Jim Larson's ThoughtsJim Larson's ThoughtsThoughts of a Christian pastor-missionary who works, along with his wife, to help women out of Thailand's sex industry Articles
Christmas Cards
2007-12-07 01:52:00 We've had a long delay getting our new web site online for products made by women at The Well. It has just now gone live, but has not been thoroughly tested. We have some cool Christmas cards that, if it's not too late, you might like to order, and help us test out the site at the same time. http://narimon.org/collection/stationery/ christmas If you've previously purchased cards from girl33.com, we already have your email address registered. If you've forgotten your password, you can have it emailed to you. More About: Cards , Christmas card
Why suffer
2007-11-25 17:15:00 Last week I sat in church next to Pong, 32, one of our newer students. Pong's husband died in his sleep 4 months ago, leaving her with 2 children to care for. Pong is Mae's aunt; Mae is the 13 year-old we snagged out of a bar a few months ago. It was only Pong's third visit to any sort of church. Grief counseling is a virtual unknown in rural Thai culture, and Pong has simply had to keep her head up and figure it out. Last week she cried hard. I can't imagine the despair she has felt through all this. She has a quiet personality, and seemed so hurt and vulnerable sitting next to me in the pew. As is my nature, I found myself wishing I could fix everything. It was only the thought of inappropriateness that kept me from giving a quick one-armed hug and saying, "Don't worry. We're going to take care of you." The sermon was a simple explanation of the Gospel, and included a couple of clips ...
Salvation through art
2007-11-16 21:45:00 I ended up selling X's painting for $15, or about 500 Thai baht. It's the normal going price of one "bar fine", the fee charged to customers to take a girl off the premises, and the way that bar owners with half a conscience rationalize their part in pimping women--they're just being compensated for the loss of an employee, and what happens outside is not their business. Never mind the fact that her salary is partly based on meeting a quota of usually 8 to 10 bar fines a month. Anyway, it seemed incredibly appropriate: for the cost that men pay to rob a woman of her dignity, we could give it back, in a very real sense showing her that she does indeed have worth, that she is wanted, that what she thinks and feels is important, that God intensely loves her and wants to spend eternity with her. X was naturally incredulous when I told her the price on the phone, and wanted to know who bought it. It was mostly a rhetorical question,... More About: Salvation
Her first teddy bear
2007-11-13 18:28:00 Pui didn't sleep well last night. I had asked her to call me in the middle of the night, but then forgot to arrange with her roommate to use her phone. Bummer. Living through two gang rapes in six months, one can't imagine Pui's fear of going on with life. Is this how it's going to be? Pui has a round, baby face. She speaks seldom, and has a soft, young voice as well. Today Celeste brought her a big teddy bear. I asked Pui if she had ever had one. She shook her head, hugged and held onto that bear like a little girl would. Later, Celeste took her to a park to just give her a few hours in a pleasant place, and said Pui didn't let go of it once. The other night as I was saying good night to the kids I told Sam, our 10 year-old, that I was proud of him. "What did I do?" he wondered. "You were born." He giggled. It struck me how much every kid needs that sort of reminder--that... More About: Teddy Bear , Teddy , Bear
Prang goes home
2007-11-13 17:53:00 Prang left earlier this evening for home. She had to stay here a few days to deal with some private matters. We prayed with her before the van came to pick her up, and she felt overwhelmed at the reality that her village project is really happening. "I can't do this," she moaned, sort of like Robert Redford's last line in The Candidate: "What do we do now?" We told her her job is to love Jesus. Here are a few images from her U.S. trip: Jimi Allen and Katharine Wagner were on the team that first met Prang in front of her bar 3 1/2 years ago. Katharine asked Prang, "Do you like working here?" Amazing how one question could go so far. With my mom and dad at an Illinois state park. With Michaela, Prang's amazing assistant, at the Sears Tower. More About: Home , Prang , Goes
So many tears
2007-11-12 17:46:00 --This post has been edited--I think I'd better not try to write these when exhausted. Today I was teacher, post-trauma counselor, detective and art therapist. The first 3 roles had to do with Pui's rape case. The art therapy happened with X, who did come today. Over the weekend she confessed that she has started working again as a dancer. It's 11:11 after an obviously draining day so I'm not going to write much. I saw a lot of hurt and tears today, not just with Pui but with others. I know about as much about art therapy as know about rocket science, that is, I get the basic idea but have no idea where to even begin. X turned out to be not as naturally artistically gifted as I had hoped. She started out drawing, but drew extremely tentatively, wanting to erase every line. We switched to painting, and she still wanted to lightly draw with her brush. I finally grabbed her hand holding the brush and sw...
