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Global Urban Trek 2008
Family ThaisJuly 15, 2008
Last Friday, our team revisited the girls from our class referenced in my last entry.
They hadn’t been to school all week because their mother can’t afford the 20 baht (less than a dollar) fee. As we sat in that hot and rickety room and listened to their mother’s situation translated for us, I felt more helpless than ever.
She told Klu Moi how she has no job, doesn’t own her home and could be kicked out any time as she has no resources in family or savings. This woman is 25 – only four years older than me.
Ma Pehn gave them money for dinner, but I wondered what they would do the next day. What job could she take with three children in her care? She sat lifelessly on her mattress and smiled only in response to her daughter. I couldn’t 
understand her Thai words, but I felt she was voiceless as I tried to hear her.
Many like her have no voice. By the end of the conversation, I watched Klu Moi and Ma Pehn listen to her needs and try to help meet them. They understood she can’t do it alone.
At that moment I understood our call here: to listen to the voice of the voiceless, care and use our resources to meet their needs.
The next day we ate lunch at the home of a young co-worker from Baan Chivit Mai. He lives with his “grandmother” and two sisters. As we talked, we learned his grandmother never had children, which left us to assume she’d adopted the three of them.
We’ve heard stories like this over and over here in Klong Toey. It’s taught me that in our responsibility to God lies a responsibility to the orphan. I’ve read it time and again in Scripture, but had never thought much of it: God cares about the fatherless. This is not a figurative, symbolic term. After seeing numerous Buddhists caring for others I hadn’t even concerned myself with, I had to repent.
At church on Sunday, we took communion. I’ve always taken communion seriously, but thought I only needed to repent of my sins, resolve conflict and thank Jesus. This Sunday, communion became a much bigger deal.
It wasn’t a ritual or a simple ceremony. As I took the bread and the cup, I remembered this was about a covenant made with God, that Jesus doesn’t want us to commit just to remembering what He’s done, but to surrendering ourselves to His example.
As I took the bread, I asked Jesus for His hands and feet. As I took the cup, I promised to sacrifice my life for Him and all that comes with it: to give hope to the prostitute, restore dignity to the leper and welcome little children – all of which are my privilege to do this summer.
- Jessica
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