I try to go running a few days per week at about 6:30 a.m. A short description of what I come across will give you a good snapshot of my area of Bangkok, I think.

I first head out of Permsup, greeting some of the people who are already awake that early. My neighbor Lin is usually heating up water for the children’s bucket showers, and these past few days the TV has been on, tuned to a channel broadcasting news of the tsunami tragedy. I often pass by an elderly man who still boils water over a wood fire every morning. Kids are getting dressed in their neatly-pressed school uniforms. Alarms are going off, radios are playing, meat is hissing on the barbecue.

I run passed food stalls that are just opening up, selling donuts or barbecued pork or bananas and sticky rice. The street is already busy with cars and motorcycles, elderly men and women taking their mornning stroll.

And then there are the bald, barefooted monks, dressed in orange and carrying buckets to collect gifts made in merit-making. I make sure to leave a lot of space if I run past one of these men, because if I woman touches a monk he becomes “unclean” and must then go through an elaborate purifying ritual. Yet it is almost always women who make merit to these monks, kneeling on the ground, placing their gift in the bucket and then receiving a blessing from the monk. Who these men pray to or what power they believe they are summoning in making the blessing is a mystery to me. But the women believe that by making an offering to one of these holy men they are increasing their karma and that of their loved ones, improving their chances for good fortune now and in their future lives.

As I continue running I reach a path along a canal, which would be nice scenery were it not for the garbage littering it and the faint smell of sewage coming up from the water. As I continue running an elaborate Buddhist temple comes into view.

My route then takes me to a main highway, which is already busy with people waiting for buses, food vendors selling breakfast, mangy dogs wandering the sidewalks. The air is already hazy with pollution. I run past several spirit houses and often see people laying fresh flowers on the alter, replacing the bottles of soda with new ones, lighting candles, paying respect to the spirits who supposedly reside there.

By the time I return to Permsup I am reminded again of how blessed I am to not feel I have to appease spirits, bow down to men in robes, hope that I have done enough good in my life to escape punishment from the gods. It is to break bondage such as this that Jesus came. Praise he Lord that he is a God of grace, slow to anger and abounding in love. May his presence grow in this city and the number of his worshippers increase. Bangkok needs Christ’s freedom!