Michaela's Blog

Things I learned about Fi

31-Mar-08 06:21

 Fi (pictured here next to me) and I had a couple good chances to talk this weekend.  I learned that she doesn't want a rich foreign husband like so many girls around here do.  I learned that she wants to be a chef so she can create unique, beautiful dishes.  I learned that she would love to go to Australia to see the nature and animals.  I learned that she wants to learn to use the computer because it will give her valuable job skills.  I learned that she wants to send emails.  I learned that she believes many people in her village will come to know God.  I learned that she loves talking about the future when someone wants to listen.

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Who's been praying? :)

29-Mar-08 06:01

You’ve been praying for Yah, huh? Her story keeps getting better. At times I really think it is too good to be true, I feel like I’m waiting for the “catch.” So far no “catch,” here’s the good stuff...

Her husband’s job continues to go well. His boss is bringing him to a church where he is mentored one-on-one and involved in prison outreach. You may remember a month ago that Yah was frustrated with her husband who didn’t care for his family and drank the day away. Jesus makes us new, right? Last week he sent enough money for Yah to repay the loan we gave her (which I wrote about here). And he calls her at Prang’s during her lunch break so they can talk. He’s planning to be home for the April “water throwing fest” so he can drive the kids around while they throw water on everyone. Quite a far cry from just a month ago!

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in hopes they never "walk in"

26-Mar-08 02:51

Maew and Fi (pictured here with Nick and I at our engagement party in February!) are our summer interns in Buriram.  They're on their school break for 2 months.  Prang and I want them to work for us as many of their friends are heading into the city during summer vacation.  At this point, their friends may be working in a restaurant or picking fruit; they're probably not at a bar.  But waitresses at many restaurants in the city are expected to at least sweet talk customers, if not be available to leave with them.  We just want to spend more time loving them here before they're put in tough situations of choosing between their dignity and money, or their dignity and hopes of meeting a good foreign husband.

Lord-willing, they'll understand their dignity in Jesus so completely that no one will have to offer them a "way out" because they never walked in.

Is it even possible that hundreds of thousands of young women in Thailand will understand their dignity in Jesus so completely that there is no longer a "way out" because there is no longer a "way in"? 

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like mother, like daughter... and then some

17-Mar-08 04:37 Prang often goes out on Sunday evenings to visit neighbors. While she chats with them, many people ask her questions about Christianity or ask her to pray for them. Yesterday when she went out, she brought flyers for an evangelistic Christian meeting happening this weekend. The meeting is about 35 miles away, and Prang is excited to bring all sorts of people. Last night her two kids, sister and nephew all wanted to go along to invite friends and neighbors. I got a kick out of watching the kids racing to give their neighbors a flyer as Prang and her sister talked with them. Prang’s gone out visiting by herself plenty of times. Now her family is joining in just because they see what she does and they want to do it too. She certainly lives a life worth emulating. Pretty soon, she’ll have quite the family of evangelists! Comments (1)

Miracles in the works

10-Mar-08 23:28

After telling my fiancé about how things are going with Yah, he let me know I needed to update my blog asap – he says we’re seeing a miracle in the works right now – and I have to agree!

Yah told us a week ago a moneylender came to her house daily demanding her loan be repaid. This particular loan is one of the high interest loans. Yah borrowed about $660 last year, and now owes about $1000. A moneylender made violent threats in the past, and her husband (who usually works in the city) worried this one would do the same. Yah considered taking out an even higher interest loan to repay this one. This kind of thinking is what put her into so much debt already.

We decided to lend Yah money at no interest for this loan. She “bargained” with the moneylender to lower the interest if we paid the loan in full. We prayed for the moneylender to cut the interest in half – and she did!!! Yah will have us take out money each week from her paycheck to repay our loan. We were happy to tell her we will “match” whatever she and her husband repay each month. It took her a moment to understand that we want to help her financially, not just buy her more time. When she did, she began to cry and showed one of the highest forms of respect in Thailand: she touched her forehead to my hand and bowed in thanks. As she did, Prang and I bowed our heads as well and thanked God from whom all blessings flow. Moments like these convince me I’m the luckiest person in the world to call this my job right now.

And it gets better…

2 months ago: We first prayed for Yah and her family’s financial situation.  Her husband found work with a group of Christians in the city. They’re paying him well and teaching him to read the Bible. They even gave him extra money to call home.

2 weeks ago: Yah had us pray for her husband’s salvation. She was frustrated at how he was abandoning his family simply to drink the day away. She asked that we pray for his eyes and heart to be opened to know God and walk in His way.

1 week ago: We went to visit Yah and decided to help her with her debt. Her husband called later that night to let her know he wanted to become a Christian.

Wow. What a miracle. Words simply don’t do this justice… I guess all I can say is God is amazing. Stay posted :)

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When loving people gets messy

02-Mar-08 00:58

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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