Week 15 - Phayao

Happy Advent.

Last week started as usual, with outreach on Monday night. We missed several of our friends and I wondered if it didn't have something to do with the recent police "cleanups" of the area.

We did see one child sleeping on the bridge with a puppy, a cup, and no one else around. Emily and I sat on the sidewalk nearby watching the girl for a while. As we did, we were approached by an Irish man who said he'd seen us around. We get these occasionally: tourists or Western ex-pats who want to stop and say they appreciate what we're doing. I never know what to do with the compliment, so I usually smile and nod. But this guy had a different angle.

He wanted to know if we could help him with something, but we had to pledge confidentiality. I have fewer scruples than Emily, so I eagerly accepted his terms, knowing that I would keep confidential only whatever I felt like keeping confidential. Emily was a little more forthright about our willingness to report the reportable. It didn't seem to matter to the guy, as he went on.

He has a Thai girlfriend that he met at the mall, not on the street, he was eager to clarify. She had a history of prostitution, which she had left when she met him, but now she's pregnant. He suspects she's returned to her old life and wonders if we would be able to identify her as someone we see on Sukhumvit if we were introduced. Basically, he wanted to use us, a Christian NGO, as his personal private detective. I explained that that's not really what we do, but that we could refer him to someone who could help his very vulnerable girlfriend. He shook his head vigorously. "These people," he lectured, "are very smart." By which he meant, "I'm the victim of a conspiratorial scam." Not only did he believe that he'd been duped into a relationship--a likely possibility and not a unique story--but he believed she intended to hire someone to kill him. After we reiterated that we could not help him, he said goodnight and went on his merry, paranoid way.

Nearly the entire rest of the week was spent in Phayao with Phillip and Constance, some American friends of Tim and Amy's. We took an overnight bus there to celebrate Thanksgiving with them, Thai style: fish, curry, thom yum, though Bethany did manage to make a bowl of mashed potatoes. Phillip and Constance work for the Education for Life Foundation and had gotten a large donation of bikes. They loaned us a few and we got to bike around Phayao, which borders a lake. Getting away from the city was absolutely therapeutic.

Now I'm feeling a bit dissipated--thank you, Rachel. After an impromptu vacation in Phayao, we're looking forward to our planned servant team retreat this week on the beach in Kosamet. Before then, we do have outreach tonight. This will be our final outreach and it's going to be an all-nighter. We had planned this for a couple months earlier, but never executed the idea. It should be very illuminating, seeing when our friends are able to go home and seeing how many of them may have control factors, people who are managing their begging.

Prayer requests:

--That I'd stay awake tonight.