Why this blog
2007-11-11 17:31:00 I want to come clean on this one. I don't do this to write interesting stories so I can get more readers and maybe then I'll feel it's worth writing a book someday. I don't write so that you will send financial support or even tell us what a great ministry we have. I'm not wired lke some that I respect very much, who faithfully labor in one area, serving those to whom they are called. When I see problems, even big, my mind goes to what needs to happen next to bring change. But while there are many things that need to happen in Thailand, ultimately I believe that what we need most is more people willing to give up everything and follow Jesus. Last night another of our girls was raped, our fourth case in 7 months. Most tragically, it was Pui, whom I wrote about here, and if it could be even worse, it was another gang rape, this time by 3 men. She is at the police station right now with Gai, one of our staff, and some oth... More About: Blog
X didn't show
2007-11-10 00:46:00 With my long story on X, the page doesn't allow for comments, and so far I can't tell why. So here's a short entry: X did not show yesterday--not a surprise, but of course disappointing. Her phone was unavailable, meaning she probably pawned it, meaning it's still likely she was not truthful about why she needed money. I'm sure we'll see her again. Changing the subject, Prang came back from the U.S. 2 nights ago, tired, glad to be back, but glad for the experience. And apprehensive for what lies ahead. She'll be here for a few days for prayer and training before heading home. If you didn't get to meet her, you might enjoy hearing her story that was broadcast on the Moody radio network this week. Start here, then follow the link. Prang's section is about 9 minutes into the program. More About: Show
X
2007-11-08 16:15:00 The saddest irony about child abuse is the fact that kids think it's their fault. Her name actually sounds like another letter in our alphabet, but I'm going to call her 'X' because of how she sees herself. X says she is 20. She was brought to us 3 weeks ago by another student. She had been working in bars but quit. She was obviously insecure and unhappy, usually keeping her head lowered, resisting eye contact and smiling only when smiled at. She came for about 8 days, then quit. Yesterday she came back, saying shyly that she needed to send 2000 baht ($59) to her mom and daughter ASAP. She said she had gone back and applied at some bars. She repeated what we've heard many times from other bar girls. "It's ok if I don't like it, as long as my family is happy." We're careful of course to not simply believe stories like this, but in this case I decided to take advantage ...
Losing battles
2007-11-03 02:55:00 We see battles won and lost. On Wednesday some of our students went to the restaurant where Pear is staying/working to try to bring her back to The Well so she could start school the next day. They were unsuccessful. I tried calling her mom but she was no help. We've had a lawyer draw up custody papers and will ask her to sign--not sure if she will because she wants Pear to make money for her. We may have to compromise or sell out a bit and offer to provide her ongoing support in exchange for letting us take care of her daughter. Praying about that one. Judy and I had a great time, however short, in Phuket. I'll post a couple of photos later. There were bars everywhere, and we ended up becoming friends with a bar girl who stopped us while walking past. Pim is 29 with a 9 year-old son. She says she recently broke up with her husband. She also talked about a young American woman she met a while back that we beli... More About: Battles
No rest today
2007-10-28 20:36:00 Written last Sunday night: You never know what you're going to hear on the radio in a Bangkok taxi. Mostly you hear pop music from Isaan, the northeast Thailand region where most construction workers, taxi drivers and bar girls come from. But sometimes there are surprisingly old Western songs. Today , on the way to send Gai's younger sister Jiap to the bus station, it was "Never on Sunday", by the Chordettes, 1961 (I had to look it up of course): Oh, you can kiss me on a Monday a Monday a Monday is very very good Or you can kiss me on a Tuesday a Tuesday a Tuesday in fact I wish you would Or you can kiss me on a Wednesday a Thursday a Friday and Saturday is best But never ever on a Sunday a Sunday a Sunday cause that's my day of rest I was running around all day visiting people and got no rest. One person that I saw along with Kristy, one of our International Mission Board workers, was Pear, our 13 year-old. Pear h... More About: Rest
