Today's reading is about having the will to be faithful....from Joshua 24:15. "....choose for yourself this day whom you will serve....."
As soon as I began reading this devotional I thought of the story of when I left Vietnam. I must say that it is difficult for me to not keep the stories in chronological order because I like things that way....but I am going to keep allowing the devotional series to lead how I share my journey.....
Early in March of 1975, the Jarai Bible School Students in Pleiku came to the missionaries and told them that it was time for us to leave. The airport in Pleiku was a distance out of town and their concern was that the road would be cut and we would not be able to get out.
The 1975 offensive started in Banmethuot in the central highlands. This was where a group of missionaries had been kidnapped in 1962, another group had been killed and several captured in 1968, and now again, missionaries had been captured in 1975 along with the consul officer for the American Embassy. This is why the Bible School Students came and told us to leave.
We had a meeting with our station leader, Gail Fleming, and he said that the women and children needed to leave first. I was really frustrated by that.....I thought this was somehow a slight on us as women... that we needed to be more protected than the men. So I talked with Gail and asked him why I couldn't stay and work.....I was unmarried so did not have children to take care of...and felt I should be able to stay if the men could. One of the women, Joan Downes, had just recently had a new baby and so Gail asked me to go with her to help with her 2 year old child. He knew I loved the children and so we agreed I would accompany them and that I could return to Pleiku after they were settled and safe. I think he knew that I would not be able to return......because when we went to the Air America plane, he came and put my sewing machine on at the last minute.
We were told one day and had to leave the next. Olive Kingsbury and I went out the the Leprosy Center to tell the patients and staff that they needed to go back to their homes. I will never forget that morning. The shock and sadness of these wonderful people....and the fear of the patients.....One of the patients had such a horrible leg ulcer that it was going to kill him. He was getting weaker and weaker and a surgeon who had joined us, Dr. Robert Green, said we had to amputate his leg. The man really struggled with this decision to have his leg removed because although he was terribly ill due to the infection, he could hobble around with a stick and if the leg was removed, he would not be able to walk at all.....he was too old and infirme to hop. He finally agreed to the surgery because Dr. Green and I promised him a prosthetic leg. Things changed politically so quickly after his surgery and now we were having to leave and he didn't have his leg yet. I will never forget what he said to me...."Older Sister, you are a person who lies". "You promised me you would give me a leg and now you are leaving". "You should have let me die". "I cannot walk to go home". Several of the staff said that they would stay with the ones who couldn't leave due to their condition or due to the roads being cut by fighting. We prayed with them, told them to take all the medications and supplies for the people who needed them, and said we would come back if God allowed. I truly thought I would be back and so when I went to that airplane, I left some of my favorite gifts from the workers on my dresser at home......to come back to.
We were allowed to bring one suitcase on the evacuation flight. So what is important? Photos, my Bible, some clothing, fabric to have new clothing made in Saigon for when I returned.
We flew to Saigon that day....a flight with the women, Dr Green and his wife, and some Vietnamese military officers and their wives. I never was able to return to Pleiku.... Within a few days, the men also left because the fighting was too close to the town and the airport was being shelled.
We waited in Saigon with hopes that the fighting would cease and we would be able to return to Pleiku. This never happened. So we began making plans to move somewhere north of Saigon to help with the flood of refugees. I really thought this plan would come to be......after all, I knew for the first time in my life that I was 'called' by God to be here......
Finally, the mission sent out Dr. L L King to work with the missionaries and send them where they would work next. This was so very painful for all the missionaries who had given their lives to working in Vietnam and now had to leave. And there were 8 missionaries that had been captured and we didn't know if they were alive. Betty Mitchell (who's husband had been captured in 1962 and had not been released), Richard and Lillian Phillips with their 4 year old daughter, Luanne, John and Carolyn Miller, Norm and Joan Johnson from Canada. There were days of meeting with groups and then individuals.....talking and praying together to find agreement on where so many would go. The only one who was not a part of these discussions was me. I was still under the mission, Go Ye Fellowship, and only on loan to the Christian and Missionary Alliance to work in Pleiku.
