In Kenya, one of my friends got asked, “Are there cemeteries
in America? Because I heard white people live forever.” She posted it to Facebook,
and of course I read it and thought it was crazy. White people don’t live
forever, but there’s a stigma about white people in Africa. To them, we’re
celebrities, we’re gods, we’re holy, we’re pure, we’re perfect.
But that is a different story entirely.
Today’s story beings in Thailand.
Here in Thailand, my team is teaching English to university
students. English classes are anywhere from 1-6 students and a few teachers.
Teaching is founded on conversations, and during one such convo, I was led to
bring up the interesting question that was posed to my friend, Rose, in Kenya.
I told the story to the class, rather jokingly, as if everyone knows that white
people don’t live forever. But Jarred, the main teacher, and one of the full
time missionaries here in Kenya, decided to write the question on the board.
“Do white people live forever?”
It wasn’t until one of the Thai students started talking
about how humans are born, die, and are born again that I really understood the
weight of this question in the Buddhist community that we’re living in. A
rather silly question in my mind, turned into a great discussion and a way to
begin breaking down some of the walls standing between our Thai friends and
Jesus.
The “farang”, or white people, answered last, allowing the
students to answer first. The responses went as follows:
Student 1: “I really hope that everyone lives forever.”
Student 2: “I think that we all die and then are reborn, and
then die again.”
Student 3, and hands down my favorite answer: “Some white
people are so white, all of the life has already been drained out of them that
they aren’t living anymore and are walking around like vampires.” (Or something
to that effect.)
Student 4: “No, I don’t think white people live forever.”
Then came my answer: “I think everyone’s body dies, but each
person has a soul, or a spirit, that lives forever, either in heaven or in hell”
It really is that simple to turn an everyday, ordinary
conversation into one about Jesus.
Here are some pictures from Thailand so far that don’t relate to this blog in any way but I thought you’d enjoy. 🙂
Riding elephants!
Fish Therapy: where the fish suck the dead skin off your feet. Most bizarre feeling ever.
