Vietnam,,, the name alone conjurned up memories of the past as a boy, images on the TV which I am sure my mother hid from us on the black and white screen when I lived in Missippi and Alaska.
Only later did I learn that my father was not sent there , though several of his fellow workers were because he had 4 chldren by the time. That was 1964.
It took a back seat in my preteen and teen years. But when I joined the Army n 1974 the war was still on the North advanced finally securing Saigon in April of 1975. I was stationed in Italy at the time ,, the time I met the Famly
Images and past history still stir my soul and though it has been 40 years it always held a curious part of history for me.
Maybe because it was an era in my life, because my sagenarts had been there. I dunno but when Scott in March of 2016 told me he was going for 10 days, it was an opportunity ,, like that of the Everest trek,. No revelation or prompting or leading just the desire and curiosty of seeing it .
He offered to cover the hotel which sweetened the pot but I probably would have gone anyway.
Writing a want ad and the response I got from Dave Mailman and that of Luke of Joy and dear Jay, who had just lost his wfe to cancer made it a mission for me to tell them of healing .
Not sleeping well the nightbefore it was again one of those restless nights , Images of post war Vietnam flipped through my head.
I arrived in the morning of the 18th to be picked up myLuke, a precious French brother and vetern of TFI for many years, His wife was Sabine , well known viloionist and old time from MWM days,
They too discovered healing and we spent hours in discussion over it. He was excited and called me “his birthday gift” as it was his birthday ha! He had done a lot of provisioning through the years and now , children grown and gone , was finding his identity in Christ and just being loved and taking life slow,
Scott arrived from Shanghai, later that evening and Luke met him too on the motorcycle. We exchanged hellos and hugs as old friends when he came to the apartment. For the next 3 days this was home.
The following morning we left to visit Siagon and meandering around like a couple of lost puppies and tourists we began our journey of discovery ad history.
We took a bus and ended up at the The famous Carevelle hotel where the Tet offensive was filmd by ABC.,the Post Office next to the Catholic cathedral and then to the famous the War musiene with its famous VN h=photos that had been shown world wide and made history, and of course the gruesome and sad pictures of the war innocent and civilians.
Tanks, planes were outside and sad reminder of the war lost and defeat of the US military. The famous heuy chopper was there and even an old Cessena scout plane that my father used to fly me in as a child growing up. The massive tanks and tons of arterially stood as monuments of defeat , like a modern day Goliath defeated by a little shepherd boy. Ironically it was from some town in Kentucky who had a piece of the this museum in which it showed the US troops and many of the famous pictures seen in Life magazine. It was a saddening moment to see such loss of life on both sides in particular the innocents and faces of young soldiers who were no any older than myself when I joined.
After many more photos at the closing hours we returned to time for the Happy Hour at the Caravelle drinking beer together and enjoying the rooftop view and talking about life and our wifes, Scott the ever persistent talker , never had a dull moment ha!
The following morning, we were more aware of our surrounding so we caught a taxi to town and went to the Ho Chi mein museum, very interesting as there was more autenitc equipement from the way,,the ox cartrs in which they transported the supplies and an old compass I wanted to get but in the long run decided not due to the question of radiation poisoning,
Sadness and apologetic gripped my seeing how the US did what it did , But what surprised me the most was the forgivness and the going forward the young people had when at the end of 3 day stay in Saigon we met at the park the following day with Jay,.
A broken man from Sweden , he was at the park where students would come up freely and unafraid to practice English. They were bright , intelligent and hungry to better themselves. Scott fit right in and in no time he was the center of attention . Laughing and story telling he had them in the palm of his hand.
I focused on Jay as he was needy and dazed having lost his wife of 20 years or more ( Michael Christian’s former wife). Seems she was the strong one and he stayed with her till the very end, going to the backstreets of Saigon to find morphene in her final days since it was so difficult to get prescription .
Our eyes welled up as he spoke of her last few days telling him she was ready to go.
I spoke into him praying for relief from stress as his immune system was down and he was having boils I prayed over him, commanded healing and the Lord began to speak to me how these final years here on earth were to be his glory years . I felt he had lost the will to live at times and he confessed he had. It was a precious and special moment and ministering to a brother who was an obvious vetern of many years was touching to say the least,
Choosing between going to the famous Saigon US embassy where pictures of people clamouring to get out or seeing Jay ,., the latter was much more important (later I found out that it had been completely demolished and rebuilt )
We visited the Palace where the tank flattened the gates and thus ended the war.,, today pictures of Nixon in his younger year are there and you can see the command center and radio equipement stillintact.
March 21- Market day where I bought rice painting of Jesus and the Palace Museuem where the final days of the war ended,.. we caught a taxi home from here. I think this is when we visited ai ge…the General
March 22 –we left Saigon arriving in Phu chu. Taking about 40 minutes,. We teamed up getting a taxi with a guy from California and after having a bit of rough go with the taxi driver Scott decided he had enough and we got out looking where to go. The place was almost perfect as we discovered a bunglow down by the beach run by a family . 30 USD a night
March 23 . I rented a motorbike and went south in search of Baisan beach,,, going along the construction road was rough but I was able to get my bearings and discovered Coconut prison where 40,000 Viet Cong had been held. Not very inspiring to see the life size maniquines being tortured but another part of history.
