One Treasure At A Time: Dtor

She's 12 but she seems older. That's unusual, at least in my experience. The Thai are not large people. I'm 5 foot 3 inches and most of the time I tower over everyone, every female for sure. And it's not that Dtor is tall or even looks older. She just seems older.

It might be her subtlty. Even in a culture of gentleness, her quiet grace stands out from the other children. She's not pushy. Not giggly. Not somber, by any means, but just a bit more serious than the other girls.

It might be her confidence. Right from the beginning, Dtor made good eye contact with me, and seemed concerned about my well being, how I was feeling, how I was experiencing things. She was the one who took the best care of me during the day at the Zoo, making sure I knew the names of the animals, making sure I got water to drink. She stayed quietly by my side, even when all the others would take off to get a better look at the pandas, or the lion.

Maybe she seems older because of her more advanced English. Still not conversational, but good enough that she would at times attempt to talk to me about concepts, not just vocabulary. While the other children made helpful attempts to teach me the words of things....cat, flower, colours......Dtor would often search for words that were more abstract. That ability, and how it lead to one conversation in particular, will always be a moment of gold for me.

We were in the main room where I was staying at Hot Springs. This is a separate building, built by the Korean Methodist denomination and meant to be a place for people to stay on "retreat" at Hot Springs. As I've described before, my room was fairly large, probably 20 by 15, and with only my one mattress on the floor, there was lots of room for visiting and playing and dancing.

It was in the middle of one of these happy, noisy times that Dtor stopped and sat beside me. She indicated that she wanted to look at my Thai/English dictionary, and she spent a fair bit of time searching through it. I could understand. Often the words I needed, or at least I thought would best express my ideas, weren't there. Probably because the same ideas in English don't translate exactly into Thai. Language is tricky like that.

Dtor persisted though, because eventually she found what she was looking for, kept her finger in the page and tapped on my arm. I turned away from the rest of the commotion and said simply "Ka." It's an all purpose, non-translatable female tense word that, in that moment told her I was listening.

In a mixture of Thai and English, referring to the dictionary, she started by showing me the word for "bridge", and then...."You, bridge, me. You bridge my heart. Canada. Sponsor. You bridge." Throughout she kept indicating her heart, pointing to it, tapping on it, then open palm on her chest. It's where her hand rested when she was finished, her dark and beautiful eyes relentlessly locked on mine. And then a quick, slightly embarrassed smile.

For a moment everything else that was going on in that room pushed back and faded out. It was just me and this girl. And I was undone. There was no question as to what she was trying to tell me. She was clearly understanding that my being there, in Thailand, from Canada, bringing gifts from our church, our sponsors, was connecting her to just a whole lot of love. And that she felt it, she got it, and she wanted me to know.

I took her hand from her own chest and placed it on mine. Then I held it there with my hand, and I took my other hand and rested it carefully, gently on hers. Instinctively, she laid her hand on top of mine, and the connection was completed. We kept looking at each other for a moment, not wanting to ruin, by our clumsy attempt at words in each other's language, all that was being said so eloquently without words. The sound of that silent, wordless conversation of simple love was certainly the most unique song my soul has ever heard. No one has ever spoken to me so clearly without words before, not like this.

It didn't last long. It was strong enough in its brevity. But even in those fleeting moments, Dtor gave me a such a gift.
They're children. Dtor is only 12. But I wonder sometimes, if the harshness of the life she was rescued from, has been cultivated by God already into something deep and unusual. It's hard to tell. I was only with them for two short weeks. I hope to find out more when I go back. But I do know this. That I am changed. That if indeed I have been a bridge between Canada and Thailand, between Highview and Hot Springs, between the Sponsors and the children, then that has been an enormous privilege.

But more. The way they loved me was simple, uncluttered, and honest. And that changes my soul.

It's crazy, but there seems to be things God wants to teach me that He needs to take me half a world a way to learn.