Yet another victim
2007-10-26 11:57:00 This month we invited a few high school girls to spend time at The Well--most from other provinces including Uthaithani, which I wrote about here . One of the Uthai girls, "Pui", 16, had quit school a year and a half ago at age 14 to move in with a 29 year-old. She left him 3 months ago after he found a new mistress. Baby-faced Pui barely dared to speak to me before I asked her to sit and talk today. The most I could get out of her was a shy smile and a "yes" or "no". But since Pui was out of school, we had talked about the possibility of accepting her full time at The Well, with this as a trial month. I was 95% sure we were going to accept her, but wanted to get more acquainted first. I asked about her family. Pui's mother left when she was little and never returned. Pui has no memory of her. Her dad died when she was in sixth grade. Since her mom left Pui was raised by her aunt. ... More About: Victim
First time
2007-10-25 18:16:00 We accepted "Nan", another 15 year-old this week, along with her 19 year-old friend. Today she finished making her first set of cards, and brought them to Judy for approval. Judy looked them over and asked, "Have you ever made anything like this before?" "Well, I've cut paper before," Nan replied. "These are very nice," Judy complimented. Nan simply smiled shyly and walked back to her table. Later on she came up to Judy with a question. "How much are the cards?" "The retail price is 60 baht (about $1.75), but workers get a 25% discount." "Oh," she paused. "Because I was thinking maybe I could send a card to my mom." ________ Mae was so excited about her birthday cake that she could hardly concentrate on her work. We didn't ask if it was her first ever, but given that she only just reunited with her mother after many years... More About: Time , First Time
Next battle won
2007-10-24 15:59:00 I just got a call from "Mae" reminding me that she turns 14 tomorrow. I've written 3 posts about her here, here and here. A few months ago a mission team found Mae working at a snooker bar dressed in a mini-skirt. She joined The Well, but for a while we were concerned that she had strong walls around her heart. We even had a challenge going among the workers that the first one to get through to Mae would win a Mexican dinner--an expensive treat in Bangkok. As it turned out, we all won. Mae still has somewhat of a coarse manner, but has indeed warmed up to being loved. Tonight she had two requests--a birthday cake and a hug from "Mom and Dad"--Judy and me. Before hanging up I told her I loved her. As much as I enjoy Mexican food, her answer was incomparably precious. "I love you so much, Dad." We plan to visit the States next in 2009. The dinner can wait until then. More About: Battle
Fun with geography
2007-10-23 16:34:00 Ok, it's been nearly a month. I've found that if I get behind in the posting process I get overwhelmed and then don't write anything because so much has happened that it takes too long to write about it. So, to ease back in gently, I decided to just have fun and post this video I helped my daughter make for a school project a few months ago. At the time, YouTube was banned in Thailand for some unkind videos about our beloved king, but apparently that problem has been resolved. Hope you enjoy this one. More About: Geography
Beautiful burden
2007-09-25 14:19:00 One of many places dear to my heart in Thailand is a village in the Uthaithani province where 2 of our students come from. I had a chance to visit last week along with Celeste McGee and several students from The Well. As much as I love visiting these beautiful places with gorgeous people, these visits also add to my burden; seeing so many struggle with brokenness: children without parents, being raised by a poor relative; another young woman, dumped by her man, or caught in a cycle of abuse. Here are just a few of the precious folks of Uthai. This girl is extremely bright, top in her county, but quit school after 9th grade. The 2 girls on the left, both 16, have also dropped out, they say because of lack of funds. The one on the right is in 10th grade, with the help of a sponsoring church in the U.S. We would like to help many more in the same way. Of course boys need help as well. These guys stopped to visit late at night--boys w... More About: Beautiful
Jesus made them narimon.
