Thailand

Last Saturday Veldon and I took Max to an Asian market in Atlanta. It was large and busy and crowded and possessed many of the smells we remember from Thailand. Max was in awe as we went in and he saw so many things familiar to him, fruits, veggies, people, the crowd in such a small area. He watched the people, many of whom were in fact Asian and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the whole visit. We bought him noodles from Thailand and I bought sauces to use in cooking some foods he loves, like Pad Thai. Veldon and I enjoyed being there too, looking at the various foods and watching the people. On the Thai aisle we asked an Asian lady about making Pad Thai, she was from Cambodia but knew exactly what we needed to do and needed to know. She was so sweet and friendly and willing to answer my questions. For a few brief moments we felt as if we were back in Thailand. Strangely enough we felt a sense of loss when we left.

It is the oddest thing, as far as I am concerned, that Veldon and I both feel as if we left something in Thailand. Of course we brought something much greater than we could comprehend out of Thailand, but we absolutely fell in love with the country, with the people and with what we saw. Maybe it was living for almost 2 weeks in a luxury hotel, and we just think we liked the country, but I don't think so. I think we got a tiny glimpse of a completely different world. A world that is not based on Judeo-Christian values, even a little bit. A world where dogs roam the street unfeared, largely unnoticed, because there is so much trash they have plenty to eat. A world where the individual seems lost into being one of many. A world dominated by superstition and idol worship.

We visited the Buddhist temples and saw with our own eyes people literally bowing down to idols. Something I never really thought I would see, we hear about it, we are warned not to have idols in our lives, not to love other things more than God, but to actually witness the devotion of flesh and blood humans to a man made idol is heart wrenching. How do they miss it so greatly? Why would you throw yourself onto your face in front of a graven image? I don't know, but they do it, all the time, all day. Women and merchants get up early to put flower arrangements together for people to buy at day break to offer to Buddha. They erect shrines all over the place for their false god, they worship this idol with a devotion one rarely sees in a Western Christian church. It was stunning.

No one who knows me would ever suspect that I could be so taken by a foreign country, especially not a third world foreign country, full of strange smells and foods, but I am! I love it. Veldon and I would go back tomorrow if we could. They need more Christians there to tell them about Jesus, they need more people to care for the orphans lost in their strange orphan system, they need to know, to see, the love of Christ. The orphans, the workers, the impoverished, the taxi drivers...all of them. We would pack up our children and go if we could, of course we aren't there yet. God hasn't called us to do that yet, but I certainly never envisioned myself coming home with a son and a love for a country on the other side of the world.