The Image
Love Beyond Borders
What I Learned from Southeast Asia
Megan Archuleta
If someone had told me in high school that I would go on a mission trip halfway across the world to Southeast Asia, I would have laughed in their face. I am from a small town in New Mexico. The farthest place I have traveled to is Florida.
​Somehow though, I ended up at Southwestern Assemblies of God University, surrounded by the missions’ call. And here, God led me to go on the Southeast Asia trip during my junior year of college. It seemed crazy, but I knew God had called me, so I obeyed.
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Leading up to the trip, I was terrified out of my mind. Not only was I going to be living in another country for a whole month, but I was also going to be traveling for more than 36 hours.
Photo Credit: Emma White
Looking back now, being in Southeast Asia was not an easy thing. There were many things to get used to in this new country and culture. But as time passed, I grew more comfortable, and I came out of this trip with life-changing mindsets and memories.
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One of my favorite memories for me was at the orphanage.
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At the orphanage we visited, the children only spoke Vietnamese. There was a translator with us to help run things and give directions, but when interacting one-on-one with the children, we did not have the translator’s help.
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This language barrier was challenging, but I learned from interacting with these children that it is still possible to communicate with others despite not speaking the same language. That is because human communication runs deeper than language.
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On our first visit to the orphanage, we were brought into this room, the air sticky and the space crowded full of children.
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Our missionary had the children get into groups and told us to help them make bracelets. As the groups started forming, I awkwardly walked around, trying to find a group to help with. Whenever I tried to enter a group, someone else would sit down. I saw a group of boys sitting alone, so I sat down fast and just stared at the boys, my mind going blank as I forgot the Vietnamese word for hello. The boys did not acknowledge my existence, and I felt the dread in my heart building. I picked up the string and pointed to the beads, showing the boys what to do. They still just seemed to ignore me.
Photo Credit: Emma White
I looked around me and saw the other girls on my team connecting well with the children. Girls were drawing on their faces and putting stickers on them, hugging them, and playing with their hair. My heart dropped.
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I then noticed a boy to my right, and he looked at me, giving me a smile. I smiled back.
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I remembered the word for name and asked, “Tên?”​
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He answered back quietly.​
“Tên là Megan.” I pointed at myself.​
Photo Credit: Emma White
I handed him some string and beads and started helping him make bracelets. I noticed he was using the orange beads and wearing an orange shirt, so I pointed at the beads and his shirt, and he nodded. When he finished his bracelet, he put it around his wrist and put his arm forward, and I helped him tie it. He started making more bracelets and putting them on his wrist. More volunteers had sat down to help in the group, so I asked them how to ask what “Play ball,” was and then asked the boy. He nodded excitedly.
As we were cleaning up to finish, he took off all his bracelets, handed them to me, and pointed to my wrists. He wanted to give me his bracelets. The instructions had been for the kids to give their bracelets to their friends. My heart warmed as I realized he was telling me I was his friend. When it came time to play outside, I lost him, but as we left on the bus, all the kids were waving at us. I looked out the window and saw him waving. And when he saw me, he ran and waved excitedly at me. And I knew he remembered me, just like I would always remember him.
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I discovered on this trip that despite race or culture, we are all people. We all laugh, we all cry, we all love to eat good food. We are all human.
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This is a big world we live in, full of so many different people and cultures. Sometimes, we can get so caught up in our differences, but I don’t think God’s intention when he created the world was for there to be divides between cultures. He wanted unity, a beautiful mix of different races and cultures. He wanted His love to bridge the gap between our differences.
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On this trip, God taught me that loving others does not have to be something big. It can be a smile. A hello. Playing with a child. We cannot let differences in culture, language, or appearance stop us from loving people. To love like Jesus is to embrace all people with open arms.
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To whoever may be reading this, I want to leave you with one word of advice:
Travel the world!
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Traveling the world is a beautiful thing. It allows you to broaden your horizons and fixed ways of thinking and be immersed in a new environment and culture.
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Don’t let your fears of the unknown or the uncomfortable
stop you. Outside your safe bubble is a world to be
discovered and people to be met. People who may
look or sound different but are not that different from you.
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Just think of the friendships you can make.
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The food you can eat.
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The views you can see.
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Most importantly, the people you can love.