The Street Cleaner and the Floral Shirt

The past couple of days (April 13th-15th) have been Thai new year here (also known as "Songkran"). It's been so fun to see how they celebrate this holiday- with chalk and water! They bring out water hoses, water guns, water buckets, and chalk and either drive around or sit on their "front porch" and wait for their victims. But the main goal is to wish people Happy Thai New Year by wiping a chalk paste on their face and then drenching them with water. My thoughts on this holiday? It's awesome!! And of course, Thai's are more than willing to soak a white-faced Westerner with as much water as they can find :) So, I always come out soaked, and have found that they somehow manage to not only get the chalk on my face, but on my neck, in my ears, and in my hair as well! :)

So I prefaced this post with telling you about Songkran, so that I can tell you a story. During new year, people wear these floral/crazy print shirts that they sell everywhere. They're awesome! Basically they look like those "unfashionable" Hawaiian floral print shirts that you sometimes see people wearing in the States. But here, they totally rock these shirts! And I love it! So one of my goals last week was to find the perfect floral print shirt to wear around. And so I scoured the streets with another missionary and a local Thai woman. And finally I found the shirt I wanted...but it was on someone else, a local street cleaner. So my first thought was, "Do you think if I gave her 200 baht, she'd let me have it?" Usually shirts here are about 150-180 baht (about $5-$6 US dollars). haha, I really wanted that shirt! As I joked about it, we came to a shop, and I became super-focused as I searched in order to find this shirt, and I did!!! The only one in my size! 

After I got the shirt, I was so happy, that I wanted to share this with the street cleaner wearing the same shirt. The local Thai woman that was with us began to tell the street cleaner how the moment I saw her wearing the shirt, I loved it, and joked about offering her 200 baht for it. The street cleaner didn't seem too impressed but of course I didn't know what they were saying to each other. So I opened up my bag and showed her the shirt, and she looked surprised, then smiled, but then brushed it off and quietly walked away. At first I thought, "Tough crowd. I thought she might at least get a laugh out of a foreigner desiring her floral print shirt!" haha! So I asked the Thai woman with us about it, and she said she wasn't brushing us off, but was surprised that we were even talking to her! 

The social class system in Thailand is still very much alive. Being a street cleaner is considered a dirty job as well as one that puts you out in the sun and makes you darker (Thai's think being whiter means you're higher class). This woman was lower class, and here a foreigner was totally tearing down all the walls and boundaries that made us different, so that I could share in the fact that we now had the same shirt! I wanted to go back and just love on her. To show her that she has value in Christ, and that He sees no "social class" but only hearts, and He wants her heart. 

More than anything, I wish I had gotten a picture with her, although I'm not sure she would have allowed me to. But I, we, can still pray for her. And so I ask that you would pray for her, and for all those wearing these crazy floral shirts, celebrating a new year, but really aching inside for new life. Pray for those in all social classes that they would hunger for new life in this new year. 

When I think of this beautiful street cleaner with her wacky floral shirt, I think of 2 Corinthians 5:17 which says, "This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun." May this be our prayer for the people of Thailand this week.  

A lovely Thai woman from Singburi

Watch and feel free to laugh at some Songkran fun :)