Fire eaters.
Last Saturday morning I sat and watched a group of boys with drums and fire. We were in a little dark community that was a pocket of poverty between numerous conveniently located skyscraper condos.
They were fire eaters.
We were a hot sticky gathering of Thai and foreigners. The boys wore shiny costumes and stood in a disorderly line beating drums. It all seemed a bit barbaric and ritualistic, all drumbeats with no music. Some women were dancing and invited us to join them. After a few drum beat sessions, there were some games, some snacks, and then of course the hanging about. Cold plastic water bottles were passed out and we were asked to sit again for another special treat from the drummers. This time one of them was shirtless, he had some stuff on his body and he glistened in the hot sun. The boy-man had a stick with fire that he danced with while the drums were beating. He stroked the fire along his arms, down his back and than he placed it in his mouth. Then he filled his mouth with something, held it there for a moment and finally sprayed the liquid out of his mouth onto the flame. A huge flame and sparks exploded up into the air. It was all rather amazing and hard to watch, I didn’t really watch much of it all. It was something that left me feeling cold and dark on that very hot sunny day.
The leader of the drummer boys approached me afterwards. He was proud of his boys and he told me that the youngest drummer, who was five, could handle the fire too. They had a trophy from a competition just this past month. I looked again at the boys who played and noted ritualistic looking tatoos on their bodies.. what have they have entered into? What do they believe and what will they believe as they grow? and how will they find what is true? They need Jesus right now.
They were fire eaters.
We were a hot sticky gathering of Thai and foreigners. The boys wore shiny costumes and stood in a disorderly line beating drums. It all seemed a bit barbaric and ritualistic, all drumbeats with no music. Some women were dancing and invited us to join them. After a few drum beat sessions, there were some games, some snacks, and then of course the hanging about. Cold plastic water bottles were passed out and we were asked to sit again for another special treat from the drummers. This time one of them was shirtless, he had some stuff on his body and he glistened in the hot sun. The boy-man had a stick with fire that he danced with while the drums were beating. He stroked the fire along his arms, down his back and than he placed it in his mouth. Then he filled his mouth with something, held it there for a moment and finally sprayed the liquid out of his mouth onto the flame. A huge flame and sparks exploded up into the air. It was all rather amazing and hard to watch, I didn’t really watch much of it all. It was something that left me feeling cold and dark on that very hot sunny day.
The leader of the drummer boys approached me afterwards. He was proud of his boys and he told me that the youngest drummer, who was five, could handle the fire too. They had a trophy from a competition just this past month. I looked again at the boys who played and noted ritualistic looking tatoos on their bodies.. what have they have entered into? What do they believe and what will they believe as they grow? and how will they find what is true? They need Jesus right now.
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