Dr. King did talk with me after lunch one day in the courtyard. In the courtyard there was an area that was a step lower then the rest of the courtyard. Dr. King was quite a bit shorter than I and so he stayed on the step and I stood on the lower part so we could speak eye to eye. He said that he wanted me to continue to work with the mission but couldn't assign me anywhere since I was only on loan to them.... He suggested I think about being the school nurse in Malaysia.....I really thought I would probably not be the best influence with the kids there.....and I kept my hope that I could stay in Vietnam.
Every day I would spend a lot of time doing several things.......of course, praying for God to save the missionaries that had been captured, for the leprosy patients, and for God to show me what He wanted me to do. I really couldn't believe that this was all coming to an end. I mean, how can I be so clearly called to work here and after only 15 months.....it's over? I was so confused and so sad. It was suggested that I write in my Jarai language Bible the names of all the people I could remember.....right now.....because over time I was told I would forget them.....and I didn't want to.....so I wrote lists of names that had faces in my mind......then.....
Finally the missionaries began moving to their next assignments. I came to the realization that I too had to leave.....so I got an exit visa that I never used......and started looking at how I could get back to California and my parents. Go Ye Fellowship recommended that I move to Kalimantan (Borneo) in Indonesia and work with the Conservative Baptist Mission. This was about the only thing that made me chuckle at that time....I thought they would be surprised at how not conservative I was and it might not be a good match.
World Vision had a baby home for orphans in Saigon and was going to send their babies to Australia to adoptive families. They had a premature baby that needed more care and called to ask me if I wanted to escort this baby to Australia. They were aware of my work at the children's hospital in Danang. I was praying for direction from God but I didn't think this was guidance by Him....I only thought....."Never been to Australia.....sure". I had already secured a seat on a plane with orphans going to the USA.....so I cancelled my seat for the next morning and decided to go to Australia. Now let me explain something. In the past I had escorted Vietnamese children to adoptive parents in the USA and the airlines would give a free round trip ticket to travel with the children and deliver them to their new families. So I was thinking.....I would go with these orphans and be able to secure another round trip ticket and return to Vietnam when things settled down...... I really wasn't getting it at all......
That night my parents somehow were able to call through to the guest house in Saigon. They called to ask me to leave right away. They had never called me before and sounded quite concerned. I told them that I had a flight to leave the next day and they were relieved. I didn't tell them it was to Australia and I don't think they cared.....they just wanted me to leave Vietnam.
The next morning we picked up the babies from the baby home and went in a convoy with other babies from other organizations and a police escort. The bus stopped at a red light and the police went on so our escort was gone within a few moments. As we were traveling to the airport, there was a huge explosion and and black smoke rising. When we came up to the airport we could see an airplane crashed and burning. I didn't know until later that this was the original flight I was scheduled to take with orphans to the USA. I thank God that He directed me to go to Australia......whatever my reasons were.....
At the airport there was a Royal Australian Air Force Hercules Transport plane waiting. We carried the babies inside and it had canvas bench seats for us to lay the babies on. This flight had a total of 106 babies laid side by side on the canvas seats. Several of the escorts found out about the crashed flight and had friends or relatives on that one so were not able to help with the babies. They were too distraught and in shock. The was also a young Vietnamese woman doctor that came with her young son, sat in a corner and was able to escape with us. Each group was supposed to bring different supplies for the babies. One to bring diapers, another bottles of juice and water for hydration......but in the anxiety of the moment....these supplies were forgotten. Only one group had bottles of milk for their babies. We shared that with all 106 throughout the flight. I wish I could upload my pictures of the flight....it was incredible. You needed to climb along the wall to get to the different babies that were crying to comfort them. Because we were sharing the bottles of milk...most of the babies had diarrhea before the end of the flight.....and with no diapers, it was a mess.... The flight took about 3 hours to get to Bangkok. By the time we got there, we were all filthy and the babies were quite ill.
In Bangkok we were met by a group of Australian nurses in their nursing uniforms and the specific hat that they wore that reminded me of the TV show The Flying Nun. They had a Quantas airplane to meet and take the babies the rest of the way to Sydney. I was not required to continue on the flight but I had agreed to escort this one baby and wanted to follow through. Also, I had never been to Australia and wanted to go there. I kept hold of my little premature baby until we arrived there and cared for her.
