A Note From the Pastor
Rev. Eugene N. Nelson, Jr.
On our recent trip, Becky and I discovered that there is no T-Ball in Vietnam. We made this discovery while visiting in the town of Dong Ha, between Hanoi and Hue. In Dong Ha, we connected with an American, John Ward, a Vietnam vet who is currently working to set up a non-profit – Kids First – that will work with children with disabilities and serious health problems. John told us that one of the big problems of setting up a non-profit in Vietnam, along with a ponderous and suspicious government bureaucracy, is the lack of community support. Volunteerism, giving back some of your time to your community, is not a particularly strong civic virtue there. Then he told us about T-Ball.
A friend of his in Dong Ha decided that it would be great to start a T-Ball league in town. He got the equipment, he found a place to play, did publicity, then launched the league. But in spite of all his work, it never got going. There were kids, but there was no parental support, no community support. He could not find adults willing to help coach or do anything else. After a day’s work, people in town did their own thing. Parents were not interested in consistently bringing their children to practice. More often than not, kids had to find their way. One interested person could not do it all, and before long the league collapsed.
John said that this is a problem throughout the country. People worry about themselves, their families, and their extended families. But often that is about as far as their concern goes. The idea of volunteering time and effort to work on a community project is foreign to them. Certainly there are areas of volunteerism in the country, but still the idea that I have some responsibility for the “greater good” is one that has a ways to go in Vietnam.
And heaven knows we haven’t exactly mastered it in this country…or in our church. Catching a vision of something that is bigger than me and my needs, that may require something of me. Not an easy thing to do. And yet, isn’t this precisely what the Gospel asks of us…to lose ourselves in something bigger than ourselves that we might find our true selves? A new year opens before us. Our church needs us; our world needs us. I guarantee you that that there will be opportunities to serve, to care, to give of ourselves. May each of us find the courage and faith to respond.
Gene
