid on their exoskeletons through contact, after which the acid eats away at them until they die. You can also make Boric Acid-based bait, similar to the baking soda bait listed above, though be sure to keep pets and children away from any area where boric acid is used.

And the winner is…Myra Oldham! Her suggestion of crushing pills and putting them in food is the only one that we could use (since we couldn’t find Boric acid…or anything else, for that matter). We tried her idea last night and…there were several dead roaches this morning.
We will probably try the bay leaves once we find them. That will at least keep some from coming in.

Thanks everyone that sent solutions to the roach problem. I enjoyed reading them all.

Enoch

Moving In

Thank you all for your solutions to our roach problem. I think Enoch will write more about that later. Just a quick note—a couple of you mentioned that lizards are good for roach control. Our house is crawling with geckos and anoles…I didn’t mind them before, and now I REALLY like them. ;-)

I’d like to share a little more about our new home.Enoch and I have a nice house in a great area. My favorite thing about this area is that we’re in the middle of a bustling street. There are several small restaurants and store-front homes beside us. Our neighbors are always outside running their little businesses, and they are quick to smile and call out to us when we’re outside. We’re something of an attraction to them, and we seem to draw a crowd.

Two of our neighbors speak a little English. Several more can say, “Hello! What is your name?” We have spent a lot of time with one of our neighbors and have visited several others. Across the street is an American businessman whose wife is Vietnamese--we hope to have them over this weekend.

Our first morning, we had breakfast at the little restaurant across the street. We each had a bowl of noodles, and both of us were full for only $1.25. We’ll remember that if our funds ever get low!Most Vietnamese restaurants are outdoors. At the one across the street, there is one long table surrounded by little plastic chairs (everything in Danang is plastic). Food is cooked at something that reminds me of a hot-dog stand. It is flavored with soy sauce, fish sauce, and/or hot sauce. Really it is very good.

One of the most interesting things (to me) about Vietnamese restaurants is the napkins. They are always little squares of paper that feel like notebook paper.It is also interesting that in these restaurants you usually do not get a drink with your meal. In some, you have a small cup of tea after you have finished eating. In the restaurant across the street, you do not get a drink at all. Our next door neighbor sells some drinks and coffee out of her home, so I guess if you are thirsty you go somewhere else!

Since we’ve arrived in Vietnam, Enoch and I have been shopping a couple of times to buy necessities. Shopping trips on our own are small victories. Hardly anyone speaks English, so communication is done through gestures.There are no Wal-Marts--there is no one place to buy everything. When you go grocery shopping, you go to at least two different places. If you are shopping for specific items (say stoppers for the sink, which happen to be on my shopping list), you will go to a third or a fourth place.

(Just a note on the stoppers—we notice mouse droppings beside the sink every morning, so that is my solution for the mouse problem for now. The rats seem to come from somewhere else, so I don’t know what to do about them. The Vietnamese solution is to get a dog.)

There is a traditional market close to our house, but most stores are on the other side of the river. Since it is very difficult to barter when you don’t speak the language, and since I’m cautious about buying meat that sits out in the sun all day, for now I will do most of my shopping across the river. This means we need taxis. Our house does not have a street address because our street does not have a name. Giving taxi drivers directions to our house is challenging. So far, it works best to tell them the name of a near-by street and point from there.

Already, Enoch and I feel much more immersed in the Vietnamese culture than we did last summer. All in all, we are happy, comfortable, and eager to start this next phase in our lives. Thank you all for everything that you have done to support and encourage us. We love you all.

Enoch's Blog

Well our first night in our new house was a special event that I will probably never forget. When we showed up we had a greeting committee and everything. The first thing I saw when I went into the kitchen was 4 roaches the size of your thumb on our counter. First thought:

“Nope, that ain’t happening in my house!”

So I go over with my size 13 flip-flop and get two out of the four and almost brake a couple of glasses in the process. Man, are they fast! Not too bad for the first go, though.

We go to bed at 9:00pm and wake up at 4:00am. 7 hours isn’t bad for your first night. Marissa wakes up and is first out of bed.

