Ruth Center was formed from YWAM Thailand’s outreach among the elderly living in the slum communities. We met Noi, the leader of this center, a dimunitive but wonderful Thai lady who loves the elderly and has been working among them for about a decade already. She shared with us how the center started, and how three of the staff would visit the elderly in the slum communities daily, and how the elderly were given craftwork to do so that they could earn some money. While she was briefing us some of the guys were helping Steve repair some tools to be used during the construction work.
We walked to the home of the elderly. The tasks were to remove the rotted floorboards and replace them with concrete composite ones; replace the rotted plywood walls with better wall material; and make a pavement just outside their door. We found we could only start the demolishing and removal work but could not complete the floor or the walls. Thankfully they would stay elsewhere with friends. We hope to finish the tasks the next day so they could live there.
We had our lectio divine at 7.15am at the bar. It has become our hallowed place. Far enough from the view of prying hotel guests to give us the privacy we needed. This morning the phrase “the God of Jacob protect you” stayed with me. And indeed during the course of work there were four incidents but no accidents, thank God, but mere abrasions or getting wet with swampy slum water. The Lord was there to protect us from harm.
Steve was the key guy who ran the construction program which usually does a project a month. Without him we could literally do nothing. But with him the building project became possible.
This was a tiring day. We urbanites were not used to carrying heavy stuff, stooping down to remove rotted plywood and nails, and using construction tools. However some of us were pretty skilled, and what they lacked in experience, they overcame with enthusiasm and an eagerness to learn.
At the end of the day we downed our tools, packed up for the day, and left before the rain fell and the Bangkok notorious traffic hampered us as we neared Sukhomvit.
All we wanted was to get clean and to search for our dinner. We all ended up in Terminal 21.