Beyond borders
The other day Ohn returned from the nearby country where she was born, which for political reasons I will not name here. She went there last month to get her birth certificate and passport. Ohn is one of our older students, who before she joined us nearly 3 years ago spent 16 years working the Western night scene in Bangkok. She lived nearly all her life with no papers, and therefore attended very little school. However Ohn is very bright, talented and self-educated.
Returning to her home village for the first time since age 6 naturally felt strange. She had not even seen her mother in 10 years. “I felt lonely, afraid,“ Ohn says. “I couldn't believe those were my relatives.“ But more than that, from the first day she saw that her village of 400 homes was full of brokenness and the negative effects of modern poverty. Drugs, drinking, gambling and teen sex are the norm. “Every teenager uses drugs,“ Ohn reports. There is little employment, but everyone knows about the “opportunities“ for women in Thailand. Ten women and girls, as young as 14 years old, asked Ohn to bring them here to get bar work.
Interestingly enough, Ohn discovered that years ago there had been missionaries in her area. Older people, she notes, have some memory and knowledge about Jesus, but are afraid to talk about it in a country where religious freedom is suppressed. That didn't stop Ohn, although she acknowledges the need to be careful, to share Jesus by example first. “I talked about giving, I talked about hope. For them there is no tomorrow, no hope. I talked about love. They had no understanding of love other than romance. They have a very strong class structure, even more than Thailand. No one associates with anyone across class lines, but I talked to everyone." Ohn's mom noticed the difference, and asked her what happened. “I'm a Christian now, Mom.”
It's Good Friday. For all my years growing up I was taught that Good Friday is a day to be sad that our sins put Jesus through hell, but to be thankful that He did it. And it is that, but so much more. There is a seldomly noted missionary side of Good Friday, when the full weight of Jesus' words, “take up his cross and follow me“ are blasted at 120 decibels. We are to love like this, to go this far to give it. It's not about going outside of our comfort zone. It's about going into others' suffering zone.
Ohn has been talking for some time about wanting to start an outreach of The Well in Thailand that both reaches women coming from there to work in the night trade as well as their families and communities back home. We will be writing a strategic plan over the next few days. There is no longer a question in Ohn's mind about how far she needs to go. “We have to do it,“ she declares. “We need to do it. If we only see and think about it, but not do anything, nothing will happen.“
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Reply #1 on : Fri March 21, 2008, 17:30:02
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Reply #2 on : Sun March 23, 2008, 06:39:32