When we arrived in Sydney we heard that all the babies would be put in a facility at the North Shore. The Australian woman who was from World Vision told us to make sure all of our babies went to the hospital instead. It was a better place for them and they were so little. We did.
Once in Sydney, the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital gave us rooms to say. I remember coming out of my room and seeing "Sister Margaret Herren" on the door. I was shocked. I thought it meant that they believed me to be a nun. I told one of the nurse and she had a good laugh.....she said that a Sister is a nurse....... I called my parents and told them where I was and that I was safe. They were relieved. I then set about trying to find a free ticket to get back to the northern hemisphere.....and had great difficulty with that.
We couldn't stay at the hospital for long and so moved for a short time to a condo on the North Shore. It was there that we sat and watched the news reports of the final days in Saigon and finally the tanks roll into Saigon on May 1, 1975. Now I had to face the fact that I would not be returning to Vietnam. I'm so thankful I was there to be able to walk alone on the beach and try to figure out what God wanted me to do next.
While at the hospital the nurses had helped me get an Australian Nursing License. This would allow me to work in Australia or England. So I began looking for a job.
Joan, the woman I had traveled with from Pleiku to help with her babies was living with her husband, Bruce, in Canberra, Australia. I phoned them and asked if I could come for a visit. They were so shocked. They had watched the news reports of the babies being placed on the Galaxy plane that had crashed at the airport the day I left and had seen one woman getting on the plane, her head down, two babies in her arms and long back hair, and they thought it was me and that I had died. What a wonderful reunion we had.....
Oswald Chambers writes, "A person’s will is embodied in the actions of the whole person. I cannot give up my will— I must exercise it, putting it into action. I must will to obey....." So what do you do when you don't know what action to take? All I could do was to continue to pray and move in the direction that I believed God wanted me to go. Staying in Australia was not it.....no matter what job I applied for, it was gone and I was not hired. Even one job, I was selected but I was not in Sydney and so they gave the job to someone else. Each day I would look and pray for guidance.....and I know that I did follow God's lead.....from Australia to Guam. And it was in Guam that God answered another of my prayers......it was there that I met my husband, Bryan.
The 1975 offensive started in Banmethuot in the central highlands. This was where a group of missionaries had been kidnapped in 1962, another group had been killed and several captured in 1968, and now again, missionaries had been captured in 1975 along with the consul officer for the American Embassy. This is why the Bible School Students came and told us to leave.
We had a meeting with our station leader, Gail Fleming, and he said that the women and children needed to leave first. I was really frustrated by that.....I thought this was somehow a slight on us as women... that we needed to be more protected than the men. So I talked with Gail and asked him why I couldn't stay and work.....I was unmarried so did not have children to take care of...and felt I should be able to stay if the men could. One of the women, Joan Downes, had just recently had a new baby and so Gail asked me to go with her to help with her 2 year old child. He knew I loved the children and so we agreed I would accompany them and that I could return to Pleiku after they were settled and safe. I think he knew that I would not be able to return......because when we went to the Air America plane, he came and put my sewing machine on at the last minute.
We were told one day and had to leave the next. Olive Kingsbury and I went out the the Leprosy Center to tell the patients and staff that they needed to go back to their homes. I will never forget that morning. The shock and sadness of these wonderful people....and the fear of the patients.....One of the patients had such a horrible leg ulcer that it was going to kill him. He was getting weaker and weaker and a surgeon who had joined us, Dr. Robert Green, said we had to amputate his leg. The man really struggled with this decision to have his leg removed because although he was terribly ill due to the infection, he could hobble around with a stick and if the leg was removed, he would not be able to walk at all.....he was too old and infirme to hop. He finally agreed to the surgery because Dr. Green and I promised him a prosthetic leg. Things changed politically so quickly after his surgery and now we were having to leave and he didn't have his leg yet. I will never forget what he said to me...."Older Sister, you are a person who lies". "You promised me you would give me a leg and now you are leaving". "You should have let me die". "I cannot walk to go home". Several of the staff said that they would stay with the ones who couldn't leave due to their condition or due to the roads being cut by fighting. We prayed with them, told them to take all the medications and supplies for the people who needed them, and said we would come back if God allowed. I truly thought I would be back and so when I went to that airplane, I left some of my favorite gifts from the workers on my dresser at home......to come back to.
