David Bergen - Faith

Faith is a part of everybody's life, whether we admit it or not. Everybody has faith in something, be it God, people, the government, humanity - pick a topic. But our faith can be tested at certain points in our lives. For example, moving to a foreign country would certainly qualify as trying.
David Bergen's short story, "And You Arrive on the Other Side With Nothing," bears a strikingly similar pretext to Barbara Kingsolver's bestselling novel "The Poisonwood Bible": A family moves to a foreign country, and, shocked by what they discover, find it difficult to deal with a reality that is very different from what they had imagined.
Rather than a move to Africa, as in Kingsolver's book, Bergen's story takes place after having moved his young family to a small Vietnamese village - some might say "oops". They need a translator, have no or little idea of any local customs, and are not use to the geography, climate, food, travel methods, etc. And yet, despite being harassed or cast out as foreigners on innumerable occasions, they manage to hang on, pushed through their tribulations by their faith in each other, and encouraged by the helping hands extended by a very sparse group of locals.
David's son Levi demonstrates this faith when David has a moment of self-doubt, of weakness, of frustration with the circumstances his put his family, particularly his kids, in. As David holds his head, rocking back and forth in a corner, Levi just curls up with his father and touches his leg, letting him know that he's there. That, for me, was one of the most powerful scenes in the story, displaying a sons belief in his father.
Perhaps the Bergen family found their faith in each other because, in their new country, they knew nothing else outside of their family. They were unused to a world where little boys have their penises touched in public markets, or hookers work on most street corners.