Vincent's Thoughts

Vincent here, summarizing the first leg of the trip...

Southeast Asia Mission Day 1:

The group parted ways with Owen and Winnie as we landed in Taipei. They will rejoin us in Saigon after being part of Stream of Praise Taipei Concerts. The rest of us enjoyed fresh made dumplings at the airport at 7am, then boarded our flight to KUL. The demographic mix on this flight is very different than the first leg of LAX-TPE. There were many Vietnamese on the first leg as they connect in TPE to Vietnam. TPE-KUL was filled with Taiwanese on tour group to Malaysia. The team is noticeably tired from the 20 hour journey.

I'm eager to see Luong and others as this has been the longest break I've had between visits since summer break. Mom and I visited in December of last year and I remember how neat it was seeing the young leaders take care of everything Mom used to do. She is gifted at evangelism and discipleship. She also demonstrates love and wisdom as a grandma. Oliver, her grandson, is with us, and I get tired just watching all his energy. Mom is able to keep him distracted from crying and he's stayed relatively manageable through the whole trip. I'm marveled at God's plan- He used a near death illness to bring Linda, Ollie's mom, back to Him. And in the process, changed Mom's role from field missionary to grandma, taking care of her son's family. It has allowed me to see her frequently by driving 10 minutes, instead of flying over half the world. He also used this time to lead Chiffon back home, via mom's detailed answering of all her questions. Now Chiffon is on her first trip, and she is not even baptized! Praise God!