weekends
By Da Mama
Luang Prabang, Laos
Weekends at home are a time for the children to race up and down the right-of-way with all the neighbourhood children, who don’t need to go to school.
Weekends in Laos, are no different, apart from the space being smaller and the fact that the children don’t share a common language. Doesn’t stop them chattering to each other nonstop though!
ER2 was never going to smile for that photo – adults pokeand prod and cuddle her all day long, and when they give her a break, this new special friend is there following the big-person example! But really, they do have fun together.
Sundays for us generally mean meeting with others in a building we call a church, (or meeting them at the beach <wink>)
I’ve been thinking.
We haven’t “been to church” the whole time we’ve been away – but that doesn’t mean we haven’t sat with people and talked of things that matter to us, it doesn’t mean we haven’t listened to sermons (our six year old requested to re-listen to Ravi Zacharias’s message on Jonah as soon as we had finished listening as a family!), it doesn’t mean we left our faith at home.
Planning on spending three weeks in Luang Prabang, we decided to try to hunt down a church though. Wats there are a-plenty, but not one church that we can find.
What if there were a church here? I’m wondering how people who man a stall from early morning to late at night seven days a week would benefit from it? The ladies who sell us filled rolls are one example. They are set up at the market before 8am, late in the afternoon they move over to the other side of the street, from which they serve night market customers until after 10pm. I actually wonder when they do their washing and cook their sticky rice! What do they do when their baby frets and the three year old can’t do one more hour on the side of the road? What would Jesus mean for them? What would “meeting together with other believers” look like? Truth be told, they already spend all day in community – and I suspect they *live* community. SOMEONE picks up their older children from school and feeds them and puts them to bed. SOMEONE sometimes takes the smaller ones somewhere before the night market session. And they are friendly – so friendly. They congratulate every new Lao word I speak, they wave out if we are walking by, they almost feel like friends! How much of the external trappings we call church would have any significance for them? Is some of it either unnecessary or at least optional? What could church look like in this culture? (church being defined somewhat loosely as “the family of believers”)
These are the things I think about as I tend the fire and watch the children play.
Tags: children, God, postcard: Laos, recreation, tradition
rayres
Great questions, Rach! Loving all the photos of your beautiful children! Please do say a special Hi to Miss Tessa LJ from Mrs L;-)
what a shame we have to grow up and learn to be predjudiced
Jesus was right when he looked at the kids and said of such is the kingdom of heaven made (something like that)
my sentiments exactly.
especially the beach one
mwah X