I’ve been back in the States for over 3 weeks now.  In my last days in Bangkok my house was something I doubted I would miss: the heat, mosquitoes, holes in the walls from rats, sleeping on the floor, noisy neighbors, a recent discovery of a king cobra skin (which deserves its own blog post)…  And while I am thoroughly enjoying the comforts of a real bed, carpet, washer and dryer, I do miss the bright Thai sunshine through my windows, the sounds of children laughing, cooking Thai food with neighbors.  As I posted these pictures I was actually really thankful for my home in Phothong.

She, along with most everyone I talked to, believed that nobody but themselves really cared, and that nobody would want to work together on anything.

It sounded also like she doubted both her ability to do much and whether it was “allowed”.  Though the council had been essentially disbanded after the president ran off with community money, followed shortly by the vice president, everyone still defered to this defunct group.

But once Gop and others began meeting to talk and plan about what their kids need and what they should do about it, they started to grow in confidence.  They ended up putting together two well-planned events for the kids of Phothong, which besides providing safe and educational activities also proved to the community that things could change, ordinary residents could decide to work together and act rather than wait for the council or an outside agency to do it for them.

A couple months ago one of the other women involved in these meetings and actions, the current community treasurer, stepped in to take over the ignored duties of community president temporarily.  Since then I’ve seen her visiting homes individually, and she lead a successful decision-making meeting over use of a new government grant which many were happy about.

Then about a month ago I heard that she had passed the role on to Gop, who has never had a place on the community council.  But after showing herself to be a responsible leader, Oi thought she would be the best for the job.

This is for the short-term, as there will be another election in October.  But it is sounding like Gop will likely be elected to continue in her role.

That wouldn’t surprise me, as she is already taking this position seriously and working to bring about results.  She has talked with me about using our house again as a place to host kids activities, and also to plan.  She has decided to call together anyone in the community who is interested in helping their kids, rather than just the community council– the group that made all decisions in the past.  She’s talking about other ideas she has for developing the community, including building emergency exits, an idea the women were talking about earlier but hadn’t seen to completion.

Gop definitely has areas to grow in, particularly in working with people to really think through the issues and come up with ideas together, rather than just promoting her ideas.  But I am encouraged that Phothong now has a leader with initiative, who really cares about its development, who is honest, who wants everyone to be involved in working toward solutions and not just an elite few.  It is exciting to see this lasting fruit that I will be leaving as I transition home.

Christmas this year was maybe the craziest of the three I’ve spent here.  This is always the season that is most focused on outreach, but this year it felt like the scale was way ramped up.  Around 30 of my neighbors piled into two cars and a pickup truck to attend our combined Christmas party, held for members of the 6 slum and low-income communities we work in.  The very next day we had our house full of children and then adults, for Christmas songs, stories, crafts and lots of great food.  It was a lot of work, a little bit of chaos, definitely things that could have gone better, but so many people in my slum heard about Jesus and had a great time.  It was exhausting but very rewarding.

From the combined party:

What can I say, my neighbors know how to party!

These are from the party we hosted THE NEXT DAY (did I mention I was exhausted afterwards?) in our house, for just about all 400+ members of our community.

(Above) Even though we had planned and prepared this outreach as a mission team, women from the community showed up and immediately started helping– leading the games, keeping the kids attentive, serving food, cleaning up.  It’s exciting to see how our organizing efforts have really instilled a value for cooperation and community ownership of whatever activies are going on within the slum.

Christy leading (in Thai!) the story of how the candy cane came about, inspired by Jesus’s life and sacrifice.

After the story the kids broke into groups to decorate their own candy canes.

A woman in the community who runs a small restaurant for a living made all the food for us– we just paid her for the ingredients and she volunteered her whole day to make some amazing dishes.  After serving the kids fried rice and sending them home with some small Christmas gifts, the adults streamed in for the feast.  This was a great strategy (which some of the Thai leaders helped enforce) for getting to spend time with some of the adults who stuck around longer, without needing to entertain swarms of kids.

The group of us who hung out longer, sang a few Christmas carols and talked about the meaning of Christmas.  Myself, team leader Kevin, teammate Resty and his two Filipino visitors are in the shot, along with five of my neighbors.

