The greatest joy I had during my time at Don Bosco Da Lat was participating in the prayer life of the Brothers and Priests I lived with. While the schedule was quite demanding, it was extremely rewarding spiritually. My prayer life was so rich during my year even though there were many times when I was unable to follow along in English and didn’t understand what was being said. I experienced tremendous spiritual growth during my time on mission.

Next was witnessing how fully the Priests and Brothers live their faith. Even in hardship and through intense work schedules the joy they have in serving Christ was a blessing for me to have been able to observe and be a part of.

Lastly, while there were many many things I learned and grew from as a result of. The vitality of the Catholic faith in Vietnam was striking. I expected to witness religious suppression but I was pleased to find that expression of Catholicism was wonderfully evident everywhere I went. The number of Catholic churches amazed me and the number of homes displaying statues and “shrines” to Mary and Jesus by far outnumbered what we see in the US. They literally put us to shame.