True Value

(Note to Reader: This is another in our series of “River Crossings” blogs, written while we were in Thailand (2009-2011). Enjoy!)

Today I’d like to give you a little geography lesson. We live in an area of Bangkok that is absolutely full of Japanese businessmen and their families. This is a good thing, because we work mostly with Japanese, and Japanese businessmen are not poor. Our little duplex pre-dates their arrival and sits humbly in amongst all the fancy high rises. To illustrate this point, I must say that I did some hand-to-hand combat with a GIANT cockroach last night. Actually, I went into battle gripping some kind of can with a picture of a lemon on it that shot out yellow goo. I’m not sure who won the battle because after I had trashed the kitchen, I ran upstairs to hide.

Anyway, we have been interested and amused to watch a new little outdoor mall being built at the end of our street. It’s called “Japan Town” and now that it’s opening up, we find that it sports several upscale coffee shops, Japanese restaurants and the like. Also there is a “True Value” store.

If you’re as old as I am and have lived in the USA, you might remember the joy of going with your dad down to the “True Value” hardware store on a Saturday morning to buy a fan belt, check out the new John Deere tractor or  sight in a rifle while catching up with all the “Guy Gossip” in town.

Now this “True Value” shop is a real franchise, but even the manager can only refer to his store as a “Too Wall-uu” store because of the inability of the Thai language to accommodate either “R”s, “L”s or most  certainly the letter “V”.

Within the walls of this small store, we were intrigued to find a nice little array of overpriced Pyrex dishes, pet toys and... a couple of post hole diggers! I’m left wondering WHO would be motivated or even able to dig a hole in the concrete jungle of Bangkok, but...

OK, now let’s keep walking perhaps another hundred yards, where if we’re agile enough, we can dart thru the traffic and cross a major street. There we enter the largest slum in Bangkok named Klong Toey. When I say “Slum” it’s not what we refer to as the wrong side of the tracks... this slum has thousands and thousands  of people trapped in gripping poverty, with frequent murders, arson, mafia, drugs, AIDs, you name it. They have little to no access to good education, health or hope, much less post hole diggers.

We love Bangkok more and more each week, where there is almost immediate access to more things than we can imagine, but is that because we live on the ‘upside of the street?’

I’ll have to say, WHAT is my “True Value”? Is it to plant a lifestyle/culture... even religion that only a privileged few people can access, or is it to show the universal values of the Cross to all God’s creatures (with the possible exception of aforementioned cockroach)? I have to ask myself, HOW do I live? Do I really need a post hole digger, or should I cross the street and change one life for the better? Shall I work with Japanese who can possibly change the world with their influence? 

Here’s a cheap advertisement: We got to see the movie, “Blind Side” this week, and it’s definitely worth seeing... It’s about this very thing. I hope it wins an Oscar.

Have a great week, Marsha

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21) "