TEN WEEKS IN VIET NAM -- "WHY?"

On April 2, 1997, Dona and Leonard Blake arrived back in Viet Nam. For Dona, it was the first time back in almost thirty years! It was different -- and yet the same.

Quy, dist. 8 Cong, preacher; his wife, Duong, their youngest daughter; and Leonard & dona at a Chinese restaurant, april 4,1997.

The following pages are our attempt to tell about our experiences. Our purposes include helping those who assisted in our going know what we did with their funds --and telling what we hope to do in going again. so that the needed support might be forthcoming. The text has been written by Leonard, unless othenwise indicated.

TRIP BACK IN 1995

Many of you will know that I had been blessed with two previous opportunities to go back to VN -- for a few days each time. In March, l995, I was able to accompany a medical team from Partners in Progress on a seven-day stay in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) (formerIy called Saigon and still called that by locals). I was able to travel back to the village where we had lived and worked with a small church in the mid-'60s. Y-Kre Mlo, former student and co-worker. came down from the Highlands to visit us.

Following that visit, I accompanied some of the group on two-day survey visits each to Cambodia and Laos. I then spent six days in Thailand -- visiting two orphanages
operated there by churches of Christ and looking for other opportunities for service. I also went to India for nine days of doing pretty much the same thing -- visiting four children's homes and various other works, with Indian evangelist, V.C. Rehobam.

BACK AGAIN IN 1996

Last October, I had the privilege of going with a group of men from Ethridge TN and Dennis Jones from IBC in Florence, AL on a trip to VN which included a two-day visit to Hanoi. We spent two days in HCMC first and I returned there to spend five more days when the others flew on to India or Australia from Hanoi. it was apparent that more time was needed in order to determine whether it was really possible to live and work there -- as both Vietnamese and American brethren were asking us to do.

APRIL, MAY, JUNE 1997

Dona and I went to Viet Nam together this time. By plan we stayed longer, so that we might make an in-depth survey of the opportunities for service, the employment possibilities, and the requirements for legally staying in the country for long periods of time. In the articles which follow, we will try, to tell you about our experiences, the people we saw over there, and what our thinking is as a result of this recent journey.

WHO IS THIS LADY?

On Sunday morning, April 13, Dona and I, along with Bill McDonough and his wife and a French doctor and his wife, traveled out of the city to the village where we had lived in 1966 and 1967. We went to have a meeting with the leaders of the Pentecostal group which has evolved from the congregation for which I formerly preached in Trung My Tay village.

Upon arriving at the church building, we discovered that there was a worship beginning. We were ushered in and seated on benches reserved for us up front. An hour or so later, after the announcements and the closing prayer like back home, we were moved over to the new office building. This has been built in the place of the old dining hall from the orphanage which we had helped to build there in 1966.

Mrs. Minh

The meeting was getting well underway --with information being provided about this group 5 various locations, numbers of members, the history of how they are able to ftunction rather openly these days. etc. --when a lady walked into the room and came around the large table, right to where Dona and I were sitting. She was carrying two old pictures in her hand -- one of a man and the other of a group of Vietnamese people, Maurice and Marie Hall, and Phil Carpenter (the first three mission workers in Viet Nam from the churches of Christ). On the back of the group picture was written "First meeting in Saigon."

Fortunate, the denomination had provided two interpreters for the meeting that morning, so the young lady was able to work with the older woman to help her talk to us a little. Trying to keep up with what was being said in the main discussion kept me confused about what this lady was trying to tell us, ask us, etc. We gave her our hotel card (a very important item in Viet Nam because it has the hotel name, address, phone number, in Vietnamese on one side and in English on the other, so that you can give it to a taxi driver to get "back home" and for purposes like this) and she said that she would come to see us.

Eight days later, this same lady came to our little hotel, along with a young man, named Tin, whom she brought along to interpret for us. It was a challenging conversation because he really did not speak very much English. No matter how slowly I spoke, I did not feel that he was able to convey my questions to her. She was saying, I think I understood, something about orphans and asking if I would help her. I did conclude from her responses that she was not a member of the church group which we had visited in the village. I could not however, obtain an answer to my question about how she knew that Dona and I were at the village the previous week. Tin did tell me that he worships with a group in Ho Chi Minh City and invited me there.

Dona and I had, on the Thursday before this, met a tour guide with whose English ability we were quite impressed. Mr. Hai (the #2) had a couple of days later, taken us to his small house on the south edge of the city to eat dinner with his wife and him. I called Hai and asked him if he would be willing to take me out to the village to find this lady -- she had given us an address and a phone number (it turned out to be a pay phone in her neighborhood), but no one who answered seemed to know her.

