The real Ja Rurat

I don't think I have done a good job of describing Ja Rurat, the first of the two slums I work at each weekend (and the one dearest to my heart.) Some folks have made comments about how the kids seem clean and the area doesn't look THAT bad. One or two folks have asked if this area is a 'true slum,' or if that is just a phrase used by the team that ministers here.

I can't add the sounds or smells to this blog. It's hard to get photos of the green, brackish water flowing across the sidewalks throughout. I did try and get a few photos to give you a little better sense of this community.


When J visited, afterward, he spoke of how hard he was hit when we parked at the entrance into the community and the first thing he saw was a mountain of garbage and refuse. I am so used to it, that I don't even notice it. The narrow passage in, is just to the left.

There are no streets. Just a concrete walkway that winds all the way through it. There are no yards. What you see here is what it is like all the way through. "homes" are all connected, and they face one another across a narrow walkway, maybe four feet wide. It is seriously like a maze, and I have not been all through it, by any means. There are hundreds of homes. These crowded conditions and the fact that vehicles can not get back in here, make fires, like the night before our Christmas party, potentially very deadly. Each year, fires wipe out several slum communities in and around Bangkok and lives are lost.

Again, homes on each side, and lots of twists and turns. We are in summer here, so temps are in the mid 90s with high humidity. With these cramped conditions, there is no breeze, and there sure is not any air conditioning, so it is stifling hot.

Each week, this old woman is near the area where we where we work with the kids. She carries all her belongings strapped to her back and in these buckets. By the way, there is a large more open area right around the "community center" where we meet with the kids, and folks will bring motorcycles back in on those narrow walkways and leave them parked here. This is the only area inside big enugh to park motorcycles. There are many parked outside the edges of the slum.

It is my deep hope that as we continue to work with the kids, we'll make inroads with the parents. Today, two mothers stepped in and helped the children as they colored a Bible story coloring page. To me, that is a big step. My great goal is to one day see a house church planted in this community. More than anything else in Bangkok, my heart is with this place and these people.