Visiting Former Students at HPU

Since we still had another week before school starts and knew that this would be the last chance we would have this year to visit our former students, we made a trip up north to Haiphong to see them. It was a much anticipated visit because many students have been waiting to see us again (and vice versa) since we parted last summer. Although it cost a lot for the whole family to fly up to Hanoi and taxi over to Haiphong and stay in a hotel, we trust that the encouragement we gave and received and relationship building that we all enjoyed made it all necessary.

Not only did we get to see all the students, we also got to see them during their military training time. This was a very special time for them because they all got to live in the dorm together away from family for 4 weeks, spending time together over meals, lessons, activities, training, games, and sleeping in bunk beds at night. We also got to celebrate Chi's birthday and Caleb's birthday up there with some students. Caleb got to run around and be spoiled by many of the students who really love him and missed him.

Besides having meals with some students and visiting them at their dorms and their canteen, we also had a chance to worship together with the group of like-minded students who are part of our family, singing songs and studying the word. It was a good time of encouragement both for them and for us. It was a really good encouragement for us to hear them share and see how much they have grown in their faith in the past year. I was asked to give them a little workshop on how to properly interpret the word. I also shared with them some video clips of a new family member here on our campus, and it was a blessing for them to see that they have a new sister in a province far away and to hear her testimony. Although they have never met each other, they seemed to share a common unspeakable joy with one another as if they were truly a family. It was such a huge blessing to be among them again. Even though it was a very tiring trip both for us and for Manny, Ruth, and Caroline, we were truly blessed and thankful.

You can see some of the pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/an.duy.dao/March2010#