Chilln’ In Bangkok

Just before departure. Leaving her was hard.

I am posting from Suvarnabhum Airport in Bangkok, Thailand.  You might want to get the Thai version of  “Hooked on Phonics” tapes before you try to say the airport’s name.  One hour to Minneapolis, twelve hours to Tokyo, seven hours to here, where I have a seven hour lay-over until morning and then a one hour flight to Phnom Penh.  Anyone who does this kind of travel regularly for Kingdom building is my hero.  I am somewhat of a travel wuss.  I don't sleep on cars, buses, or planes, so I alternate between being groggy and being grouchy.  Right now I am groggy.  Grouchy is just around the corner.  Air travel is amazing but draining.

I find some things about air travel mysterious.  Why is the 1/8 inch that my seat goes back for reclining luxury a safety hazard on take-off and landing? Who buys from the Sky Mall magazine in my seat pouch?  Who invents some of the stuff Sky Mall sells –

Along with the junior cheerleading and wrestling team.

like the Kitty Washroom Cabinet that looks like a cabinet except for the big hole where the cat goes in to do his business. How discreet. Your company will never know where the smell is coming from. How about the canine genealogy kit so you can do the Roots thing with Fido. Imagine your pet’s joy at finding they are the great, great, third cousin, twice removed to Lassie.  And the amazingly necessary kitchen helps.  How about the $50 deluxe bagel slicer? You’ll never be so barbarian as to use a bread knife on a bagel again. I almost bought the electric carrot massager. Who doesn’t want tender carrots?  We just have too much time and money on our hands, which leads me back to some more serious thoughts about this trip to Cambodia.

As much as I like to poke fun at American consumerism (including my own), many of its side effects are not fun. Asia seems to be a region where a huge wave of western consumerism and decadence hit with much greater force than the small waves of Christianity.

Consequently, this region is infamous for its sex trade.  Money, sex and power have a grip here in ways that feel very sinister. I know it is not more sinister than back home. I know our culture is equally perverse, but some practices are much more open here. Prostitution is common-place and the child sex slave trade is very active. Our (US) sexual immorality is almost omnipresent, but we try to make it look sophisticated in many places. Here it seems laid bare.

This became obvious to me quickly.  In the airport I stopped two gentlemen to ask where to go to eat. They seemed very friendly and spoke broken English. One of them told me to follow him and he would take care of me.  I asked several times for reassurance that he was keeping me in the airport which he affirmed, though I don’t think he understood.  He started leading me out of the building toward the parking ramp.  I asked where we were going.  He said we had to drive one kilometer and he would take care of me.  He promised to get me beer and women.  He seemed quite certain that I wanted both, and insisted that I would be very happy with the women.

It wasn't so much the offer that struck me, as it was his demeanor. It seemed so casual and his nature seemed so cheerful that it spoke of a normalcy of this kind of hook up.  There was nothing clandestine about it.  It didn't need to be. It's common and it is common for men like me to partake when they arrive. East meets west to buy and sell sex. As Christ-followers our job is more than just condemning these realities. Christ has already condemned them. It is our task to move against them in very real redemptive and life-giving ways.  To do this we must connect the dots with the worldview we embody in our everyday lives.  Organizations like Life International, Closed Door Ministries, and Women at Risk Ministries are a few of the organizations Blythefield Hills Baptist Church supports that fight on the front lines in this arena.  However, we all fight everyday by the way we live our lives moment by moment.  Our lives tell a story, and it is either a story of life or a story of the world that is ultimately a story of death. What is the story of your life? As you follow me and Life International through Cambodi, think through your own story and what it tells the world around you. What is God calling you to?

Please pray.  Two hours after I land (about five hours from now) I will go teach 125 or so Cambodian pastors. Most speak no English. Most do not own a bible. Our team feels in way over our heads. That's how Kurt (the head of Life International) likes it, because we are totally dependent on God doing His thing.

ps. I made up the electric carrot massager. There is no such thing....yet.