Today we made a two hour drive to a Mong Tribal Village located on the highest mountain in Thailand. The journey up and back was both rough and scenic. We drove through beautiful jungle foliage, past running streams,and rice fields, and by two elephant compounds all the while traversing a narrow, winding, bumpy,and dusty road where we encountered several close calls with cows or vehicles coming the opposite direction. But it wasn't the journey that impacted us, but the destination. Living in America can dull us to the conditions that much of the third world lives in.
Let us digress for a moment. The reason we were brought up by Pastor Tongin was to visit family members of some of the kids at Abundant Life. Most of the children at the home come from villages like this where either the family can't afford to raise the child or the child has no chance of getting an education because there are no schools around. Many of the kids had never seen a flushing toilet or shower before being enrolled at Abundant Love. Joining us for the trip were three of the high school kids who came from this village.
Below, the building on the left
is the village church which is
temporarily closed as it
looks for a pastor.
The other picture is of
the sanctuary. A little different
look then what we worship
in on Sundays.
When it was all said and done, we only visited the mother of one of the girls that came with us. The mom is a Buddhist while her daughter has converted to Christianity. So Pastor makes this journey and many others like it in the course of a month to talk to the Buddhist families about the faith he and their children now embrace. The mom was very warm and accommodating and she and her daughter fixed us one of the best meals we have had while in Thailand.
The house, if you can call it that had a couple of mattresses and a small coffee type table. The kitchen and eating area were actually outside the in another very modest structure.
Outside, the only activity we observed was a chicken fight being fought inside a circle of about six or seven men. Most of the citizens were out working in the fields that surround the village.
Just a couple hours later we were heading back down the mountain. After all there weren't a lot of tourist attractions or shopping areas to check out. We made a couple of stops en route to take in some scenery, and get something to drink.
Arriving back home (at the home I should say, though it feels a little bit like home now) around 3pm, we were greeted by the kids, playing with the same string, marbles or ball that they were playing with when we left.
Watching and holding the kids, and reflecting back on our time up in the mountain, it isn't the first time we have seen people living with almost nothing, but it always amazes us that they don't seem to be lacking anything.
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