"Look At Us"

In Thailand, there are no easy words to explain the beggar situation, and to explain the realities of this issue, the words get even harder to say. A lot of blogs out there say that there really aren't that many beggars in Bangkok which is an interesting lie. Because the reality is, there are thousands of beggars in Thailand and everywhere you go, if you have eyes to see, you will see. But the problem with this situation is just that... the fact that people whether they be tourist or local or law enforcement, what have you, have trained themselves to look the other way... these people place themselves in highly trafficked areas, with bowls in front of them and hands placed in prayer, and are used to the fact that they are basically invisible, insignificant and worthless... thus the reality of a worthless life becomes all there is.
The stories that you hear, if you seek out stories of truth, will wreck you and place your heart in such a sea of hopelessness over how tragic this devastation is. Many of these beggars are from Burma or Laos, and controlled by gangs who at the end of the day steal all their income. In highly touristy areas, you may see countless women with their babies begging for anything you have to give. Many of them are holding children who are not their own, who have been rented out for the day for about 100 baht, the equivalent of about three US dollars for the day. These babies are kept in the most extreme and unhealthy conditions, so that someone might USE them before they even know how to speak, when they should be at the breast of their mother, making money for other people.
Some children are brought from rural areas by their families, who watch on as their children beg without food or water for the day in extreme temperatures all day long. There was a story of one little boy doing this in the streets who was killed by an oncoming car. The family was watching on, but the heartbreaking part of it, is that for many families in Thailand that do not have Christ, you have to wonder... what was the greater loss for them? The son... or the income?

Many of these children, some younger than five, are orphans controlled again by an international Mafia or gangs... some are street children, some are rented out by their families, some are there entirely on their own, having crossed a border on their own, to get to the city to make funds for their family. This is a form of trafficking, because it is the exploitation of children forced to labor... it is just another kind of trafficking, that more than likely will eventually shift into another kind of trafficking this site works to explain.
There are men and women who sit on the street without limbs, literally, without any arms or legs... would it shock you more to hear that some are proffessionals? And that their limbs are hidden behind them all day everyday in the most unnatural sort of bending? Or that gangs have been known to cut off the limbs of humans knowing that cripples make more money, and then put them out on the street as a commodity. We have been cripples with managers... we have seen a man burnt all over his body, discolored, without eyes, beginning in one of the more well known large markets. He could not speak, he could not move... but he had a manager behind him for whatever donation came in. I was terrified to look at him... never having seen a person exist at that level of life, and yet he was managed.... he was someones income. This man, who barely had a life left to live...

While searching out pictures for this blog of things we have seen, I had a quote in my mind from a most beloved movie, The Lord of the Rings. In The Two Towers, Aragorn, Theoden, Legolas and the people of Rohan, are battling what seems an impossible battle against the Uruk-Hai and the forces of evil. The odds are completely against them... they have boys fighting a man's war... weaponless with a breaking defense structure, many of them, including their king, begin to fall to doubt. Theoden, the king of Rohan says, "So much death. What can men do against such reckless hate?"
This is the line in my mind that kept whispering as I consider these facts, these realities, these lives of many innocent and so many corrupt. Yet following Theoden plee of helplessness in the film righteous words are spoken,

Aragorn:

"Ride out with me. Ride out and meet them."
Theoden:
"For death and glory."
Aragorn:
"For Rohan. For your people."

Aragorn does not see what is lost, but what could be possible when people truly give their lives for the greater good. He also, denies Theoden's response in that riding out would be for death and glory... instead, he confirms that the testimoney and action would be for what they fought for all along, which was the hope of their people.

Jesus asks us to ride out and meet them when all hope seems lost, remembering that we have no control over the sin of the world... but we have the opportunity to be a light in dark places. When we take these chances, we give Jesus the lead, and He becomes what He is, which is the breaker of strongholds and the redeemer of shattered souls... Jesus cast light into darkness... He is the light the darkness fears. We saw this in Thailand, with the men I watched my husband get on the ground with who walked on their hands or on a small piece of wood they had fashioned with wheels to move around. I saw Jesus when he touched them and smiled at them and loved them and helped them... I saw Jesus working when their hearts were moved to smile and allowed themselves to be cared for in a different way, simply by being seen as alive, worthy, wonderful... creations of God. And I saw Jesus one day, when we were walking home from the market. There was a man begging on a bridge... thin, scarred, keeping his head down and hands open to occassionally put his head up and look at those who just continually passed him by as if he weren't there. Jonathan and I had been collecting money for Jesus to use, and carried it in a bag in our backpack, and that day, the moment had come to give it away.

Jonathan asked me if I wanted to give it to him and with all my heart I did. I stopped thinking about if it would offend him, or if he would reject me, or any of the things Satan would try to put in my head to stop what Jesus wanted acoomplished done. So I moved in Christ and I felt Him there with me. I went up to the man and got down on the ground with him and looked in his eyes, and in Thai I told him, "God loves you".
There is nothing I can do to explain what happened... the man did not get up and walk and he did little other than look back into my eyes... but what happened was, I knew it wasn't me he saw. Jesus came... and He was my hands and He was my eyes and He was my voice... and I walked away with a feeling unlike anything I have known in my life. I have worked in ministry, I have worked with people on the streets and loved them there. I have done what I have done in the hopes to have Jesus be seen... but this moment was unlike anything before it, because it was a different reality of loving and becoming the least of these... washing the feet of the beggar, having my Savior do so. I touched his hands that were covered in scrapes and scars... and my Saviors love I pray was felt.
As I said, there are no words for this holy of holy moment, because when it comes to Jesus, there are no words good enough. But as I left that man, I felt my Saviors presence with me, I felt what it MEANT to love how He loved... and again, my life shifted. Living, truly living is what was felt in that moment. Being able to be Jesus to people... being able to give Him a chance to shine. I fail miserably at explaining this moment with this precious man who very much resembles the picture to the right, in his posture... his unworthy stature.... but it was JEsus gift to me, to my heart, to my life, to my understanding and awe of him, to love that man... to get on the ground with that man...

"Now Peter and John were going up to the Temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at that gate of the Temple which is called Beautiful to ask alms of those who entered the Temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the Temple, he asked for alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, with John, and said, "Look at us." And he fixed his attention upon them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, "I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up he stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God." (Acts 3:1-8 RSV)