Thailand Rain

Default: Had some issues with pasting and keeping the correct spacing, I think I got most of the words split, but if not, bear with me!

There is a problem here in Thailand:
it rains.
Now-hold that thought.
The culture here is so darn different. It is beautiful, it’s spicy,it’s slow, and it is Buddhist. As I explained earlier, parents don’t want their kids, so they get rid of them, and then the kids end upgoing into the street. From the street, people with huge hearts and passionate love for Jesus come and take them off the street. Then the kids go to a home. Then there are a bunch of kids, without parents, without individual attention and there are only funded if they’re lucky, (and in a home.) And this is a problem. The leaders of my program have talked about this as a “Band-Aid on a wound.” There is alot larger of a problem going on than what we are dealing with here at the orphanage. It’s not that the orphanages aren’t doing well,although some of the many are not. It’s not that the Jesus lovers aren’t dreaming in big enough ways, which typically is not theproblem. The problem starts in a similar place to where it begins; the villages.

Going back to the rain. My buddy here, Courtney, asked us to pray for the rain tonight. She is so frustrated with smelling bad. We sweat hard and in large quantities when we do physical work, and pretty much every other time of our Thai lives. Like normal people, we get our clothes together and go down to the washing machine. We go through the typical process of washing our clothes and then take them to the line to hang up. About an hour later, it rains. And let me tell you,Thailand rain comes down hard. We joke about having a setting on an alarm clock as “Thai rain.” It is amazing to go to sleep to, and even better to wake up to. However, that junk stinks. Thai rain could most definitely be a purchased sound, but it would never make it as a scent. So, we wash our clothes that are badly in need of washing, hang them up in their cleanliness, and then notice them getting drenched as we run inside when the rain hits. And then, our clothes stink. About an hour later comes the next point in the process, we bring theclothes into the house and hang them on the bunk bed ladders, on the fan, on the door; wherever we can put them really. About 24 hours later, they are dry, firmly starched and smelling similar to when we started the laundering cycle. Thankfully, we came here prepared, or somewhat prepared to have comforts, like fresh smelling clothes andbodies, taken away, therefore it’s not that big of a deal. I mean,it’s just clothes, and it’s just scent.

The issue with the parentless children though, that is a big deal. It is similar to this laundry issue in that it is a seemingly downward spiral. Child homes take in kids and have issues of their own. Girls go into prostitution. Homes get over populated. There are not enough towels for all the girls, whatever. And then back to the beginning of all of this: parents keep giving their kids away.The process is enough to make you crazy. What do you go after first in trying to fix this? Play your role as the intern that teaches danceand smile through the experience? Do your part as the director and weed out the business aspect? Tackle the many projects that come at you? But what about the process that is continuing? It is bigger than just construction projects and providing for the angels we currently have. But we have to walk forward in our duty that we are assigned to.The position we signed up for. You can see how this gets messy quick,yeah? Any step in this whole thing is enough to make you hurt on these kids behalf, to have your heart broken. And it just keeps spiraling. Now, we know full well that these 42 beautiful girls at the orphanagewe are a part of are better off here than they would be in their village, just as we know that our clothes are better off after they have been through the washing process, even if we do question it sometimes. We will continue to love on these girls and do everythingin our power to make their lives full, happy, healthy, and filled with Jesus, just as we will continue to wash these stinky clothes. It is frustrating when we hit walls with our girls in communication and just sit and look at each other, just as it is frustrating when we check on our clothes and they are hard and crusty, but you push forward in those situations, get over it and deal. We are going to put up a drying line inside the house tomorrow, after some good man thought(accredited to Ben, another intern) similarly- we hope to come across ways to fight this broken system. But it continues to rain. And parents continue to give their kids away. And it seems never ending. Ugh.

BUT, you know, we have faith. We love Jesus, not just as a statement or a slogan, but really, we are obsessed with our God. We believe that He works in broken systems, in broken people, in a fallen world. He adores the 42 girls we get to be around, and He adores every kid thatis abandoned on the street. Those are some positives, lets not forget that the rain does have a nice sound, right? At least our 42 gals get 3 meals a day, yeah? That there is some purpose, some something. We will stick with this no matter how hopeless the “system” seems, because we have hope in our God. And on behalf of my team I will ask you to please pray also. Pray with us that the spinning will stop. The feeling is similar to a dog chasing its tale. We can argue every point. We can be discouraged, too easily. But then quiet whispers come to mind, like the one that says even if the cross were just for one of us, just for me and no one else, He still would have done it. If Jesus dying on the cross were only to save you,He still would have died on your behalf. Even if it were 42 out ofthe seemingly endless population in need, Christ would have given His life for just them, and if that is enough for Him, than it is enough for us. Pray that God would keep us dreaming of solutions. Pray that He would keep us filled with hope. Pray that He would move. Pray that He would deepen the wells in our hearts of faith and Love. Pray that we would connect deeply to these girls here. It’s good to know that He is in control. ☺ And it is good to have you on the team. Thank you-dear friends.