How Much Stealing Does One Take?
Today I talked to a local about renting a house for Gee & her little family to live in. The local lady, Nit, knew about Gee's predicament living with her aunt-in-law who takes 500B a month rent and gives them the ugliest room. Gee has been wanting to move for months, now. Nit, the lady with the house, agreed to rent the whole house for 1,500 Baht a month, a real bargain. I have been ill for over a week, so I couldn't talk to her earlier. I'm still ill with bronchitus, but now I'm on medication, so I feel better.
I went to Gee's house to tell her the good news about the house, and to help her move. (You don't call first here, that is a weird idea to Thais.) No one was home, but I saw my pants hanging out to dry in front, along with some of our hangers!
I knew Gee had been stealing from me before, things would come up missing, and knowing the proper cultural way to deal with it, would not confront her, but ask, "Have you seen my......" Many times that worked, sometimes I would get most of whatever she had stolen back. Sometimes not. I have a long list of the stolen items, the ones I've noticed, anyway.
We have helped Gee so much. I usually buy things to help her when we go to the big stores at Phuket. We have taken her son to an expensive hospital when he seemed to have health problems. We have taken her places, taken her out to eat, taken her son out to celebrate his birthday, given her gifts, and plenty more.
I had hoped that when she professed Christ, she would stop stealing things. She had a lot of bad habits, like not showing up to work & not calling to tell me first. Those were annoying, but I could live with it.
When we went to go help her move in and I saw my pants hanging there, (this was the 2nd time she had stolen or "borrowed" them,) I felt so sad, realizing the stealing hadn't stopped. I suspected it hadn't, but I wanted to think the best of her, I guess. I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt.
Our Thai partner Ning just thinks we're dumb. But I rest in the fact that we always tried to act in love. If I had done something ugly, I would have always regretted it. I am still hurting, but believe that God allowed me to see & understand that it is time to let this person I care about go her own way now. We've prayed about it several times today already. I really like Gee and it makes me sad to finally come to the point of confronting, and with confrontation, probably never seeing her again. Things like this are very typical here, but it doesn't make it any easier to deal with. I feel so sad.
I went to Gee's house to tell her the good news about the house, and to help her move. (You don't call first here, that is a weird idea to Thais.) No one was home, but I saw my pants hanging out to dry in front, along with some of our hangers!
I knew Gee had been stealing from me before, things would come up missing, and knowing the proper cultural way to deal with it, would not confront her, but ask, "Have you seen my......" Many times that worked, sometimes I would get most of whatever she had stolen back. Sometimes not. I have a long list of the stolen items, the ones I've noticed, anyway.
We have helped Gee so much. I usually buy things to help her when we go to the big stores at Phuket. We have taken her son to an expensive hospital when he seemed to have health problems. We have taken her places, taken her out to eat, taken her son out to celebrate his birthday, given her gifts, and plenty more.
I had hoped that when she professed Christ, she would stop stealing things. She had a lot of bad habits, like not showing up to work & not calling to tell me first. Those were annoying, but I could live with it.
When we went to go help her move in and I saw my pants hanging there, (this was the 2nd time she had stolen or "borrowed" them,) I felt so sad, realizing the stealing hadn't stopped. I suspected it hadn't, but I wanted to think the best of her, I guess. I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt.
Our Thai partner Ning just thinks we're dumb. But I rest in the fact that we always tried to act in love. If I had done something ugly, I would have always regretted it. I am still hurting, but believe that God allowed me to see & understand that it is time to let this person I care about go her own way now. We've prayed about it several times today already. I really like Gee and it makes me sad to finally come to the point of confronting, and with confrontation, probably never seeing her again. Things like this are very typical here, but it doesn't make it any easier to deal with. I feel so sad.
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