2007-09-16 11:00:00 I've done all sorts of interesting things working with The Well, and last week I had the opportunity to direct a fashion photo shoot for our narimon brand, which we're beginning to use for our products. The name comes from a Thai word meaning ‘pure’, ‘immaculate’, ‘flawless’, ‘virgin’, ‘innocent’, ‘spotless’, ‘stainless’, ‘queen’, ‘fair maiden’, ‘beautiful girl’. We're hoping to launch a web site within a couple of weeks. Photographer Paul Cypert did a nice job, and our women were quite stunning, especially since I knew their stories. Here are a couple of samples, and I've put up a very rough site landing page at narimon.org . More About: Jesus , Made
Bound for America
2007-09-07 20:40:00 Prang will be visiting the U.S. from October 6 to November 6 to share her story and promote The Well, including the children's ministry and community development work she has begun in her home village. She will also be a featured guest at showings of the girl. photo exhibit, which features Prang when we first met her while she was working as a bar girl. Prang will travel with Michaela Weeks mostly in northeast Illinois and eastern Nebraska. To arrange for them to speak at your church or gathering, please contact us . More About: America , Bound
Upon this injustice
2007-09-02 04:13:00 Nearly 7 years ago, at Urbana 2000 , I attended a late-night worship event at the U of Illinois Assembly Hall. Just a few weeks previous I had returned from my second trip to Thailand. The purpose of the Thailand visit was to research the need for more outreach to bar girls--was the need really that huge, and was there really that little being done about it? Hearing and seeing a resounding yes to both questions, I had returned home with a clear sense of confirmation that God was indeed going to move us here. That night at Urbana, one of the worship songs was Delirious' "Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble" (full lyrics here). It's a rockin' song, and you can't beat screaming it at the top of your lungs in the round along with 18,000 others. Open up the doors and let the music play Let the streets resound with singing Songs that bring your hope Songs that bring your joy Dancers who dance upon injustice My mind began ... More About: Injustice
Mom stories
2007-09-02 03:28:00 One of the reasons we started The Well to reach families of bar girls, not just the women themselves, is the power that family has in a Thai girl's life, particularly her mom. Tik, 16, had to rush home Friday evening to her village to help her family. I wasn't clear on exactly why. A week earlier I had sat for a long time with Aw, Tik's bright older cousin, and Aw's mother, trying to convince her to join The Well. Aw had declined, her mother concurring, saying she had to fend for herself. Yesterday Tik called another student to report that now her mother is telling her to go back to bar work. When we first met Tik, she indeed looked like a young bar girl, 16 going on 25. Within days however we started to see a real girl again. She was the one at the beach who showed Mae how to look inside a jellyfish to find the starfish it had eaten. At the same time, she remains one of our highest risk students f... More About: Stories
The next battle
2007-08-28 19:19:00 A while back I wrote in this post and this one about "Mae", a skinny 13 year-old we found working at a bar who joined The Well after a good bit of persuasion. Now we're still fighting a second, bigger battle--the one for her heart. A couple of weeks ago we sent a team to visit Mae's village in Buriram. She had not been back for 3 years. Her 36 year-old father lives in a tiny rundown shack and drinks constantly. The morning the team left he asked our worker for money to buy another bottle of rice whiskey. We haven't met Mae's mother yet--she left her husband with Mae, and has been working near Bangkok as a maid. She promised to come visit the end of this month, but for the last Mae has been unable to reach her. Of course children react to such turmoil in different ways. Pear, another 13 year-old that I wrote about recently who has been essentially discarded by her mom, is a charming affection sponge.&nb... More About: Battle
Snake in the bedroom
2007-08-19 05:12:00 No, this is not a sinister metaphor. It actually happened last month when Matt and Abram were visiting from the U.S. but I never got around to posting it. Marquita discovered this little baby in her and Jaimie's bedroom. Abram was the hero that killed it with a shoe, because we were too chicken to catch it first and then find out later if it was dangerous or not. As it turned out it was a tree snake common in Bangkok that does have a bit of venom but is basically harmless to humans. The girls thankfully were more excited than scared. Just a couple days earlier, our coworkers Mike and Kay Killar had found a 10ft. python in front of their house. Ooh, 2 snakes in a week--some sort of symbolic spiritual attack? No, just life in Thailand. More About: Snake , Bedroom
Pear's new bunny
2007-08-18 18:13:00 Pear was very depressed so we kept her overnight for a couple of nights to keep an eye on her. When she saw Marquita's stuffed animals she wanted them all, and Marquita was kind enough to give away one of her most cherished companions, a pink bunny. For the next two days Pear carried it with her everywhere. This photo was so touching I had to post it, but have made it small to protect Pear's identity (actually "Pear" is a pseudonym, as are most of the names I use in these stories). More About: Bunny
Being Jesus
2007-08-18 17:58:00 My wife Judy wrote this: As Jim and I were praying for “June”, she begin to cry and her tears fell on my feet. “Wow, this happened to Jesu s “, I thought. “I get to do something Jesus did.” It was precious. A few months ago June had cried on my chest for a long time while I prayed with her. The next day one of our co-workers showed us a picture she kept in her Bible of Jesus holding a crying woman on his chest. June looked at me and said, "That's you, Mom, you are like Jesus." I then remembered that being like Jesus isn't just about being perfect or having his character, but it's about doing stuff He does. It is so simple but at that time it really hit me between the eyes. There is nothing better than doing what Jesus did, and the stuff He still does through us. I am so inadequate working at The Well. I can't understand policemen, social workers, co-workers an...
