Things have been going well here at BJD (YWAM’s House of One Heart). I am adjusting to being on a team of only girls and to basically living college life together with Thai students. Being in the city and being on campus at RAM 2 University has been awesome and has made me somewhat miss being in school… The other day, our team had some free ministry time, so we decided to visit a nearby slum.
Getting there immediately drew me from the city life that I have been living and made me instantly think of the poverty that I had seen in the Philippines. We were taken to an older woman’s house to visit with her. We greeted her and were invited to go inside of her home. She had a modest home that sat up off of the ground. We all entered the one room that served as her bedroom and living room and were asked to sit on the floor. This woman’s house was small and sturdy enough for her day to day life, but as I walked into the back of the room with my teammates, the floor creaked, and we all looked at each other with mute smiles and thought the same thing: this woman’s floor is going to fall in. Given her current conditions, we did not want our feet to ruin what she had to walk on all day.
So, we took a deep breath, hoped for the best and sat down. We brought the guitar, and I was asked to play a song. There was a Santa hanging in her house, and our contact told us that she loved the song Jingle Bells. Even though I have never played the song before, I quickly figured something out, and yes, we all sang Jingle Bells in the middle of Thailand in the slum in an old woman’s home in about 90 degree weather.