March 24 2016—motorbike to the Northwest side of the island,, prayed with 2 German girls and got some nice shots of a fishing village and saw Kampucha( Camdodia) from a distance,, very close actually!l
Visited several resorts along the way but they were pricey and the waters were not so great I felt. But fun to explore and I reached back towards the evening spending time taking fishing boat pictures and buying Joy a pearl necklace,, Scott and I later went out for pizza and beer,
March 25, 2016 return from pho chuc…On the last day I finally went swimming,, didn’t miss much but the weather and water were nice and warm. By the late after noon we said good bye to Biayn and Ling, I had a chance to pray with his older sister who married a French guy,,,,and the sweet taxi driver who helped get to the pearl place came along to say goodbye.
Luke had been texting me about seeing An gee again and though I was not looking forward to it Scott came along as well. We prayed for her again but this time I saw a smile on her face and light in her eyes which was a marked difference from last time.PTL Having Scott there was a help as he discerned she was on meds which accounted for subdued demeamor,
Later that evening Peter of Phoebe , an old timer of 70 with 6 kids , came to us and surprising us all he had been manifesting healing ! I was greatly encouraged and good lesson for me as he would have seemed to me the most unlikely candidate to do so.
I prayed for him and his sweet daughter 13 years old and gave him a book by Bill Johnson and Randy Clark. Hanging on to some of the past , he and Scott talked as they knew some of the same folks,
Dear Sabine came along with Scott and I for final night cap where were were treated by Scott to Mohitas. Rum and mint drink…GBH… found out that Scott had been the one to help make the decision to drop out as a young German traveler meeting her several years before ha!
March 26, 2016 left Vietnam…Scott left early in the morning and I saw him off with a hug andbrotherly kiss and last second photo shot, We went to look for his glasses, not there at the food stall at the market, so I took advantage and we found an old shop with old US Army goodies, Hard to know what was real and fake but I did come away with some old patches ,, genine or not ., who knows.,.
Returned and had lunch together.As I was getting the taxi. Sabina became very excited as her landlady was there with a shoulder prpblem,,, she wanted me to pray and she was instantly healed Hal! Took a quick photo went to the airport,.,,even the taxi driver was a Catholic,,, felt a sadness as went to the departure lounge to catch my flight.
Only later did I learn that my father was not sent there , though several of his fellow workers were because he had 4 chldren by the time. That was 1964.
It took a back seat in my preteen and teen years. But when I joined the Army n 1974 the war was still on the North advanced finally securing Saigon in April of 1975. I was stationed in Italy at the time ,, the time I met the Famly
Images and past history still stir my soul and though it has been 40 years it always held a curious part of history for me.
Maybe because it was an era in my life, because my sagenarts had been there. I dunno but when Scott in March of 2016 told me he was going for 10 days, it was an opportunity ,, like that of the Everest trek,. No revelation or prompting or leading just the desire and curiosty of seeing it .
He offered to cover the hotel which sweetened the pot but I probably would have gone anyway.
Writing a want ad and the response I got from Dave Mailman and that of Luke of Joy and dear Jay, who had just lost his wfe to cancer made it a mission for me to tell them of healing .
Not sleeping well the nightbefore it was again one of those restless nights , Images of post war Vietnam flipped through my head.
I arrived in the morning of the 18th to be picked up myLuke, a precious French brother and vetern of TFI for many years, His wife was Sabine , well known viloionist and old time from MWM days,
They too discovered healing and we spent hours in discussion over it. He was excited and called me “his birthday gift” as it was his birthday ha! He had done a lot of provisioning through the years and now , children grown and gone , was finding his identity in Christ and just being loved and taking life slow,
Scott arrived from Shanghai, later that evening and Luke met him too on the motorcycle. We exchanged hellos and hugs as old friends when he came to the apartment. For the next 3 days this was home.
The following morning we left to visit Siagon and meandering around like a couple of lost puppies and tourists we began our journey of discovery ad history.
We took a bus and ended up at the The famous Carevelle hotel where the Tet offensive was filmd by ABC.,the Post Office next to the Catholic cathedral and then to the famous the War musiene with its famous VN h=photos that had been shown world wide and made history, and of course the gruesome and sad pictures of the war innocent and civilians.
Tanks, planes were outside and sad reminder of the war lost and defeat of the US military. The famous heuy chopper was there and even an old Cessena scout plane that my father used to fly me in as a child growing up. The massive tanks and tons of arterially stood as monuments of defeat , like a modern day Goliath defeated by a little shepherd boy. Ironically it was from some town in Kentucky who had a piece of the this museum in which it showed the US troops and many of the famous pictures seen in Life magazine. It was a saddening moment to see such loss of life on both sides in particular the innocents and faces of young soldiers who were no any older than myself when I joined.
