Ruth Around the World: The Joy of Lahu Children

The 4 days (April 25-28) we spent in the Lahu Village were among the top days of the whole Thailand experience for me! We arrived late in the eventing after over 3 hours in the back of rotdengs (red trucks). Within seconds of arriving, there were children all over us, overjoyed at the prospect of new playmates, and by the end of our time there it was so difficult to leave them! We spent all of our free time playing with them, which was a blast, and a little exhausting ;)

Once we arrived, we lined up and families claimed us as guests to stay in their homes. My friend Diana and I ended up with the cutest older couple ever! The most interesting dynamic of host stays in the villages was the language barrier. Hilltribes have their own language, and not everyone speaks Thai. By the same token, even fewer people speak English! Luckily, our host father spoke Thai and we were able to find out more about them, such as the fact that they have two daughters living in Chiang Mai and had gone to college already. They were the sweetest couple and they had a nice big mattress on the floor in their living room for us. Their house was a traditional village home, but made of wood instead of bamboo showing that they were slightly more wealthy than some others (their daughters likely send them money). There was another house on their property that was the kitchen; we never ate with them, however, because we had all our meals together in the village fellowship hall. There was also an outhouse with 2 rooms: the bathroom which had a squatty potty and a spigot; and the laundry room which had a spigot and a bucket =)

So, our schedule while there was jam-packed! Here are some things we did:

Moon Cakes!
The first night, we made moon cakes which are made by shaping pounded sticky rice dough into a perfectly round shape. Having the 'roundest of them all' means your babies will have the cutest face!! (I didn't win though, sad!)

Fishing!
In the most literal sense, of course. We traveled to the nearby river and made dams throughout one area so that the water would recede enough for us to pile as many fish, bugs and crabs into a bunch of baskets as possible! I found quite a few bugs and crabs, no fish though! After that, they made our catches of the day into delicious soup for lunch... pretty good and very spicy!

Orphanage!
Later that day, we went about an hour up the mountain where we visited an orphanage. There, the kids put on a show for us (adorable!) and then we were free to socialize with them and play with them before dinner. I made friends with the sweetest 15 year old girl, Moochi. She spoke the tiniest bit of English and I the tiniest bit of Thai so together we were able to bond a bit =). After dinner we had to say good bye, which was honestly the most difficult good bye I've had to say in Thailand! Something about her joy and desire to get to know me combined with her love of Christ and her siblings evident in her conversation and actions made me enjoy her presence and long to form a real relationship with her. She even gave me a bracelet that I'm still wearing many months later, thinking of her and her beauty, inside and out!


Moochi is beside me doing the Asian "I'm cute" sign (looks like a peace sign), and her little sister is on the other side.

Sunday Church!
On Sunday we attended 3 services. The 9 am women's service was first; the girls in our group sang a few songs and then Aj. Ann preached. it was a lovely time to let the women bond and have time to themselves to refresh and be renewed. The 11 am service was much busier, with all the children and families in attendance. The whole group of us sang a few more songs and this time Aj. Mike preached. The church is definitely the heart of the village, as evident through God's presence throughout the service. Later in the afternoon there was another service, much less formal, in which people shared testimonies and everyone sang songs. They asked for students to share, so 2 from our group shared. First I shared 2 Corinthians 5:17 about everyone being a new creation in Christ. This passage has always meant a lot to me and I saw it in a new way as I encountered this village and its people. Then, another student shared on Christ's love and how he experienced that love through the villagers' hospitality.


Even the children were a part of the 11 am service =)

Overall, seeing the villagers all together in the little building singing songs of praise to the same God I serve was definitely an uplifting experience. In Thailand, a Buddhist country, the Christian community is the minority. It's almost opposite in the hilltribe villages. Generally, entire villages are Christian or live in complete peace and coexist mutually with other religions. Contrastly, in America, Christians sometimes bear the mindset of having power and control over others around them who are different. I loved experiencing Christ from so many new perspectives as I saw how he was completely unwrapped from my comfortable, familiar context and re-wrapped into a different culture and way of life. Also, the hilltribe culture feels so much more like the original church than anything I've experienced in America. There, they were so much more focused on loving each other and on living the way Jesus did, it put me to shame at times as a Christian but also gave me hope for the future of Christianity. The early church gave of their possessions to the good of the whole group, sharing their resources and experiences, and that is how the Lahu village was. I saw joy in every generation and felt hospitality and acceptance from every person I encountered.

Another part of our time there was spending time with Vithoon, a young visionary trying to change his village's mindset about farming in order to bring about sustainable changes. Obviously, for this community, farming is THE way of life and the way of survival. Therefore, changing practices that have been in place for so long (in this case, slash-and-burn practices) is unheard of because it is new, different, and there is less evidence that it works in the long run. However, in the long run slash-and-burn has depleted the area's usable land and caused environmental effects that are doing more harm than good. Vithoon is working to teach new practices to area farmers. These are risky, but thus far are more productive than traditional methods. His farm includes a variety of crops in one area that ensure the area stays fertile and preventing the need for burning.