We were allowed to bring one suitcase on the evacuation flight. So what is important? Photos, my Bible, some clothing, fabric to have new clothing made in Saigon for when I returned.
We flew to Saigon that day....a flight with the women, Dr Green and his wife, and some Vietnamese military officers and their wives. I never was able to return to Pleiku.... Within a few days, the men also left because the fighting was too close to the town and the airport was being shelled.
We waited in Saigon with hopes that the fighting would cease and we would be able to return to Pleiku. This never happened. So we began making plans to move somewhere north of Saigon to help with the flood of refugees. I really thought this plan would come to be......after all, I knew for the first time in my life that I was 'called' by God to be here......
Finally, the mission sent out Dr. L L King to work with the missionaries and send them where they would work next. This was so very painful for all the missionaries who had given their lives to working in Vietnam and now had to leave. And there were 8 missionaries that had been captured and we didn't know if they were alive. Betty Mitchell (who's husband had been captured in 1962 and had not been released), Richard and Lillian Phillips with their 4 year old daughter, Luanne, John and Carolyn Miller, Norm and Joan Johnson from Canada. There were days of meeting with groups and then individuals.....talking and praying together to find agreement on where so many would go. The only one who was not a part of these discussions was me. I was still under the mission, Go Ye Fellowship, and only on loan to the Christian and Missionary Alliance to work in Pleiku.
Dr. King did talk with me after lunch one day in the courtyard. In the courtyard there was an area that was a step lower then the rest of the courtyard. Dr. King was quite a bit shorter than I and so he stayed on the step and I stood on the lower part so we could speak eye to eye. He said that he wanted me to continue to work with the mission but couldn't assign me anywhere since I was only on loan to them.... He suggested I think about being the school nurse in Malaysia.....I really thought I would probably not be the best influence with the kids there.....and I kept my hope that I could stay in Vietnam.
Every day I would spend a lot of time doing several things.......of course, praying for God to save the missionaries that had been captured, for the leprosy patients, and for God to show me what He wanted me to do. I really couldn't believe that this was all coming to an end. I mean, how can I be so clearly called to work here and after only 15 months.....it's over? I was so confused and so sad. It was suggested that I write in my Jarai language Bible the names of all the people I could remember.....right now.....because over time I was told I would forget them.....and I didn't want to.....so I wrote lists of names that had faces in my mind......then.....
Finally the missionaries began moving to their next assignments. I came to the realization that I too had to leave.....so I got an exit visa that I never used......and started looking at how I could get back to California and my parents. Go Ye Fellowship recommended that I move to Kalimantan (Borneo) in Indonesia and work with the Conservative Baptist Mission. This was about the only thing that made me chuckle at that time....I thought they would be surprised at how not conservative I was and it might not be a good match.
World Vision had a baby home for orphans in Saigon and was going to send their babies to Australia to adoptive families. They had a premature baby that needed more care and called to ask me if I wanted to escort this baby to Australia. They were aware of my work at the children's hospital in Danang. I was praying for direction from God but I didn't think this was guidance by Him....I only thought....."Never been to Australia.....sure". I had already secured a seat on a plane with orphans going to the USA.....so I cancelled my seat for the next morning and decided to go to Australia. Now let me explain something. In the past I had escorted Vietnamese children to adoptive parents in the USA and the airlines would give a free round trip ticket to travel with the children and deliver them to their new families. So I was thinking.....I would go with these orphans and be able to secure another round trip ticket and return to Vietnam when things settled down...... I really wasn't getting it at all......
That night my parents somehow were able to call through to the guest house in Saigon. They called to ask me to leave right away. They had never called me before and sounded quite concerned. I told them that I had a flight to leave the next day and they were relieved. I didn't tell them it was to Australia and I don't think they cared.....they just wanted me to leave Vietnam.