We went out on Thursday, April 24, but we were unable to find her. We did enjoy a Vietnamese dish together in a little eating place in the village and we went over to the church building and visited for a few minutes with the couple who live there -- a daughter and son-in-law of Mr. Thanh, my former co-worker in Trung My Tay.

We did not hear from Mrs. Minh again until May I2, when she and a young man, Tam, came to visit me at the place to which we had moved in the meantime. Tam spoke better English than did Tin, but we still had difficulty communicating adequately. I was still unable to determine from where I should know her or how she found us in the village that Sunday morning. However, I did learn that she had cared for orphan children at one time. I also learned that she had once lived in District 8 in Ho Chi Minh City. I also learned that Tam worships with a local Tin Lanh church -- the primary protestant group in VN.

Mrs. Minh was wanting to move back there and was asking me to help her by providing the money for her to buy a house --as a place for her to live as a place for the church of Christ to start meeting again, and even for a place for us to live, if we wished. I asked her if she was aware that the church was already meeting in District 8. She was not! I told her about Quy and gave her a picture of him, his address, and his phone number and suggested that she contact him.

After some further discussion about Mrs. Minh's desire to have a house, they decided that a house like that would cost about $25,000. After telling them that I had no idea where I would find that kind of money, Tam agreed that he would look around (he lives in the same neighborhood where she had lived and wants to live again) for available houses and get back to me.

As I was saying, "Good bye." to them, Tam pulled out a small plastic bag with a bunch of black and white pictures in it. He took out one picture and handed it to me. asking, "Do you know this man?" We proceeded to look through about fifteen pictures - several of which did have people whom I knew (Vietnamese and American) but one of them baffled me because it was of Lucien Palmer. I did not think that the man who performed the wedding ceremony for Dona and me in Michigan in 1960 had ever been to Viet Nam! I asked Tam to let me borrow the pictures to copy.

About two weeks went by and I did not hear anything from Tam. In the meantime, I had become acquainted with Nghi, a former member of the church in Saigon. whom I first met the day we picked up the new prosthesis for Ha. After I found out how well he spoke English and discovered that he lived close to Tam, I asked him to contact him and arrange for us to have a meeting with Mrs. Minh. What happened first was that he arranged for Tam to meet with us.

The meeting also included Y-Kre because he was in town working on his emigration application. It was wonderful to have two interpreters -- and to have Y-Kre assure me of Nghi's competence as a dependable interpreter! Tam had some more pictures with him -- and said that there were more yet at his home. Before we parted, he agreed to contact Mrs. Minh and arrange a meeting with her at Quy's house for that Friday evening.
 

Nghi, Mrs. Minh, Leonard, and Tam at Quy's house, May 31.

When we contacted Quy he asked us to have it on Saturday night instead. Mrs. Minh, Tam, Nghi, and I arrived at Quy's house but Quy was said to be "at work." We went ahead with our meeting there. Quy's wife was not home either, but the children were -- someone always being there because the family has one of those neighborhood pay phones (you have a booth out front connected to the house phone and have a meter in the house to calculate the cost) which are common now in VN.

This meeting answered many questions for me. My big curiosity -- How did Mrs. Minh know we would be in Trung My Tay village on that Sunday morning in April'? --was very logically explained. Living with relatives in the village to help take care of their children since she lost everyihing in a failed business venture, she happened to run into Mr. Thanh (whom we had visited on Fnday before that arranging to come back on Sunday) and he told her that we had been there and would be coming back on Sunday!

In the meeting this time, she was able to communicate to me that her deceased husband had been one of the evangelists for the church in Saigon back before 1975. The two of them were among the early caretakers of orphans. She talked about the times I had come to her house to visit and give her money for care of the children. The passage of time and growing older certainly have ways of erasing memories.

We had a good discussion about the denominational church group out in Trung My Tay village. Mrs. Minh told us that they were teaching and doing things with which she could not agree -- speaking in tongues, instrumental music, etc. She was able to explain to us that Tam's parents had also been workers in the church before 1975-- and encouraged us to go over to Tam's house and meet his mother.

The next meeting -- with Tam's widowed mother -- lead to the ladies telling us about yet another widow, but those are two other stories to tell! I was still having trouble picturing the Minhs in my mind -- until I saw a picture of the two of them, with the orphan children, in the photo album which Maurice and Marie Hall shared with us in Nashville in Ju1y. I look forward to knowing this lady even better -- and worshiping God with her again.
 

AMPUTEES PRESENT OPPORTUNITY

Shortly afler our arrival in Viet Nam in April, I was presented with a list of several needs which the church in District 8 felt. One of these was assistance in obtaining a new artificial leg for a man who is involved with the congregation. Mr. Ha (also known as .Sau. -- the number six in Vietnamese -- because he is the sixth child born in his family) was a soldier for the South Viet Nam government. He lost one foot and part of his leg to a land mine explosion while fighting in the .Central Highlands. in 1972.

