March 16, 2015

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Puppies, Pontoons and Pakistani Refugees…

I am in the middle of two worlds. It struck me hard on this day, as I was having a light hearted conversation with my daughter back in America. She and her husband had purchased a new pontoon boat and are looking forward to a summer filled with family fun on the lake… oh, and a new puppy too! Their family had just returned from picking out a golden-doodle puppy from a litter of warm bellied, fluffy balls of fur. She sent me pictures as I oohed and awed over my soon-to-be grand-dog!

An email from a new friend living here in Chiang Mai had arrived earlier that day. Pastor Ali and his family had fled from their homeland of Pakistan a year ago. The persecution they experienced as Christians finally became unbearable. Radical Muslims who read in their Qurans to “kill the infidels” take their religion of Islam seriously and believe they are doing the right thing by executing and tormenting Christians.

Today’s e-mail read, “Dear Deb and Wiley, please pray… there are over 1,200 Pakistani Christian Asylum seekers located in detention centers in Bangkok. My wife’s sister and her three teenage children will be arriving by train to Chiang Mai later tonight. We are looking for one room for them at the back side of (the local Christian Café). Please pray that The Lord Almighty will have mercy upon them. They were not able to bring anything with them. Your prayer is extremely needed.”

Extremes. One family is elated with thoughts of the arrival of a new puppy and a pontoon boat… while another family fearfully runs for their lives from the country of their birth, with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

What a world.