Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Monday, February 4, 2008
yesterday was my first visit to a temple with Buddhists. Here is what I understood before we left:
1) We were taking a lot of money with us. I didn't know exactly how much, but Ba Muuey had been collecting money for weeks around the neighborhood.
2) We were going far away. I didn't understand where but two things tipped me off: we had rented an air-conditioned bus and we were leaving at 4 a.m.
At 3:45 Ba Ooey called upstairs to see if I was ready. I ran downstairs, exhausted, and climbed into the bus with 12 other of our neighbors, mostly older women. We slept on the way to the temple and when we arrived, 5 hours later, I was surprised to see that it wasn't a large temple, not even recognizable as a temple at all, and we were seemingly the only ones there. We carried the merit tree (seperate from all the envelopes Ba Muuey had collected, this tree is for the monks-- not only does it have money for the monks but also practical things like laundry detergent and antiacids) and a woman came out and greeted Ba Muuey.
It turns out that Ba Muuey's relatives live here, as neighbors of the temple-- and the temple was not completed yet but only just being built. Ba Muuey's friend was happy that a foreigner came to visit and walked me around to the back to see the frame of the temple, overlooking a large lake. I pointed to some tents on the foundation of the frame, asking if those families in the tents helped to build it. "We're all helping," she explained. "All the neighbors." It reminded me of an Amish barn-raising, how everyone is chipping in for the manual labor.
Inside, our neighbors wai'ed and prayed to a large golden Buddha.
Then we came together and counted the merit in the envelopes. I helped to count-- there was over 1,000,000 Baht from our slum alone. That's like $320,000 USD-- which goes a long way in Thailand. This money was to go toward the building. I was moved to see how generous our neighbors were. These neighbors of mine live in a slum and many struggle to provide for their immediate needs. Yet they desire to worship through giving, to somehow secure a blessing for themselves through their gifts, an act of faith. And here it was going to this very practical purpose, a house of worship-- although so far away most of our neighbors will never see it.
It took us seven hours to get home.
Before we left, three monks came out and led our neighbors in chanting and prayer. It was really beautiful to see all the friends from my neighborhood worshipping together. I worship jesus and I really believe God is alive, and good, and longing to show my neighbors how much he cares. Our neighbors have a lot of trouble in their lives. Normal things- unhappy marriages, deaths and sicknesses in the family, abuse- and things we don't face in America too- like dozens of family members to support, working multiple jobs with no days off, simple medical problems but no money to address them. And religion- I think all religion- is so sweet, it's like a collective ache. I know that God hears. Anyway, you can see prayer in the video below. You can also hear the rain and the roosters from the country house beside us.
1) We were taking a lot of money with us. I didn't know exactly how much, but Ba Muuey had been collecting money for weeks around the neighborhood.
2) We were going far away. I didn't understand where but two things tipped me off: we had rented an air-conditioned bus and we were leaving at 4 a.m.
At 3:45 Ba Ooey called upstairs to see if I was ready. I ran downstairs, exhausted, and climbed into the bus with 12 other of our neighbors, mostly older women. We slept on the way to the temple and when we arrived, 5 hours later, I was surprised to see that it wasn't a large temple, not even recognizable as a temple at all, and we were seemingly the only ones there. We carried the merit tree (seperate from all the envelopes Ba Muuey had collected, this tree is for the monks-- not only does it have money for the monks but also practical things like laundry detergent and antiacids) and a woman came out and greeted Ba Muuey.
It turns out that Ba Muuey's relatives live here, as neighbors of the temple-- and the temple was not completed yet but only just being built. Ba Muuey's friend was happy that a foreigner came to visit and walked me around to the back to see the frame of the temple, overlooking a large lake. I pointed to some tents on the foundation of the frame, asking if those families in the tents helped to build it. "We're all helping," she explained. "All the neighbors." It reminded me of an Amish barn-raising, how everyone is chipping in for the manual labor.Inside, our neighbors wai'ed and prayed to a large golden Buddha.
Then we came together and counted the merit in the envelopes. I helped to count-- there was over 1,000,000 Baht from our slum alone. That's like $320,000 USD-- which goes a long way in Thailand. This money was to go toward the building. I was moved to see how generous our neighbors were. These neighbors of mine live in a slum and many struggle to provide for their immediate needs. Yet they desire to worship through giving, to somehow secure a blessing for themselves through their gifts, an act of faith. And here it was going to this very practical purpose, a house of worship-- although so far away most of our neighbors will never see it.
It took us seven hours to get home.
Before we left, three monks came out and led our neighbors in chanting and prayer. It was really beautiful to see all the friends from my neighborhood worshipping together. I worship jesus and I really believe God is alive, and good, and longing to show my neighbors how much he cares. Our neighbors have a lot of trouble in their lives. Normal things- unhappy marriages, deaths and sicknesses in the family, abuse- and things we don't face in America too- like dozens of family members to support, working multiple jobs with no days off, simple medical problems but no money to address them. And religion- I think all religion- is so sweet, it's like a collective ache. I know that God hears. Anyway, you can see prayer in the video below. You can also hear the rain and the roosters from the country house beside us.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
