Why Vietnam?

That is a question that we have heard a lot in the months and weeks leading up to our departure. There are really a number of other questions that lead to that question. The first being - why these big travel adventures with your kids.

Patti has always been a world traveler and when she met me I had only been to Canada, once driving through and another time in a canoe. She convinced me that we needed to go to Spain and Morocco on our honeymoon and that broke me in to what travel has to offer, including nearly being left for dead in a North African Desert (need to post that story some time).

Many of you know that a few years ago we decided that the kids would be homeschooled for a semester so we could show them some of the world. Well, that one semester turned into a few more and here we are. There are a few objectives when traveling with the kids including bonding as a family, showing them that there is more to the world then what they experience at home on a day to day basis and that people from other countries and cultures are reflections of Gods image and are more like us then different.

Back to 'Why Vietnam?' - when we were traveling in China everyone with whom we had the 'where to go next' conversation recommended Vietnam. I had really only know Vietnam from movies that were made about our war there. Like China, Vietnam has a Communist government which prompts one to ask the 'Why?' question again. This is yet another opportunity to teach ourselves and our children that most people have the same God given desire to live free regardless of the socio-political situation they find themselves in. Jesus said - “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Today I heard on the radio(Internet radio) that the Vietnamese government had arrested and imprisoned a blogger for something on the order of a 15 year sentence. The internet is a powerful tool with a potential impact exponentially greater then Gutenburgs press which began to change the Western world in his time.

Please pray for safety in our travels and for opportunities to interact with the Vietnamese people and appreciate their culture.

Here is a map that shows our main destinations in Vietnam denoted by the black circles with white in them. We will have side trips in a few locations as well.