Thursday, March 5, 2009

bangkok portraits

Like this blog (from California) I went to Thailand with twentyonehundred Productions to tell the story of some InterVarsity Alumni. Michelle, Kevin and Sara (in order below) are part of a Servant Partners team living in and among the urban poor in Bangkok, Thailand.





Servant Partners is an amazing organization that values this “Incarnational Missions” style where you eat the same food, live on the same streets and relate as best as you can to the people you are ministering to. In an interview Michelle told us how important this is.
“Yesterday I went to just go buy eggs from the store down the street and someone told me that this person is sick. ‘Oh, really? How bad is it?’ I asked, and they said, ‘she went to the doctor today and they wouldn't accept her in the hospital but she might not make it to when they made the appointment.’ and this was like at 9 at night. She asked me, ‘do you want me to take you there?’ ‘Yah, defiantly!’
“Going over there and being able to sit with her and her husband and ask them about how they are doing and offer to pray for them, its the only thing I know to do in that situation. Knowing that if I didn't live here, there wouldn’t be that opportunity to be with people outside of scheduled appointments. That has been something that has been a huge part for me in wanting to follow Jesus lead of living with the people that I love and work with.”





They had some interesting living conditions, the floorboards in one house led down to the sewage and trash filled water that flowed below their community. The Mosquito net over their beds tells a painful story. They ate on the floor, they cook with a camping stove, and they fight with the rats for their food, but they love it there. These amazing people would just light up us as they walked around their community. It was a joy to see them “in their element” as they just chatted in Thai with their neighbors or played around with the local kids. It was an amazing contrast between their physical difficulties and the emotional rewards.




Sara told us, "My deepest sense of peace comes when I am in this slum. I wonder how this could be, that I would feel joy in the midst of such pain."

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