Junky Car Club
2007-08-15 00:03:00 I absolutely love this. I was asking Amy Brown for some youth ministry resources, since The Well has now found itself in that line of work, and she sent me to virb.com , where I discovered their Junky Car Club and got really excited. If it weren't before 5am, I'd even say ecstatic. The Junky Car Club is a car club whose members are learning to live with less so we can give more. We're a bunch of happy drivers that are politely rebelling against consumerism by driving junky cars. We have lived for 3 years without owning a car. For most of the past year we drove Leith and Carol Fujii's 30 year-old Fiat, one of the uglier cars ever made, and would proudly park it next to Benz's and Beamers at our kids' international school. The Fujii's came back but offered to turn the title over to us. However after getting stuck twice in the middle of nowhere with a dying alternator, I decided we do need so...
The road to innocence
2007-08-13 17:38:00 Pear said today she thought she might be pregnant since she has been feeling dizzy and achy for a couple of weeks. That is a pretty heavy thought for a 13 year-old. Even if she is pregnant, it's too early for those symptoms. I asked her how she would feel if it were true. “I don't know,” was all she could come up with. This weekend we visited the homes of 3 of our teen girls in the Buriram and Surin provinces, as well as Prang's home, or our “Buriram outpost”. Saturday night we stayed at 16 year-old Noon's house, met her mom, a number of aunts and one uncle. Men are often scarce in these rural villages, often working out of town, or sometimes dead or in jail. One aunt began telling us about her daughter who is working bars in Bangkok. Noon had mentioned her to us as the cousin who invited her to come work bars with her, but we haven't had a chance to meet her. The cousin's mom repo... More About: Road , Inno , Innocence , The Road
Hello Officer Kitty
2007-08-13 17:29:00 Thailand police have made international headlines with a plan to punish errant officers by forcing them to wear a Hello Kitty armband. Here's the New York Times story . I'm trying to picture a Chicago Police officer wearing one of those for spending too much time at Dunkin Donuts. More About: Officer
Another innocence lost
2007-08-09 16:33:00 When you look into the eyes of a young girl who has just been raped, it's like someone just slammed their fist into your chest. Your heart aches, you feel shocked and angry. You want to cry. Pear is an affection-starved childlike 13 with a gregarious personality. Her figure is not yet fully developed, and her curly hair usually hangs unkempt. Pear won our hearts the first day she showed up at The Well with one of our other teen students who had invited her. She had quit school during sixth grade, and before she arrived had been working at a karaoke bar, making a bit of money to sit and talk with older men. Pear's mom claims that she was uncontrollable, but we have observed no particular behavior disorder other than the normal result of lack of parental attention. Last night Gai, our new housemom at what is now essentially our teen home, called at about 9:30 to say that Pear had not returned home. Gai and other students spent the ... More About: Lost , Inno , Innocence
In the beginning . . .
More articles from this author:2007-08-04 06:33:00 I was explaining to Sam, 10, how one key in memorization is finding ways to connect new concepts with old, using humor, mnemonics etc. Quickly grasping the idea, he pondered out loud, "So everything started with one thought. I wonder what that was." More About: In the beginning 1, 2, 3, 4 |
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