]]> http://sarainbangkok.net/2009/01/19/finally-a-post-about-christmas/feed/ 1 http://sarainbangkok.net/2007/08/02/what-i-am-able-to-give/ http://sarainbangkok.net/2007/08/02/what-i-am-able-to-give/#comments Thu, 02 Aug 2007 08:27:36 +0000 Sara http://sarainbangkok.net/2007/08/02/what-i-am-able-to-give/ The needs in the slums of Bangkok are immense.  The questions about how to best serve in the slums are endless.  It can feel overwhelming to try to discover what seem like the most pressing felt needs, what the roots of those problems are, how to best work toward solutions without creating dependency, how to balance addressing physical needs with the spiritual…. etc.

And in the midst of this I feel very small and kind of foolish.  I have no advanced degree, very little training in urban work, my health is unpredictable at best, I am not charismatic and I’m not all that great with kids.

But I’m beginning to see that this is all not nearly as important as I tend to believe.  My experience at our house church last week taught me this in a new way.

As usual, we had dozens of children in my house, eager to worship and learn about the Creation story (our theme for the month), and also bouncing off the walls.  I felt particularly exhausted that evening (it turned out that I probably had mono, so no wonder) which made me feel even more ineffective than usual.  Getting the kids to sit and be quiet enough that I could give instructions without screaming was nearly impossible, let alone teaching about God in a way that makes sense to them and is appealing, or addressing their many emotional and physical needs.

In the midst of the chaos, and my tiredness, I felt like God was bringing a couple of the children in particular to my attention.  They were two of the smallest ones, more malnourished, dirtier, more often violent and out-of-control, clearly suffering emotional scars caused at home.

I held each one of them in my lap, and it was like all the turmoil in their little bodies melted away for awhile.  Normally they cannot sit for more than a minute, but these two each spent a good ten minutes without moving as I held them, as if they were starved for this physical touch.

And I’ve recently noticed, more than I did before, how parents and older siblings often push away these little ones when they try to get close, or pretend to not even see them when they return home from work.  The stress and despair their families live under leaves them with little ability to love their youngest members.

I’m beginning to realize that this is something I can give.  I may feel overwhelmed by the extent of the brokenness in my slum, I may feel too tired to play high-energy games with the kids, but I can hold them sometimes.  I can affirm them and pay attention to them and in that way help them to experience a kind of unconditional love that hopefully will lead them to the Source of that love.

And it reminds me this love and this Lover are the most valuable gifts I have to give to this slum.  Something I know in my mind, but which God continues to gracefully teach my heart, with experiences like these.

Last night my house was full of children again for house church. Mostly 6- and 7-year-olds, with a couple older boys. I sometimes wonder what the value of these meetings is, strategically. I mean, if we’re hoping to transfer ownership of this church to locals of the slum, then shouldn’t we mainly be seeking out the adults?

But I was reminded again last night, that God chooses the foolish things to shame the wise, that maybe I should be taking my cues from these little ones, the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

We always open our worship times with prayer, and this time our Thai leader Nim made a point of getting the kids to quiet down and focus on Jesus. “Sit like they teach you to at the Buddhist temples,” she said, which prompted them to sit cross-legged, hands open in the lap and eyes closed. They clearly have some practice in this. “Now listen to Jesus, listen to God.” And she read a psalm and led us in prayer.

Afterwards she asked them “children, did any of you see or hear anything?” “I saw a light” said three or four in unison. “I heard a voice calling my name,” said little 6-year-old Beng, who lives next door and visits me often.

“That’s Jesus, child, that’s Jesus calling you,” Nim said. “And that light is God’s light that you are seeing.”

During our closing prayer time we asked the kids for prayer requests. Often it is difficult to get them to say anything. But this time was different.

“What do you want to ask from God? How do you want him to bless you?” Nim asked.

“I want him to bring my mother back to live with my dad.” “I want him to heal my grandmother.” “I want him to help my father stop drinking.” “I want him to stop the violence down in the south.”

Could it be that these little ones will be the start of a movement here in the slum of Phothong? Could their beautiful faith and earnest prayers be the salt and light here? It would certainly be in the character of a God who has done far more foolish things in the eyes of the world. I know that for me Jesus was a little more real to me last night because of those children. Who’s to say that they aren’t the most “strategic” ones for us to love and invest in?