Behind the Smiles

We tend to think of the Isaan people we work with as happy, carefree people who enjoy life, despite its hardships. We rarely see sad or angry emotions in the Isaan people we meet from day to day. But lately I’ve been confronted with some situations that remind me that Isaan people are no different from anyone else in the world: we all have to deal with sadness, disappointment, hurt, and anger. I just wish that they could all know where they could turn in their difficulties – that there is a God who loves them and wants the best for them.

Our daughter’s best Thai friend has been coming to our house almost every day since we got back from our stateside assignment. They can spend hours together playing and having fun. She also comes on Sundays every week and has “Sunday School” with our daughter. Week before last on Sunday during our prayer time she shared that her father’s cow had died during the night. I’m not sure what happened, but it was tied up near their house and somehow it broke its neck or strangled to death. Her whole family was very upset because this was a big, healthy cow, and was expecting a calf in a month or so. We prayed for her family, and the next day when I asked how her parents were taking it, she got tears in her eyes and said that her dad was so upset that he had left and nobody knew where he was. He had not come home the night before. I said I would pray for her father. The next day when she came she told me that he had finally come home that morning, after two nights of being gone. She doesn’t know where he ha d been. I know this was a difficult thing for this family. Even though the father has a good job, if he’s like most Isaan people he keeps very little financial “cushion” for unexpected things like this. So I’m sure it will be a financial burden on this family. I am praying that God will reveal himself to them in this difficult time.

This week we were invited to a “Su Kwan” ceremony for our teenage neighbor. He was in a motorcycle accident over a month ago, and had just gotten out of the hospital. It was a serious accident: broken leg, broken arm, three broken fingers, and a deep cut on his face. His family wanted to hold this ceremony, which is a common Isaan tradition that comes from Brahmanism, in order to call back his “kwan”, or guardian spirit, to re-inhabit his body. It is believed that when a person experiences a frightening or near-death experience, the kwan often leaves the body. So this ceremony is intended to bring back the kwan. To me it appears to be a way to encourage the person who has been injured, because all his friends and family gather around and say encouraging things, and he is reminded of how much he means to them. I don’t really know how strongly most Isaan really believe in the kwan, but they do believe strongly in the Buddhist idea of “karma”. I heard several people say how this young man must have a lot of “boon”, which basically means good karma, since he survived such a terrible accident. It’s hard to know how to respond to that. I would love to see these people praising God that this young man is alive, not attributing it to some nebulous good deeds in a former life. But the idea of a God who loves and takes care of them is such a foreign idea. For our part of the ceremony Scott and I offered thanks to God and prayed for the young man’s continued healing. And privately we pray that this sweet family would come to know the God of all healing and comfort. (Click here to see photos from this ceremony)

Also this week we found out some distressing news about our good friend. She and her teenage daughter are Christians, probably the only ones in their village, but her husband is not. Our friend is a strong person, and amazes me with her faith despite the fact that she has no support in her community or with her husband. In addition, she has been pretty much the sole bread-winner in her family since we’ve known her. Her husband doesn’t like to work, so he rarely does. A few months ago he decided to start selling government lottery tickets, which are sold twice a month, for some extra income. As it turns out, he also had agreed to sell tickets for the underground lottery, under the authority of a local organizer (illegal, of course). It went OK for several months, and he made a good commission from the sales. But last week unfortunately there was a higher than normal number of winners of the underground lottery. So the local organizer left town because he either couldn’t or didn’t want to pay the winners. And apparently when that happens the responsibility falls to the one who sold the tickets. Our friend’s husband had the misfortune of selling two winning tickets at 20,000 baht each, which meant that he had to come up with 40,000 baht (about $1300) to pay off the winners or run the risk of being hunted down and murdered. There was no way to come up with that amount of money (almost a year’s salary for many Isaan people) so he stole his wife’s deed to her house and land, which she had inherited from her mother, forged her signature, and used it as collateral to borrow the money from a loan shark. When my friend found out what he had done she was very upset. She knew with her husband’s bad work habits he would never be able to pay back that much money so she could get the deed to her house back. Friends and family are reluctant to help for the same reason. Even though she is a Christian she is feeling very helpless and depressed right now. We are praying that God will help her husband work this out on his own, and that maybe through this experience he will realize his sinfulness and his need for a Savior. I believe their relationship and family life would be so much different if they were united in their faith in God.

All of these recent events remind me of my purpose here: to be a light that shines in the darkness. Sometimes it’s an overwhelming job. I can do and say so little that really seems to make an impact. But I pray that God will take the little that I do and make it into something useful for his kingdom.

This is the verse I shared with my friend this week. I pray that many Isaan people will come to believe it:

“Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.” Isaiah 40:31