After many more photos at the closing hours we returned to time for the Happy Hour at the Caravelle drinking beer together and enjoying the rooftop view and talking about life and our wifes, Scott the ever persistent talker , never had a dull moment ha!
The following morning, we were more aware of our surrounding so we caught a taxi to town and went to the Ho Chi mein museum, very interesting as there was more autenitc equipement from the way,,the ox cartrs in which they transported the supplies and an old compass I wanted to get but in the long run decided not due to the question of radiation poisoning,
Sadness and apologetic gripped my seeing how the US did what it did , But what surprised me the most was the forgivness and the going forward the young people had when at the end of 3 day stay in Saigon we met at the park the following day with Jay,.
A broken man from Sweden , he was at the park where students would come up freely and unafraid to practice English. They were bright , intelligent and hungry to better themselves. Scott fit right in and in no time he was the center of attention . Laughing and story telling he had them in the palm of his hand.
I focused on Jay as he was needy and dazed having lost his wife of 20 years or more ( Michael Christian’s former wife). Seems she was the strong one and he stayed with her till the very end, going to the backstreets of Saigon to find morphene in her final days since it was so difficult to get prescription .
Our eyes welled up as he spoke of her last few days telling him she was ready to go.
I spoke into him praying for relief from stress as his immune system was down and he was having boils I prayed over him, commanded healing and the Lord began to speak to me how these final years here on earth were to be his glory years . I felt he had lost the will to live at times and he confessed he had. It was a precious and special moment and ministering to a brother who was an obvious vetern of many years was touching to say the least,
Choosing between going to the famous Saigon US embassy where pictures of people clamouring to get out or seeing Jay ,., the latter was much more important (later I found out that it had been completely demolished and rebuilt )
We visited the Palace where the tank flattened the gates and thus ended the war.,, today pictures of Nixon in his younger year are there and you can see the command center and radio equipement stillintact.
March 21- Market day where I bought rice painting of Jesus and the Palace Museuem where the final days of the war ended,.. we caught a taxi home from here. I think this is when we visited ai ge…the General
March 22 –we left Saigon arriving in Phu chu. Taking about 40 minutes,. We teamed up getting a taxi with a guy from California and after having a bit of rough go with the taxi driver Scott decided he had enough and we got out looking where to go. The place was almost perfect as we discovered a bunglow down by the beach run by a family . 30 USD a night
March 23 . I rented a motorbike and went south in search of Baisan beach,,, going along the construction road was rough but I was able to get my bearings and discovered Coconut prison where 40,000 Viet Cong had been held. Not very inspiring to see the life size maniquines being tortured but another part of history.
March 24 2016—motorbike to the Northwest side of the island,, prayed with 2 German girls and got some nice shots of a fishing village and saw Kampucha( Camdodia) from a distance,, very close actually!l
Visited several resorts along the way but they were pricey and the waters were not so great I felt. But fun to explore and I reached back towards the evening spending time taking fishing boat pictures and buying Joy a pearl necklace,, Scott and I later went out for pizza and beer,
March 25, 2016 return from pho chuc…On the last day I finally went swimming,, didn’t miss much but the weather and water were nice and warm. By the late after noon we said good bye to Biayn and Ling, I had a chance to pray with his older sister who married a French guy,,,,and the sweet taxi driver who helped get to the pearl place came along to say goodbye.
Luke had been texting me about seeing An gee again and though I was not looking forward to it Scott came along as well. We prayed for her again but this time I saw a smile on her face and light in her eyes which was a marked difference from last time.PTL Having Scott there was a help as he discerned she was on meds which accounted for subdued demeamor,
Later that evening Peter of Phoebe , an old timer of 70 with 6 kids , came to us and surprising us all he had been manifesting healing ! I was greatly encouraged and good lesson for me as he would have seemed to me the most unlikely candidate to do so.
I prayed for him and his sweet daughter 13 years old and gave him a book by Bill Johnson and Randy Clark. Hanging on to some of the past , he and Scott talked as they knew some of the same folks,
Dear Sabine came along with Scott and I for final night cap where were were treated by Scott to Mohitas. Rum and mint drink…GBH… found out that Scott had been the one to help make the decision to drop out as a young German traveler meeting her several years before ha!
March 26, 2016 left Vietnam…Scott left early in the morning and I saw him off with a hug andbrotherly kiss and last second photo shot, We went to look for his glasses, not there at the food stall at the market, so I took advantage and we found an old shop with old US Army goodies, Hard to know what was real and fake but I did come away with some old patches ,, genine or not ., who knows.,.
Returned and had lunch together.As I was getting the taxi. Sabina became very excited as her landlady was there with a shoulder prpblem,,, she wanted me to pray and she was instantly healed Hal! Took a quick photo went to the airport,.,,even the taxi driver was a Catholic,,, felt a sadness as went to the departure lounge to catch my flight.