Once upon a time there was a city named Bangkok… and I was there.
And this is where I slept:
And this is where I slept:
Yesterday I was able to explore the city a little bit. Sarah has a friend named Meghan who is currently living in Thailand teaching English, so. . . she took us around!
We went to this beautiful hotel called Banyan Tree and went 59 floors up to the roof. Upon exit of the elevator I was greeted with the Bangkok skyline. Just beautiful. Tall buildings, parks, people.
Among the tiny people I saw were the “red shirts”. They are the tiny dots by the pink umbrella. A lot of them don’t even wear red shirts. Not so scary. Now, I’m not sure if you are up to date on the current situation going on in Bangkok. If you are not- let me catch you up to speed.
There is political unrest going on. The red shirts are supporters of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and the yellow shirts are supporters of current government. The anti-government red shirts started their protesting about a month and a half ago, demanding that the current Prime Minister put in his resignation. There was a bombing about 2 weeks ago which killed 3 Thais and injured 75 people.
I read that “Bangkok Skytrain authority has suspended services of four stations and the Subway authority has suspended services of five stations after the 
bomb blasts”. The picture to the left is from the Daily Telegraph, taken during one of the protests. I know it looks kind of intense but there hasn’t been anything like this since we’ve been here. It’s just a good photo.
I read that “Bangkok Skytrain authority has suspended services of four stations and the Subway authority has suspended services of five stations after the bomb blasts”. The picture to the left is from the Daily Telegraph, taken during one of the protests. I know it looks kind of intense but there hasn’t been anything like this since we’ve been here. It’s just a good photo.The picture below is of one of the five BTS train stops, where the red shirts are squatting. (BTS = Bangkok mass transit system aka the sky train). All the locals are just really annoyed that everything is blocked off and they can’t get anywhere.
The funny thing is that our squad did a prayer walk at a huge Buddhist temple today and had to take all these boats, buses and trains to get home, and in the hustle & bustle of trying to get home it started POURING rain. We were drenched from head to toe- running like crazy people through the streets of Bangkok. In the midst of running to different bus stops we ran right through the red shirt barricade. We asked our translator if we would have been able to do that on a normal basis and she looked square at us and, quite seriously, said “no”. I didn’t even realize we were doing it at the time. It’s nothing too special, just a bunch of tires with spear like poles attached. They were actually quite nice to us, offering us food and trying to help us get out of the rain. (Though, just in today, the red shirts have agreed to enter a reconcilliation roadmap proposed by the Prime Minister but refuse to disperse until Parliament is dissolved for elections.)
[And just a brief cultural lesson: There is a King of Thailand, whom the Thai people revere and respect. They love their King. Though the country is no longer set up as a monarch system in which the king makes decisions for the nation, but rather a democracy, the love and loyalty to the Thai monarch remains in place.]
With that said, I wanted to share a conversation that Meghan had with her taxi driver the other day:
They were talking about the red shirt/yellow shirt situation and the taxi driver said this:
“If Thai people really love their king and see him as their beloved father, they would love their country and each other instead of wearing different colored shirts and protesting in the streets. Both red and yellow shirts claim to love their King- they say he is gracious and loving… yet all they are doing is giving him a headache. All the king wants is peace and by fighting and warring against each other they are doing the opposite.”
Funny. This is what our Heavenly Father must feel like. We claim to love Him yet quarrel with our neighbors. How can we say we love God yet curse our very brother who is made in His image? We say we love the same God, our King, yet we can’t get along. If we can’t get along with people who have the most important thing in common with us how are we going to get along with people who have nothing in common with us? This challenges me. I yearn to love others wholeheartedly. I yearn to love others enough, and so much, that people see it and want to know my God. If we did a little more loving and a little less fighting we would accomplish a whole lot more. Please pray that I really learn what it’s like to see others as He sees and love like He does.
Philippians 2:14-15
“Do everytihng without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.”
1 John 4:20-21
“If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see?
“If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see?
The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.”
On another note,
Pad Thai is the new been&cheese burrito. (but only for the month of May) YUM!
