Broken Backs & Drowning Men

Well, it's mid-September already, and the usual goings-on over here keep up at their pace. I won't bother you with repeating those details which take up the majority of my day, but what I will do, oh faithful readers, is I will tell you about some highlights in the past few weeks.


Lopburi

There is a Thai family who sends their three children to GES that I've become relatively close with over this current school year. My connection with them originated while I was teaching high school last year. The oldest daughter in this family was the highest performer in Grade 10 last year, and, because of many similar interests, we struck up a pretty good friendship. Since last year, our friendship has grown & it's absorbed the rest of her family, to a point where now they kind of consider me as a part of their family (the eldest daughter calls me her big brother; the youngest daughter refers to me as her second father and the parents see me as a close family friend). It's pretty awesome, I won't lie. From them, there is no shortage of smiles & hugs & brightened faces as I wander—often haphazardly—in & through their lives. Their love for me & their love for God has truly been a blessing to me, and it makes my impending departure 7ish months from seem all the more difficult.


I was asked by this family to go on a trip with them to a rural province called Lopburi last weekend, which is a 2.5-hour’s drive north outta Bangkok. They wanted me to come & visit a church with them up there that they've been visiting semi-regularly over the past year. Having no reason to turn them down, I decided to take them up on their offer & see what this church was like. A couple other teachers were also invited, and three of us went with this family on Saturday morning to Lopburi for a weekend.

While in the van, driving up on the highway, we were asked if we could maybe share something with the church on Sunday. At first, this was a total of 15 minutes to be shared by all three of us Farang (white people), but as the conversation progressed, it turned into the other two teachers sharing a 15-20 minute testimony each & I, sharing a 40-45 minute sermon. Despite this being a pretty short notice to prepare a message, I was thrilled. It's been close to 4 years since I've been asked by a church to speak, and although 45 minutes seems a bit daunting for a 24-hour notice, I reminded my6self that 50% of that time would be spent translating my English into Thai for the congregation. Sweet.

When we got to Lopburi on Saturday, we spent the rest of the afternoon & evening doing touristy stuff—visiting the old palace/museum & then going to feed the monkeys at the famous "monkey buffet" location at Lopburi City's centre.


Monkey Madness

It was kind of fun to feed random monkeys individual sunflower seeds as they came swarming in over rooftops, walking on power lines & then crossing streets at crosswalks to come to the city centre—a smallish park that contained the remnants of a decaying temple some hundreds of years old. The monkeys would wander up & pluck sunflower seeds from your fingers if you only showed them a single seed at a time, but they'd live up to their notoriety as being greedy animals when you displayed several seeds at once. Without hesitation, the biggest or strongest monkey around you would shove all the others aside, grab the stack of seeds in your hand and then shove them in his mouth, waiting expectantly for more. Others, not being so patient, would get the hint that you had the seeds somewhere in your hands & would begin to climb your legs & torso, meticulously searching for any cache of food that they could find.

It would have been tolerable if that was all that the monkeys were going to grab. But, monkeys are monkeys & there's a reason why Curious George was called curious. It just so happens that monkeys like bright, shiny things (we were warned to remove all jewellery before getting close to the monkeys for this reason), and while there, monkeys made off with my Thai mother's sunglasses, scampering off & playing with them—though not really knowing what they were for. And then, I saw a monkey out of the corner of my eye make a quick, low leap up toward my lower torso. Thinking that he was going to jump on me to try & find food, I braced myself for the animal's landing. But it didn't land. All I felt was a tug against my waist & I heard a little snap as the monkey started to run away with a small green & white thing in his hand. I checked my waist & noticed that my key-ring, which I always have fastened to my belt loop with a karabiner, was missing a very important item: my USB flash drive.

Stupid monkey. He knew that he had done something wrong too, because whenever I went up towards him—even offering food—he would quickly scurry away, just out of reach. I gave up chasing him when he decided to climb up atop the ruins, perching on a spire as he gnawed on my precious data.

Sunday Church

The church on Sunday was amazing. The people were friendly & the congregation had a life to it that I have not felt from a body of believers in years. All of the people who attend are dirt poor, coming in by a shared pick-up truck that collects the members as far out as 70 km into the rice fields. After the service, we all sat on the floor of the empty apartment/townhouse & ate lunch together. There, I heard a couple of amazing stories.

One of the church members was (is) a guy who is about my age, I think. Four years ago, he & his sister were in a severe car accident that left him with a serious spinal injury. Simply put, he broke his neck & was paralysed from the neck down. Now, his mother is a 75+ year old woman who's partially blind from cataracts. This frail lady now had to care for her 6-foot something, 200+ pound son, as he lay in bed unable to move, chew, go to the bathroom or do any of the things that we take for granted. Along with all of this, she had to continue to support them by working in the fields.

After three years of taking care of her son in his quadriplegic state, she met the church's pastor, who told her that his God, his Jesus was able to help her & her son. She was a bit skeptical, since the Buddhist temple in Lopburi—one that recognises the existence of a god—also said that their god could help her, and asked them to give her money to receive their god's blessings. She had been doing so for a while, but no amount of money given to that temple ever changed anything in her son's status. So, she asked him if he was serious. He told her that he indeed was serious, but that his God and his Jesus would only be able to help if she really believed that He would. She said that she did, and bringing her son to the church, the pastor & the congregation began to pray for her son.

I wasn't really told any of the details, like how long it took or what happened or how they prayed. All I was told was that after they prayed, the man who was unable to chew for himself could now move his arms & his legs. After they prayed for him, he was physically able to crawl around on his hands and knees—something that hadn't been a possibility for almost four years. He praised Jesus.

Every Sunday after that day, this son would crawl out from his house & start down the road to go meet the truck that would take him to church. There was nothing that would stop him from going & meeting with others to worship Christ. And each day that passed, his muscled began to get stronger & stronger, until one day, he was able to stand & walk again.

On one of these days, as this guy was walking again, he stumbled & fell into a deep pond that was beside the road. He was all by himself & he didn't have enough strength to swim or to pull himself toward the water's edge. All he knew was that he was sinking & that there was nothing that he could do to save himself. So he cried out, "Jesus, save me!" and he felt something like a man's hand grab him from the water & pull him on to the land. When he looked around, he didn't see a single person, and because of this, he knew that Jesus had come to his rescue.

It's a pretty awesome story. I would have had a hard time believing it, if I hadn't seen the vicious scars around his neck, clearly indicating that there indeed was severe trauma inflicted on this man's body. Today, he walks almost completely normally; a small shuffle is present in the gait of his right leg. He now is working as a recycler, gathering scrap metal & plastic, which he sells for money, bringing in about 100 baht a month (that's about $3).

I was and still am humbled when I think about this story. I think I (we) often forget the power that our God has available to us, as we push Him off to the margins of our lives.

Pray that we, at GES, would hold fast to the truths of Christ & that our faith in Him would take precedence in our actions & daily motivations. I ask that you pray for us to continue to strive for unity & to strive for seeking Him above all things.

More next time. I've another broken back story to tell then. Thanks for your prayers: they're much needed.