Marissa: “I just can’t go to sleep. There’s just too much to do.”
Enoch: (Oh great. Here we go)

After about 30 minutes of laying there listening to Marissa bustling around, I started feeling bad about not helping. I got up and went to the kitchen to get a pop. I noticed my baby had already cleaned up the carcasses of last night’s battle. How sweet.

I wandered out to the living room were my sweet baby was just writing away in her notebook.
After being married for a few years I’ve found that if a good husband wants to show his appreciation for his wife’s hard work he needs to mention it to her or she’ll never know.

So, I proceeded to say:

Enoch: “I noticed you cleaned up the dead roach bodies in the kitchen.”
Marissa: “I haven’t touched them.”
Enoch: ……….
Marissa: ……….

It is at the time I remembered a horrifying fact about roaches. Roaches like to eat their dead buddies when there is nothing else to eat. As gross as it sounds it is true.
So if anyone has any suggestions to this fun topic please help e-mail us with your solutions. Please remember there is no exterminator. The person with the most brilliant solution will be honored.

Until then, I will have to smash each one and throw them in the open lot next to us.

The Voice of God

God teaches me more and more how to hear Him. Sometimes I think that our work in Asia has been one big lesson in listening. Let me share what I mean:


I'll start at the beginning. I've felt called to missions most of my life (since before I was a Christian, if you can believe that), but there was a specific call for Enoch and me to join Tony and Cindy Brewer in Asia during this trip. The first time God spoke to me about joining the Brewers is when Tony publicly announced that he would be leaving for Asia. The announcement was during a service of sorts, and at the end of the service Tony asked all attending to take some time to listen, seeking God as to what sort of involvement we were to have in Tony's work. I listened, and God spoke. He said, "Go, go, go now, go." I was ecstatic.

Fast-forward several months of praying and seeking God. God confirmed the call to both of us again and again. But it is so funny--you know how you wonder how people like the Israelites turn their backs on God after experiencing miracle after miracle? Well, I'm just like them. After a while, discouragement sat in and I began to wonder if I had ever heard God to start with. One morning on our way to work, I said to Enoch, "Maybe I was wrong, maybe I didn't really hear God." Just then, a car passed us...and you wouldn't believe what was on the license plate--it said "Go Now Go", the very words God had spoken to me months before.

So in the summer of 2008 we departed for Asia, eager to do His work. We were blessed beyond measure...then we ran out of money and had to return to the US. Since then we've been in KY, doing our best to continue some of the work via the computer and raising money for our return.

Recently, God confirmed to each of us separately, without the other knowing about it, that He wants us to go ahead and purchase the tickets for our return flight. During the past few weeks, we've been praying about the date of return. Now I'm going to tell on myself again--I didn't really expect for Him to give us an exact date; I didn't even ask Him. I don't know...maybe somewhere deep down I didn't belive that He did that sort of thing.... But Enoch, faithful, trusting Enoch, believed God could and would and listened for just that.

So several days ago, Enoch asks me the date of his sister Kristin's birthday. I didn't know and asked why. Enoch's reply was that God told him we will be leaving on that day.

Well, I didn't really know what to do with that. Honestly, I didn't think much of it--I didn't even try to find out the date of her birthday...until Sunday. Christmas is in a few days, so Sunday's text was out of Luke. We were reading a passage about Anna, who served in the temple until she was 84. About that time, Enoch got out his calendar and started counting days. It just didn't click with me what on earth he might be doing. He leaned over and whispered that we really needed to find out the date of Kristin's birthday.

I was pretty curious, so when we were alone after the service I asked what happened. While we had been reading the text about Anna, God spoke to Enoch that we would be leaving in 84 days. By now you've read enough about me to know that I'm not the most believing of characters, so I felt (but didn't say) that it sure would be strange for God to use a totally unrelated verse out of the Bible to give us a date; I doubted that the two things Enoch had heard would match up. I counted myself, and 84 days from Sunday is March 15th of 2009. I thought Kristin's birthday was in April; Enoch wasn't sure. So Sunday evening I finally asked my mother-in-law what I should have, in faith, asked her days ago. To my amazement, she said that Kristin's birthday is, in fact, March 15th!

The bottom line is, God is always speaking (and He'll use whatever He wants to to communicate with us); the trick--for me, anyhow--is learning to listen.