The Opportunity to Catch a Fish

by Dinh Ngo

On the first day of Sunflower Mission Work Camp 2024, I went fishing.

With bare feet and hands, our Sunflower Mission Work Camp 2024 group climbed down into a pit of dense knee-high muddy water for an opportunity to catch a catfish for lunch. There was joy in learning a new skill, the patience to practice diligently, and the thrill of a successful catch. It’s safe to assume none of our 57 work camp participants routinely have to find our lunch this way. This team-building activity was an opportunity to do something we had never done before.

This year’s work camp in Kien Giang Province is to finish our first two-story school and dedicate it back to the community for students to have an opportunity to acquire an education. Education is an opportunity these students have never had before now.

Many of us have heard the quote “Give a person a fish, and you feed them for a day; teach a person to fish and you feed them for a lifetime.” However, education is so much more than a fishing expedition; education could mean uplifting one’s family out of poverty and forever changing the direction for future generations. Sunflower Mission and our supporters are providing an opportunity of a lifetime for the students in Vietnam: an education.

On the first day of work camp, our team got an opportunity to fish, and we caught six.