EXPRESSIONS OF FAITH
Gifts for those who have all
By Elaine Masters
As we approach the annual shopping season, trying to find the perfect gift for the person who has everything, I think of my experiences with tribal people in Thailand.
On one trip, up a mountain in a bamboo village, we were given breakfast each morning by a cheerful former resident of Myanmar (Burma). We sat on the floor around a low woven-bamboo table, each with a bowl and a spoon and one common glass for hot tea.
"I'm a rich man," our host told us through an interpreter. "Last year, we fled the soldiers in Burma, my wife and daughter and I. We had nothing, only the clothes on our backs."
I looked around the room. No furniture. No electricity or electrical appliances. No car parked outside. What made this man rich?
He continued.
"Now, I have a water buffalo. My wife has two sarongs. We have a good house. We have a rice field and the crop was good this year."
For a host gift, I gave him six Tupperware glasses.
Next day, we had an extra guest at breakfast: the mayor of the village.
"Now that you have given me more glasses, I can really entertain," he said with a smile.
Another year, we encouraged three tribal boys to go to Bible school in Bangkok.
A Canadian missionary who took them under his wing realized their wardrobes were woefully small. He offered to buy them spare shirts.
"Oh, no," one boy said. "We already have shirts — one apiece."
When I take Americans on mission trips to the tribal areas, they are initially appalled at the poverty. Then, as they observe the villagers, they become puzzled.
"They seem so happy," the Americans say. "They don't know they're poor."
Indeed, many of the tribal people are content with what they have. They have more time than we do for their families and friends. They have no alarm clocks, waking when they are rested. It is only as electricity and television reach the villages that they realize, compared to the lifestyles they see on TV, that they are poor. Then they become discontented.
This translates well into the Hawaiian setting. We, too, are greatly blessed. Few of us are truly in want. All of us have ocean waves and mountains and rainbows.
Let's stop looking at the material things other people have and do what the writer of Hebrews said: Be content with what we have.
This Thanksgiving, let's truly give thanks.
Elaine Masters is a member of the missions team at First Presbyterian Church of Honolulu.
Expressions of Faith is a column written individually by pastors, lay workers and other leaders of faith. If you want to contribute, e-mail faith@honoluluadvertiser.com or call 525-8035. Articles submitted to The Advertiser may be published or distributed in print, electronic or other forms.
