Like many of the relationships God is building here at the hospital, we met Thoung on one of our daily walks. With her permission, let us tell you about this remarkable young lady. (I say young lady because she reminds us she could be our daughter! 🙂
Here, Thuong is pictured with her new friend, Marcia. Here at the hospital, it seems I live in an, “Everyone Loves Marcia” world… Sometime I am sort of the “side kick with cancer.” Which is quite understandable because she is after all, so utterly amazing. 🙂
Our relationship with Thuong began with smiles in the hallway and thanking her for the important job she has delivering supplies to all the rooms. This simple gesture has resulted in numerous visits with Thuong. Through these we learned how she escaped communist Vietnam as a teenager, how she met her husband in a refugee camp in the Philippines, how she has grown into adulthood in the United States. We have learned about her family and she about ours. As we begin to share our faith, she kindly tells us that she is Buddhist. And so on this basis, we begin our friendship.
Thuong has actually been ministering to us this past week, bringing us two delicious home-cooked Vietnamese meals to our room. (I have been so touched and humbled by hospitality of others. It spurs me on to be more intently sensitive to others.) When she came back to our room today after her shift ended, we learned more about this incredibly brave woman who speaks of leaving destructive country specific customs and forging NEW relationship patterns. (It is interesting to hear this gentle Buddhist lady speaking of such basic Christian truth, that we are not bound to our past, that new beginnings, in Christ, are available to us now.) We talked about God’s plan for the sanctity of marriage, calling on the Ephesians 5 passage about the Love and Respect husband and wife need to demonstrate to each other.
Without this “extra month” in the hospital we may have not had the opportunity to discover this chapter in our relationship with Thuong. We are very happy to get to know this remarkably kind, generous, brave, and compassionate woman, and look forward to many more visits. I wish the picture conveyed the brilliance of her warm smile.
Postscript: I am old enough to have lived through a number of Evangelistic campaigns and methods. Sadly, many of these seemed to be more concerned with befriending people with the primary purpose to convert them, but not to really love them. If you are a nonChristian reading this, I am guessing you may know what I mean. Yes, believing Christians are motivated by the great commission call to make disciples, baptize, and teach everything Jesus has taught us…and to do so with urgency, because we are not guaranteed another day on this earth. We believe that the choices and relationships we make effect eternity. But. . .
. . . over the years, it has seemed to me that we should let the love us Jesus shine in and through our lives, and let HIM touch others through us. Some relationships will last for a season or for a lifetime. Others will last for all eternity. It is Jesus who changes others, not us. We simply are called to love Him and love others in His name.
I’ll close with a quote from an Anglican bishop who decades ago wrote a personal letter to me advising:
“Let us remember to hold hands
as we climb the mountain of God together.”
What blessings and opportunities God is giving you there in the hospital!! You both are lighting your world where you are! Thank you for sharing! We love you!
I agree. We are so much into the mandate “go an make disciples” that we forget the only with love (God’s love that is) we can get much farther and convey a quicker response. Say “hello” to Thoung for me and ask her what her name means.
Thuong says her name means “love” in English. How fitting as she seems to live this out every day with everyone she meets.
In my weakest days on chemo, I think my name sometimes means impatient and whiny. I’m asking God for a new name to be made known through the weak times! 🙂
What a courageous woman is Thuong! Who was the Anglican Bishop who gave you that wonderful quote?
I am a friend of Brian’s Aunt Joan in Colorado, and she directed me to this blog. Wow. I am amazed at your faith and courage and will be using your observations about simply loving people and letting the light of Christ shine through us rather than befriending them with the intention of converting them in our Bible study group today. I was brought to Christianity as a college student by a theology professor who never even knew my name and made no effort to convert me — I just loved watching him walk in the light and became curious about how to attain a little of that light in my life. Your stories of making friends in the hospital remind me of my Mom, who had lung cancer and was in the hospital for a long time, making friends with staff, other patients, and family members of patients all the while. Thanks, and God Bless!
Jesus said, the greatest love was to lay down one’s life for a friend. What greater love can we share with people than telling them about Him who gave His life for them. I think sharing the gospel is an act of love in and of itself.