Manusia Kesengsaraan// In the Hope room

Hoan Kiem Lake

Hari ini Jumaat Baik. What a strange sounding translation of Good Friday. It is also strange that I am in Hanoi instead of Good Friday service. Listening to the intermittent honks from the traffic below our hotel and watching the sunlight slowly suffuse the 'therapeutic' room as Jas described. Dua kawan-kawan aku masih nyenyak tidur, seperti semua baik di bumi. Good Friday meningkatkan aku tentang Yesus Kristos terseksa di Calvary.

Thinking about it I realised that sufferings and sorrows are often reflected back to joy, in the Lord. Joy of a deeper kind, leaning on the full weight of assurance in a heartrendingly glorious eternity with our Creator.

Manusia kesengsaraan... Let my heart be broken but not despair.

I have come to see happiness with a tinge of sorrow, like the people sleeping in the streets even as I was really happy to be exploring places with my dear friends (I counted four in the short 2 hours we were out yesterday). And on the other side, sorrows with a shade of joy. 这也是凄美的一种感悟吧.

Part II: In the Hope Room

It is very strange again today, as I was hearing Michael share, that I was almost envisioning myself in this kind of work. The dots seem to connect and sparks fly in my head; is that Your hand moving in the background? The way he talked about the narratives of the Vietnamese that he has built up, and how truths are communicated through these everyday narratives made my heart well up as the reservoir of perspective was widened. Could this be something I would do in the future?

As he was talking I recalled why I took up SunRay, is to understand a governmental/bureaucratic system. And as we reflected out loud about the time spent at the cafe, I remembered that I had first-hand experience with two social enterprises.

Perhaps this is also fitting for Good Friday, as we think about how we take up the task of shalom and consequently the cross to bear.