Thursday, May 21, 2009

A couple moments from the morning routine

One of my responsibilities is to be the adult in the back of the truck each morning. Instead of school buses we use small trucks with padded bench seats, a roll cage and roof over the bed. My truck has 14 children mostly from the hostel.

It's a beautiful drive through the mountains, but sometimes it's nice to just close my eyes and listen to the girls sing. Usually it's in Thai, and I don't understand, but it doesn't matter. The voices of these half-dozen upper-elementary school girls are the perfect sound track to the setting.

A few days ago, I was surprised to hear them sing in their broken English,
"Make a difference in me, make a world of difference. From the
inside out let it show.
Make a difference in me, make a world of difference. Change me
so the world will know.
Change me Jesus, let your love shine through. Change me Jesus,
make me more like you..."

These Christian children are taken each morning from the safe, positive environment of the Outreach to Buddhist schools where they are criticized and discriminated against for their faith. They were probably taught this song by a short-term missions group from the states. Thank you to whoever that was. You touched the heart of this white boy.

Maybe you just had to be there, but it was "a moment" for me. So beautiful, so inspiring.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few days later, on the same routine drive, we happened to be passing the market at the same time the monks were there making their morning rounds. We stopped at an intersection next to a row of five monks and their "caddie." They stood with their backs to the street, just inches from our truck, waiting for handouts from the shopkeepers. I noticed that a number of market workers had left their work to bow down and worship before the monks in the middle of the morning rush.

It was disturbing to me on two levels. First, I was struck by how lost this culture is spiritually. Then, as we drove on, I began to compare their devotion to that of the American Christian. How many of us would take time out of our busy morning routine to make a humbling statement of faith for several minutes on a crowded sidewalk?

God help us all, the lost on the streets and the found that are sleeping.

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