Ha previously had obtained a wooden leg and used it for many years. However, it had become irreparably broken -- and useless -- and he was forced to go back to using crutches. Because he fought for the other side, the current government will not assist this man in obtaining a replacement. The family is like most in Viet Nam. They are poor, but they manage to eat and get by. It is not possible, though, for them to save up enough money for this sort of expense --even though the 1,200,000 Dong price is really only about $103, in US money.

Brother Quy, in whose house the church meets and the preacher for the congregation, told me that they had been trying to save up the necessary money from the contribution in order to provide a new prosthesis. Because there are always poor people in need of help and the congregation frequently has assisted Brother Y-Kre and others among the Christians in the Highlands, they have never been able to complete this task.

Late in April, Quy look me to visit Ha. He lives in District 5 with several of his brothers and sisters and their families in a couple of houses which are adjacent to one I another. The one place is on a main street, just across a canal (which divides Districts 8 and 5) from Quy's house, and very near the (Y Bridge., if you know the City. A source of income for this ethnically Chinese family is operating a soup restaurant in the front portion of their house. I tried the soup -- and it is excellent (and very inexpensive, even if they do not give it to you). I took some back to the hotel for Dona!

I established that day that Ha really needed to have his old prosthesis replaced. We had dropped in on them and he was there on crutches, but they did show me his old wooden leg. We discussed again the resolve of the congregation to assist him in replacing his prosthesis. I suggested to Quy that the congregation try to come up with 200,000 Dong, and then Dona and I would provide the remaining 1,000,000 Dong from funds which we had been given. Quy said that he would discuss it with the brethren on Sunday.

[image] Duong, quy's wife; Ti, dist. 8 church treasurer and brother-in-law of Ha; Ha; Leonard; and Ti's daughter in front of prosthesis shop in Go Vap.

During the following week, Quy told me that the congregation had taken up a collection and had the 200,000 Dong ready. We made arrangements to go with Ha to the shop on the following Saturday. Measurements and a plaster cast were made -- and we paid the full amount. I was sure that Quy had said that we would pay half then and the other half a week later when he went back to pick up the prosthesis. Communication problems and .surprises. happen --it is part of living there.

Dona and I flew to Nha Trang the next day, Sunday, and came back on Friday. Quy came by on Saturday morning and picked me up on his motorbike. We met Ha at the prosthesis shop and they brought out the beautiful new fiberglass leg to strap onto him. He then put on the new pair of shoes which came with the prosthesis. After a few tentative steps, Ha was off and walking --without any crutches or assistance!
 

VISITORS FROM OTHERCOUNTRIES
Bill and Marie Claire McDonough & Pierre and Marilena Ahdrzejewski

On April 18, we were joined in VN by Bill McDonough, Director of Partners in Progress, Little Rock, Arkansas, and his wife, Marie Claire. The McDonoughs came directly from their honeymoon in Bali - which followed their March 29th wedding at Marie Claire's home in Lille, France.

Bill, a former missionary in Germany, and I had been together in SE Asia in March 1995, shortly before cancer took his first wife, Barbara. Their daughter and son-in-law are missionaries in Rornania. Marie Claire had also worked in Romania in that mission effort. Marie Claire's father had served with the French in Viet Nam in the 50's.

Later that night, Pierre and Marilena Ahdrzejewski, a young doctor and his wife -- a teacher, joined the McDonoughs. This couple, also from Lille, France are longtime friends of Marie Claire. They have recently served for two years in a French program in an African country, Cameroon.

These two couples came to join with us in looking into humanitarian service project needs in Viet Nam. We visited together the hospital in HCMC where Bill had taken the medical team in March 1995, an orphanage for handicapped children, an orphanage operated by a German organization, and a privately operated free medical clinic in a very poor area of the city.

We also had a meeting with the doctor from the local health department who had worked with Bill on his two medical mission trips. In addition, we looked outside the city in making one-day trips each to Vung Tau, a beach city southeast of HCMC, and to the area of the Mekong Delta town of My Tho, to the southwest.

The McDonoughs left on April 18 to travel to Cambodia and Burma, looking at needs in those places. Pierre and Marilena left several days later, after making a weekend trip to a remote rural area with another French couple, both doctors and from the same area of France, who were inVN to adopt a baby -- after having adopted a baby boy there two years earlier.

Irene Durate, social worker, tells Marilena, Pierre, Marie Claire, and Bill about the residents of this orphanage for the handicapped in HCMC.

Gene Conner & James Ridgeway

Two who were fellow workers with us in the mission effort in VN in the '60s came back to visit while we were there this time. They had spent more time in VN than we did -- something around seven years each.

