When loving people gets messy

After Yah finished leading worship Friday, Prang asked her what was wrong. She could tell she wasn’t her normal self. Yah talked about how her debt was overwhelming her. As we asked more questions, Prang and I became overwhelmed as well… her debt is about twice what we thought previously. Some money she borrowed from the government at decent interest rates. But about a ¼ of her loans are from neighbors and are absurd: 5% interest/month, which translates into 50%/year. It’s appalling. Appalling to think her neighbor would charge her that much interest, appalling to think she’d take out so much money.

We talked with Jim since he deals with debt situations on occasion. He told me family debts of this nature are a huge driving factor for young girls going to the bars. He estimates about half of women in the bars have family debt of significant nature. I can’t blame them for going to work there – what other choices do they have? It seems ridiculous that a relatively small amount of money to Americans would be impossible for a northeastern Thai to repay in a normal job.

We have a journey ahead of us. We want to be gentle with Yah, but also want to find out where all this money went. We want to find out more about her husband (who often goes to work in Bangkok) and what he can do to work on paying the debt as well. We want to help her learn to use money wisely. We want to help her family help themselves. Yah is precious… I’m seeing how loving people in brokenness gets messy. And I’m so thankful that Jim, Judy and Prang are giving their lives to loving these people through their messes.

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Nick
Posts: 2

Hi
Reply #2 on : Fri March 07, 2008, 06:52:27

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I really hope that you write soon about Yah and her husband and all that has gone on there in the last couple of days. I was sitting in bed thinking and praying last night (after drinking a whole two liter of Dr. Pepper to try to stay awake and study) and I am pretty much convinced you are witnessing a miracle in action. Better get that business out to the public :)

Love you so! Thanks too for taking such good care of my sister. I am excited to see what changes it has in her life when she gets back to the states...

Matt
Posts: 2

I am grateful
Reply #1 on : Thu March 06, 2008, 08:25:44

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You are amazing for walking there as well. Keep up the good work. We are proud of you.