The Crown of God's Creation
Over the last few days I have read “The Power of a Whisper” by Bill Hybels. The final chapter is titled: “Whispers That Change The World,” in which Hybels describes mankind as “the crown of God’s creation.” With those words pulsing through my entire being—we hit the streets of HoChiMihn City where the majority of the crown of God’s creation appeared right before our eyes! People! People and more people!
Maneuvering through the sea of scooters is a death defying feat. The competitive blood coursing through my veins found this game slightly stimulating, as I tasted victory each step of the way! It was hard to resist exploding into all-out celebration on numerous occasions!
We hired two very brave cyclo bikers and shortly our lives were placed into the middle of the chaos! Seriously!! Our helmet-less lives were now at the mercy of two helmet-less strangers. Dodging vehicles, scooters, peddle bikes and pedestrians we arrived safely at the War Remnants Museum, the Independence Palace and to our pre-arranged meeting point!
The War Remnants Museum was extremely disturbing. I couldn’t fathom the depth of grief God endured as the crown of his creation participated in acts of brutality against each other. I was in high school during the Vietnam War—the last time the guillotine we saw, including the barbed execution table, was used was 1972. Horrific stories and photos filled me with intense grief and anger!
Later in the evening went to the Back Pack District. This is the area where expats out number locals! And I witnessed the crown of God’s creation beginning to build hope and life through obedient response to the whispers of God. One such place is a coffee shop called SOZO. Established in 2005 to help underprivileged families break the cycle of poverty providing training and opportunity. The walls of the coffee shop were filled with English Bible verses! We also saw the location for the whisper Beulah had received from God.
Over the last few days we have visited with Kiwis, Aussies, English, Americans, Canadians! We watched Matt and Court teach swimming to many classes of Caucasian children…in Vietnam. We ate lunch in a restaurant today that did not have one Vietnamese patron—and yet it was fairly full! It has been strange. The world is really getting small!
Tomorrow we are off to the Philippines.