Gene Conner had been in Saigon when we arrived in 1965. He was one of the four teachers in the school over which I became director in its second day of operation -- the morning after we arrived. He had moved into our house in the village when we came home in 1967-- until the Tet Offensive took him to the relative safety of the city.

Several members of the District 8 church and I met Gene at the airport in HCMC on May 16, when he returned to VN for the first time since he and his wife and son left at the end of the school year in 1974. It was interesting to watch someone else seeing agam the place which they had called home more than two decades before. It reminded me ofmyself two years earlier.

Gene came back to begin the process of reconnecting with VN's realities. He wants to move there to work again -- a few years down the road. As he plans toward that, and as he continues to publish a newsletter to keep up the interest in VN mission work, he needed to spend some time there meeting the people whom he hears about, etc.

James Ridgeway had been in VN right up to the fall of the old government in 1975. He had already been back a couple of times and had come again to continue working on his goal of opening a Radio Shack franchise in VN. James flew into Hanoi on May 15 to make business contacts -- and then joined us in HCMC during the following week.

The three of us met in various settings with Quy, and with Y-Kre who came down from the Highlands, to discuss the present state of the church in VN and to think into the future. We prayed for God's guidance.

Gene, James, Dona, and I met with the District 8 congregation and Y-Kre for worship on May 25. (That was the only time that Dona and I were actually invited to assemble for worship with this congregation during our ten weeks in VN --due to assumed police surveillance related to the approach and celebration of three national holidays during our stay.)

Gene had to leave on May 26 to be back at work in Irving, TX the next morning! (You sort of "lose" a day getting to VN and "gain" a day traveling back to the States.) James was there for another week, except the two days he was in the Mekong Delta, and then flew back to Hanoi for an appointment -- and on back to TX.
 

DONA WRITES FROM A WIFE'S PERSPECTIVE

Before our return to VN~ many people asked me~ "Aren't you afraid to go to VN?" "How do you feel about going back to VN?" "Do you want to return to VN?" Trying to give honest answers to these questions meant I had to really think through our plans. I found my feelings were quite different from those at our first trip in the mid-'60s.

In 1965 when we were making plans to go to VN, I tried hard to learn something about the country. All I knew was what we heard on the daily news reports and that was not encouraging. Even at the library', I could find very little information to help me get to know the country' and people. So the trip was begun with mostly fear -- fear of flying (this was my first time on an airplane), fear of an unknown country and people, and fear of a war.

But my parents had raised me with two basic beliefs: our lives should be a service to the Lord in whatever way we were able and the husband is to be the spiritual head of the family. Leonard really wanted to go to VN. Now I had known and accepted that we would do work in a mission field; we had planned this before we were even married. But we had always talked about Europe, probably France or Germany. Southeast Asia was basically "another planet" to me.

So with two major spiritual beliefs involved how could I say, "I won't go."? It would have been like having two strikes against me from the start. So I helped make our plans to go to South Viet Nam -- with much trepidation.

Fortunately (or perhaps by God's will) our arrival in Saigon was so packed with information and procedure learning with Maurice and Marie Hall leaving 24 hours after we got there that we were thrown immediately into a hectic routine. Consequently, I had met (and learned to love and appreciate) many of the Vietnamese Christians, had found a pleasant country and a climate I liked before I had time to really feel afraid or lost in this new world. Nothing changed my appreciation of that comer of SE Asia.

So when I thought of returning earlier this year my feelings were quite different from those at our first trip. To the first question, my answer was simply, "At least there isn't a war going on now." My answer to the third question was defirntely "Yes." The reason was my answer to the second question, "curious and excited." I wanted to find out if my memories were accurate. Or was I glamorizing them after 30 years. Thus the curiosity. Would l find things as I remembered or would I be disappointed?

The flight was longer than I imagined but we did not fly straight there in 1965. It is, after all, on the other side of our world. When we arrived at Tan Son Nhat Airport, we had to deplane and get on a bus to ride to the terminal. The first thing you notice is the heat as you leave the plane and walk to the bus. This I expected and had looked forward to. Customs was a bit nerve racking, mostly because of the lack of good communications due to the language difference. But once our bags cleared and we had left the airport for our hotel, I could relax and look around.

Much seemed the same to me -- the people. the traffic. the buildings, the smells. But I also noticed many differences -- the people wore mostly European/American style clothing, there were many more stores selling what we in America consider necessities -- TVS VCRs, air conditioners, cars, etc. I was sure I was going to enjoy my stay in this country that hadn't really, changed so much and did seem much as I remembered it. (More, next report. Dona)

COMING IN AUGUST
More Stories of People
More Pictures from VN
Dona's Next Installment

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