Coconut Man
When Bob and I first went to north Vietnam, we lived in a small town a few hours drive south of Hanoi. There was a Nursing School there and an Australian Organization arranged for us to live on campus and oversee the placement of used medical equipment that they were shipping into the country. We were also teachers in the school. Bob taught Emergency Medical Procedures and I taught English. But that is another story altogether. We were the first Americans the local people had met since the war and there was understandably a lot of animosity toward us because Vietnam was just opening up.
We were studying Vietnamese and were encouraged to get out among the people and talk to practice our language skills. Our transportation was a Yamaha 150 motorbike. We would go for drives out into the countryside just to relax and get away.
One nice sunny day we had no classes and decided to take a ride. We knew that there was an American couple living in the next town over an hour’s drive away so that is where we headed. It was a beautiful sunny day but very hot. After we had driven for a while in the heat on the dusty road, we were getting very thirsty. We say a small table by the side of the road with a few coconut on it and a man seated behind it. There were a few small one room houses situated behind him. It was a small village of people who worked in the rice fields surrounding the area.
So, we stopped and got off the motorbike and thought we would buy a couple coconuts to drink the juice, quench our thirst, and practice our Vietnamese. A win-win situation! As soon as we walked up to the table the man sitting directly behind it asked, “Where are you from?” My husband answered in his best Vietnamese, “We are Americans.” The man seated behind the table went stiff. His mouth hung open and his eyes bulged. “American! American! American!” he shouted. His voice going up an octave and getting louder every time he said it. He pointed down at his lap as he stared at us. All of a sudden people started coming from everywhere and standing around us not in a friendly way. I thought, “This isn’t going well. They all look so angry. They could haul us off somewhere and no one would every know what happened to us.” I at once began to pray and ask God for wisdom and protection as this situation was escalating fast.
Bob leaned over the table to see what he was pointing at and realized that the man had no legs. He was an amputee, obviously an injury from the war. Bob started talking in a calm caring voice. “Did you want to fight in the war?” he asked. “No!” the man answered angrily. “Why then did you fight?” asked Bob. “My government made me go to fight.” He answered in a hateful tone. Bob responded calmly, “Some of my friends came here in the war. (He never mentioned that he was with them.) So it wasn’t really between the people. It was the governments. They didn’t want to come here and fight. The government made them come.” As Bob spoke the atmosphere began to de-escalate like someone had stuck a pin in a balloon that was about ready to pop. The man sitting behind the table began to relax as he considered what Bob had said. People standing around us began to nod their heads in agreement. It was a holy moment of reconciliation. Bob spoke again, “I am sorry for your terrible loss.” The man looked down and nodded his head. Then suddenly, he reached forward, picked up a coconut and handed it to Bob! A gift of reconciliation and friendship! Then he took another one and handed it to me!
Holy Spirit had come on the scene in an amazing way that day and brought reconciliation and peace to the heart of a severely injured man. who was injured both physically and emotionally. After that time, anytime we traveled out that way, we would stop and have a coconut water with our new friend. We called him “Coconut man”.
Reconciliation is defined as the restoration of friendly relations. It involves a change in relationship person to person from one of enmity to one of harmony and friendship.
“Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” Hebrews 12:14
We definitely saw the Lord move on the hearts of everyone present that day!