The next morning we picked up the babies from the baby home and went in a convoy with other babies from other organizations and a police escort. The bus stopped at a red light and the police went on so our escort was gone within a few moments. As we were traveling to the airport, there was a huge explosion and and black smoke rising. When we came up to the airport we could see an airplane crashed and burning. I didn't know until later that this was the original flight I was scheduled to take with orphans to the USA. I thank God that He directed me to go to Australia......whatever my reasons were.....
At the airport there was a Royal Australian Air Force Hercules Transport plane waiting. We carried the babies inside and it had canvas bench seats for us to lay the babies on. This flight had a total of 106 babies laid side by side on the canvas seats. Several of the escorts found out about the crashed flight and had friends or relatives on that one so were not able to help with the babies. They were too distraught and in shock. The was also a young Vietnamese woman doctor that came with her young son, sat in a corner and was able to escape with us. Each group was supposed to bring different supplies for the babies. One to bring diapers, another bottles of juice and water for hydration......but in the anxiety of the moment....these supplies were forgotten. Only one group had bottles of milk for their babies. We shared that with all 106 throughout the flight. I wish I could upload my pictures of the flight....it was incredible. You needed to climb along the wall to get to the different babies that were crying to comfort them. Because we were sharing the bottles of milk...most of the babies had diarrhea before the end of the flight.....and with no diapers, it was a mess.... The flight took about 3 hours to get to Bangkok. By the time we got there, we were all filthy and the babies were quite ill.
In Bangkok we were met by a group of Australian nurses in their nursing uniforms and the specific hat that they wore that reminded me of the TV show The Flying Nun. They had a Quantas airplane to meet and take the babies the rest of the way to Sydney. I was not required to continue on the flight but I had agreed to escort this one baby and wanted to follow through. Also, I had never been to Australia and wanted to go there. I kept hold of my little premature baby until we arrived there and cared for her.
When we arrived in Sydney we heard that all the babies would be put in a facility at the North Shore. The Australian woman who was from World Vision told us to make sure all of our babies went to the hospital instead. It was a better place for them and they were so little. We did.
Once in Sydney, the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital gave us rooms to say. I remember coming out of my room and seeing "Sister Margaret Herren" on the door. I was shocked. I thought it meant that they believed me to be a nun. I told one of the nurse and she had a good laugh.....she said that a Sister is a nurse....... I called my parents and told them where I was and that I was safe. They were relieved. I then set about trying to find a free ticket to get back to the northern hemisphere.....and had great difficulty with that.
We couldn't stay at the hospital for long and so moved for a short time to a condo on the North Shore. It was there that we sat and watched the news reports of the final days in Saigon and finally the tanks roll into Saigon on May 1, 1975. Now I had to face the fact that I would not be returning to Vietnam. I'm so thankful I was there to be able to walk alone on the beach and try to figure out what God wanted me to do next.
While at the hospital the nurses had helped me get an Australian Nursing License. This would allow me to work in Australia or England. So I began looking for a job.
Joan, the woman I had traveled with from Pleiku to help with her babies was living with her husband, Bruce, in Canberra, Australia. I phoned them and asked if I could come for a visit. They were so shocked. They had watched the news reports of the babies being placed on the Galaxy plane that had crashed at the airport the day I left and had seen one woman getting on the plane, her head down, two babies in her arms and long back hair, and they thought it was me and that I had died. What a wonderful reunion we had.....
Oswald Chambers writes, "A person’s will is embodied in the actions of the whole person. I cannot give up my will— I must exercise it, putting it into action. I must will to obey....." So what do you do when you don't know what action to take? All I could do was to continue to pray and move in the direction that I believed God wanted me to go. Staying in Australia was not it.....no matter what job I applied for, it was gone and I was not hired. Even one job, I was selected but I was not in Sydney and so they gave the job to someone else. Each day I would look and pray for guidance.....and I know that I did follow God's lead.....from Australia to Guam. And it was in Guam that God answered another of my prayers......it was there that I met my husband, Bryan.
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