Vietnam Lotus House Update

Hello Friends and family,

Thought we'd give you an update on what's been happening over here in the last few days.  Currently we are staying in a hotel near the property for the orphanage.  Mark Nietz and his family arrived here 2 weeks ago.  It seems until we are able to get our workers visas instead of tourist visas, we are not able to stay on the property to sleep at night. These issues are being worked on but we don't really know how long they will take.  

Thus, Mark and family are now staying in HCMC and we are at a hotel near the property.

We had to leave the house on my birthday, and leave some precious friends and children from our English class.  (Not a very happy day, for me) Although we are not far at the hotel, (about 4 miles) the road to and from the house is under construction and very muddy and hard to travel on because of the monsoon rains. Even motorcycles have a hard time getting through. My last trip, I had to get off the motorcycle and walk through the mud.  (Not the same secretary image some of you have of me from so long ago. :) My toes and sandals were full of mud. 

So these are some of the challenges of being here! As lousy as some things are in America, it is still the greatest country to live in.

It's very boring right now just sitting in a hotel thats not near anything for us to do.    Don and I spend most of our day reading the Word, praying and listening to podcasts between going to the nearby restaurant to eat.  We're used to being busy, but this "time" might just be God giving some needed rest and drawing us ever closer to Him. 

Do keep us in your prayers. We are planning a trip to the Bible School in Cambodia at the end of the month.  It will be good to get out and see some of the students there and bring them some class completion certificates.  We will be visiting other orphanages and passing out water filters with the Lotus House team.  After that we'll check to see how things are going with our visas.  We might have to make some decisions on how to best use our time while waiting.  In the meantime, there is a lot of valuable ground work being established for Lotus House and we're excited to see all the puzzle pieces coming together. 

We love you all and miss you, but are excited to see what God is going to do here.  He always has the victory in every situation and our eyes are on Him.  

Making more memories and walking out adventures with our Jesus.

Your missionaries,

       Don and Maria Whitney