March 5th: Vietnamese Reunion

Thirty years ago Lynne and I were part of a study group that decided just reading about Jesus and discussing His life wasn’t the most important thing Jesus would have us do.  Instead, we concluded, we should extend ourselves to those in need.  At that time there were some articles in the paper that told of Vietnamese “Boat people” waiting (and hoping) for someone in the United States to sponsor them so they could start a new life in America.   None of the five study group couples, on their own, had the means or the ability to offer a sponsorship to any of these refugees from Vietnam. BUT if we all pooled our resources and worked together we thought we might be able to help a small family from Southeast Asia.   On a cold December day in 1980 a Vietnamese mother and her 5 children ages twelve to 4 arrived in Salt Lake City.  Everything they owned was either on their backs or in a paper sack.  They spoke no English.  Five young families from a study group began an adventure in “do unto others” that changed our lives.

Tonight we met at a Thai Restaurant in Sandy to celebrate this family’s three decades in America.  All of Van’s children are older now than we were when we sponsored them.  I don’t have space here to recount all the amazing things that have happened in the 30 years since they arrived, but suffice it to say, her children have advanced degrees from college, have married well, are working hard, have gorgeous children of their own, have supported their mother, and have never forgotten to thank the 5 Mormon Families who brought them to a blessed place they now call home.

Van’s husband was a colonel in the South Vietnamese Army and near the end of the Vietnam War he instructed his wife to take all their children to the city of Nha Trang because he knew the Communists were going to take Qui Nhon.  He told her to wait for him.  He never came.

Tonight she stood to thank us for what we’d done for her and her family.  She still struggles with English but not with sincerity.  Looking around at her accomplished children and their  Extended American Family she had a difficult time expressing her gratitude, NOT because of a language barrier, but because of the tears.

We shed them too.  It took us years before we learned the full story of their escape from Vietnam.  It would make an amazing movie, just that part of the story.  But for me, it has been “the rest of the story” that inspires the most.  It’s an honor for me to claim this exceptional family as dear friends.

As I end this entry I don’t even know how to begin to say how deeply happy I am for my small part in what I see as a  very big miracle.  It wasn’t my bright idea to stop reading about and try acting like the Good Shepherd.  That came from the women in the group.  It wasn’t my inspired organizational skills that figured out how five young families could make this work.  I just raised my hand in support and pitched in where I could.  It wasn’t my basement apartment they moved into when they first arrived.  I just took my turn driving them to the dentist or the doctor or their school activities.   It wasn’t much of me at all, but I was part of something bigger than me, and was blessed to be sharing this all with a group of people who were  both teaching me AND learning with me about love and service and sacrifice.

But of course tonight, with tears in all our eyes, it was no sacrifice at all.  Love’s funny that way.