The Shack 2
It’s been almost 2.5 years since I visited รำไพ. Her nickname is ตุ่น (Dune). Wes and I visited with Pastor Celebrate on Tuesday October 18, 2022. I remember being impressed with her desire to keep her kids with her and not give them to the center in KK. Having visited this time, I realize that her reluctance to give them up seem more for her own sake than theirs.
We arrived late to Pastor Celebrate’s church due to road work. He was waiting to pray and hear some of our devotional thoughts from today. We headed out in his inherited truck. He told us M’s have a lot of things. He was critical of the amount of gas that the truck required but agreed that it’s a more comfortable ride than what he had.
He stopped by and honked at any and all he knew. He collected some funds from a nearby neighbor. When asked what that was for, he said he’s the head of a farmer’s association here. He told us about the kids of Dune. Her oldest boy is away at work. He should be in 7th grade now but he is working in Bangkok. Later we heard that he sent 900 baht home once since he’s been away. Her middle child, a son in fifth grade, is very resourceful. His name is Film. He showed us the grasshoppers he caught recently and even managed to get one while we were there visiting. That will be his dinner. The youngest is name Sophia. She is quick witted and goes to church every Sunday. When neighbors asked wryly if she has become a Christian, she smiles and say, “All I know is I am not a Buddhist.”
Pastor Celebrate picks Film and Sophia up every Sunday to go to church where he leads worship and preaches for a dozen members. Pastor Celebrate has been praying for a partner/a team to work with. He says, “because when two or more gather, there He will be.” We are hesitant to commit because it’s an hour ride just to get to his house.
When we reached our destination, I was surprised that the family no longer lived in the shack. Pastor Celebrate said that they live in her boyfriend’s house. Where we parked, I saw a neat house to the left and right. As we walked through, passing the water buffalo barn, I saw another shack. Pastor Celebrate asked if anyone was home and when no one answered, he peeped into the shack. The boyfriend came out. Pastor Celebrate had told us that he spoke nicely and is pretty good to them. He might hit the kids sometimes because they’re bad but he’s really helped them out.
Celebrate then took a broom and swept the front porch area and asked for two mats to be brought out. He then opened the door of the shack and commented, “this is a house of someone who’s too busy to clean. Come and take a look.” We felt embarrassed for them and us and did not want to look in. I gave the boyfriend some snacks that we brought for them. He handed it off to Dune who immediately went to a corner of the shack, out of view to rummage.
We sat out to talk to the boyfriend for a bit. Celebrate and him spoke in Isaan, gathering news about the family. They were recently in a motorbike accident, heading straight while a car turned in front of them. Dune and he were unconscious but Sophia was ok. The car paid for their damages. He talked about how Film sometimes goes off for a day or two and doesn’t come home. He is hanging out with his friends and he needs to be fetched. Right now Sophia is with her friend Cartoon. We encouraged Dune to come out to chat. She eventually came out. The first thing I noticed was that she has a buddhist necklace on with a showy amulet. I don’t recall her wearing that before.
As I tried to encourage her to share and talk about her life, I had a vague sense of deja vu. This feeling of talking to her was similar to when I talked to Rosanna (the daughter of a Burmese refugee family whom we worked with at Faith Bible). A youth pastor had visited her when she was not feeling well and she attempted to throw herself off the balcony of their second story apartment. The youth pastor believed that she was possessed. Since I had a relationship with her, I asked to speak with her before they go forward with any plans of exorcism. Rosanna did not display any signs of possession that day. Her voice was her own and she didn’t attempt to jump. Yet, I had a feeling that I was talking to a shell of her.
Dune eventually started opening up and she shared about her first pregnancy where she lost the child. She was 14/15 years old, living with her grandma while her parents were away at work. They would come back if she got into trouble but otherwise she was on her own. She lost her child when it was 5 1/2 months old. It was unclear if it was an accident or an abortion. She seem still shaken about it. She recalled it as the time she “threw her child away”. Apparently, her boyfriend have never heard this story.
Dune went on to talk about her life as she smokes what she calls “her medicine”. Her cigarettes helps relieve stress. She recalls all the sheets of papers in the corridor of her life which taught her as much about life as school. She then refers to us as sheets of paper but of a different sort. And we cannot mix sand of different sorts especially if there was her blood in it. We were wondering if maybe we were missing out on some Thai idioms or stories that would give more clarity to what she was saying. It was Pastor Celebrate who asked her to speak more plainly. When she repeated what she had to say, Pastor Celebrate looked at her boyfriend and he confessed that he doesn’t know what she is talking about. She talks like this about twice a week and most of the time is when she is alone.
Just at that time, the granny who lived in the neat house on the left stopped by. ยายตุ๋ย is a drug addict, currently on medication for psychosis (if she doesn’t take them, she just wanders off endlessly), and she has no teeth. She was very difficult to decipher but also brought a lot of comic relief. She was obsessed with Wes and my chubby arms. She called Dune crazy. When asked by Pastor Celebrate, what the difference between Dune’s crazy and her psychosis was, she answered, “I’m under treatment”.
Pastor Celebrate tried to share with granny about the good news of Jesus. She says she wants it but she keeps getting distracted by Wes’s good looks or sleepiness because she nodded off once. ยายตุ๋ย’s drug addiction came as a result of working in a chicken slaughterhouse. The people in charge would give medicine to help workers work harder and longer. This is the second time I’ve heard this this week and it breaks my heart. Our staff worker’s brother got addicted to drugs when he was working to cut down sugar cane as a teenager.
Pastor Celebrate invited us to share our stories with them on how we knew God. I had shared that when I was born, I was illegal in China because I was the third daughter and my mom wanted me drowned. And it could only have been the grace of God that I am still here today. Dune started crying and she looked so embarrassed to be crying. It angers me so much that Buddhism teaches people to despise the emotions that make them human. As we were leaving, Pastor Celebrate later shared that today Dune was easier to understand than the last time because she didn’t talk about the visions she has had.
As we left Pastor Celebrate’s church, Wes and I both felt so overwhelmed by the needs of this family. When we came back to our town and I see my motley crew of kids entering the office: a boy addicted to gaming, 2 know-it-all girls, 2 boys with LD and a boy who just moved here from Laos, I felt so relieved. I just want to hold them and not let them grow up because I’m afraid of what their society has for them.
This morning I am encouraged by a verse that came to mind as I thought about all that Dune’s family needed: food, shelter, security, a psychologist, a doctor, a drug rehab specialist, the list can go on. It dawned on me that what I was desiring for them is the church. And Jesus promised that He will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail.
