Week 16 - Fin

Fin, because I have four days left which will consist of a debriefing tomorrow morning during devotions and a community dinner on Tuesday night. On Thursday, our time with Word Made Flesh is officially complete. I plan to take another week and a half to explore Laos and North Thailand before returning home to Dallas.

This last week, we had our final night of outreach on Monday. Meant to be an all-night affair, we actually arrived around 10:30 and left around 3:00 am. Our Thai partner accompanied Emily and me on this night, thus adding a new dimension to our conversation with B__. B__ wept over her situation, retelling the story of how her husband abandoned her and her three children to live in the park and beg on the street. This I knew. B__ also told us she had been a Christian for twenty years. This I did not know. It changed things for me, her changing before my sight from neighbor to sister. The veracity of her profession aside, I was very troubled to see my sister in such a vulnerable situation. We are all, especially Tim and Amy, trying to meet her needs, but in the meantime, she still has no safe place to sleep and men still offer to purchase her children for God knows what purpose.

When we finally caught up with our friends at Nana, we were walking into a celebration. These children, these teenagers we know who spend the night begging are in vulnerable situations, but they are still teenage girls who delight in talking and laughing with friends. So with a lot of talking and laughing, hugs and tears, our group said goodbye to them. We take heart in knowing that Tim and Amy will continue to be that strong Christian presence and loving relationship in their lives and some of us take greater heart in the possibility that we will return, but for now we have only the complex vacancy one feels in their guts when parting for an indefinite time. I will miss them all.

Because of all that, it was with heavy hearts that we took our servant team retreat to the island of Samed in the Thailand gulf. It felt odd to move from our place in the street to a warm place in the sand, almost improper, but we did not spend three days in pensive thought. We had a good time reading on the beach and snorkeling. I was able to fit in a run since I'm hoping to do a roadrace early tomorrow morning here in Bangkok.

I do plan a more comprehensive wrap-up in the next couple of weeks, something more appropriate to cap off four months, but I do not have the luxury of time at the moment. Tonight, we will go, with no other purpose in mind than visiting, the third red light district in Bangkok after Nana and Soi Cowboy: Phat Phong. Be in prayer as we encounter more of the evil, but always be confident that God is conquering it through the people of Christ, who in all things is preeminent.