Upon this injustice
Nearly 7 years ago, at Urbana 2000 , I attended a late-night worship event at the U of Illinois Assembly Hall. Just a few weeks previous I had returned from my second trip to Thailand. The purpose of the Thailand visit was to research the need for more outreach to bar girls--was the need really that huge, and was there really that little being done about it? Hearing and seeing a resounding yes to both questions, I had returned home with a clear sense of confirmation that God was indeed going to move us here.
That night at Urbana, one of the worship songs was Delirious' "Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble" (full lyrics here). It's a rockin' song, and you can't beat screaming it at the top of your lungs in the round along with 18,000 others.
Let the streets resound with singing
Songs that bring your hope
Songs that bring your joy
Dancers who dance upon injustice
My mind began to form a picture of the streets of Bangkok, alive not with thousands of women looking for men to buy their bodies, but dancing. Dancing upon this injustice. My eyes watery, I screamed louder. I sang that song many times since that night, every time with that picture in my mind.
Last night at a Newsong Bangkok worship gathering, I sang that song, or started to anyway, for the first time since moving to Thailand 3 years ago, so obviously my first time to actually sing it in Thailand. It began just fine. Judy had just left for the bathroom, so I stood alone and began clapping to the beat. Then that picture hit, only this time I knew some of the faces in it. Women I know and dearly love who have come from that injustice were leading a procession of dancers down the streets. And there was Jesus at the front, holding their hands, looking back and grinning.
I lost it completely, probably the most since I broke my balloon when I was 5. I spent most of the rest of the song with my hands over my face, hoping no one would notice. Judy came back near the end and saw what had happened. She knew about my experience with that song, and told me that when she had heard it began she worried a bit that I would be ok.
The dance hasn't happened just yet. But look out, Bangkok, it's coming.
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Reply #1 on : Sun September 02, 2007, 21:16:57
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Reply #2 on : Mon September 03, 2007, 00:41:19