Up, Up, and Away
Helping Reading Haters Become Reading Lovers
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
THONG (TONG) SEE
By Mary Moore Nance
7.2
1 “I used to have my name, but I lost it,” Thong See shared with me. She was using an interpreter. We were at the Social Services office in Rochester, Minnesota. Thong See’s people group were the Lao Tinh of mountainous Laos. They spoke the Lao Tinh language. This language was only a spoken language. It had never been written. Someone had given Thong See a piece of paper with her name in Roman letters. Although she treasured it, she had lost the piece of paper.
2 President Carter fostered refugees. The law provided five years of welfare funds for them. This money helped refugees from the Viet Nam war to move to America. Thong See’s family accepted this offer. She, her five children, and her son-in-law, plus a grandson, (a total of eight persons) came to America. That family had escaped Laos. They had found a safe place in a refugee concentration camp in Thailand.
3 The Walker family and our family helped Thong See’s family. John and I worked alongside the Walker family to care for them. They needed to learn the language, culture, and customs of the United States. We gathered Southeast Asians from our church group, including Thong See’s sister and brother and their families. We all rode in an old school bus to meet Thong See’s family at the bus station late one night. We all greeted Thong See’s family with loving hearts. We took winter coats to protect them against the Minnesota cold. Thong See’s family alighted from the bus. We noticed the family expected to be bigger in a few weeks. Kai, Thong See’s married daughter, was expecting her second child.
4 Thong See’s immediate family stayed that first weekend with the Walker family. Then they spent the immediately following week at our home. We gathered around our dining table for language study. I quickly learned that the oldest son had intense hearing loss. Later Mayo Clinic restored his hearing. I showed the family how to dress for the Minnesota winter. They learned that petroleum jelly on their lips protected against the dry cold air.
5 The son-in-law, Chanthone, was from a different Laotian people group. He spoke Laotian, a written language. He knew more English than the rest of the family. He was their mainstay leader. After I cooked the three Asian dishes I knew how to prepare, Chanthone took the helm of cooking. I took the family to the grocery store. I helped him find food they liked. The next morning, Chanthone cooked. John and I awakened at the opposite end of the house. Our eyes were invaded with the fumes from chili! Chanthone was cooking a Laotian breakfast! With familiar food on hand, our Laotian guests now felt more at home.
6 The next step was moving them into their rented house. Mattresses came from the trash dump of a local furniture store. This store gave me permission to use the mattresses. I carefully loaded them on top of my old Mercury car. I took them to the newcomers’ abode. We showed the family the details of living in a western house. In Laos, they had lived in a stick house mounted on poles. The family’s livestock lived in the pen underneath the elevated house. Their cozy American home was on a firm cement foundation. We showed them details of living with electricity and indoor plumbing.
7 When I took Thong See to the Public Health Department, they weighed her three times! They could not believe this woman in her fifties weighed only 72 pounds. TB was wasting away her body. She and I spent many days at the Mayo Clinic to meet her health challenge.
8 A few weeks later, a friend of mine had taken Kai, Thong See’s daughter, for a prenatal medical checkup one afternoon because I was busy teaching English as a Second Language at a public school. The doctor had not mentioned any signs of immediate delivery of the baby. Kai’s husband, Chanthone, had gone fishing.
9 John and I were resting that late afternoon. I had had a busy teaching day. John had had a busy day at his Student Work office. The phone rang. It was Thong See’s 8- year-old niece. She had lived in the States for awhile. Her English was some of the best in the extended family, but she didn’t use verb tenses. This little girl told me, “Kai have baby.” The verb tense was puzzling, but we knew enough to act quickly. I immediately grabbed two of John’s clean long-sleeved sport shirts, three clean bath towels, and a bottle of antibacterial cleanser. We then called the Walkers. We were out the door! We drove across town to Thong See’s house.
10 Thong See met us at the door with dirty string and paper cutter scissors in her hand. We suspected that the baby had already been born! We donned the protective sports shirts. I ran up the stairs. John asked me if he needed to boil some water. I yelled down the stairs to him, “No! The baby has been born! It’s a boy! He is breathing. Come and carry Kai downstairs to the car!” We wrapped the baby and placenta in the towels. I carefully kept the placenta on the same level with the baby’s body as I carefully held him. John later said that I made a good Top Sergeant in an emergency situation!
11 We loaded Kai and the baby into our car. Away we went, straight to the Emergency Room. From the time we received the telephone call until the time we reached the Emergency Room, ten minutes had elapsed! Kai had complications. The baby had gotten a bit chilled before we wrapped him up. With medical help, the mother and baby were fine.
12 Then we and the Walkers cleaned the place of birth.
13 We loved Thong See and all of her family into the Kingdom of God. Each member of her family accepted the everlasting love of Jesus!
14 Thong See had a new name: “Christian.” She is now TB free with her Father in Heaven.
“And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt.”
Deuteronomy 10:19 NIV
Permission for use received from the author.
WRITTEN REFLECTIONS ASSIGNMENT
Writing From Literature
1. Think deeply about your life and experience. Have you, or someone you know, experienced a life crisis? Write about it, warts and all.
2. Sometimes crises strengthen us and help us to know how to empathize with others. As we “feel with them,” we can know how to help them. Sometimes, crises only harden us. Think upon these possibilities and experiences in your own life and others, and write about it.
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About the Book
A Synopsis of Materials and Teaching Process:
Values-based stories, grades 5–22, three stories each level, address interest categories of adventure, biography, children/family, church history/religion, cross-cultural stories, history, problems/challenges, human relations, and missions. The first class session offers an inventory of each student’s reading experience, interests, and felt needs. Students indicate story preferences within the categorized stories. A graded story list aids teacher planning. In daily free class discussion, students use questions generated while reading and the thought questions provided with each story. “Appendix C: The Daily Class Discussion Assignment” helps thinking flow. The teacher assigns the Final Written Reflection for that day’s story and begins process on the subsequent story.
“Dr. Nance did not see a ‘truck driver’ who could not read or write well—she saw potential. I cannot really comment on the technical side of what she did, and I cannot tell you how or what she did—but whatever it was—it obviously worked. She transformed a truck driver who had done little reading into someone who finished his bachelor’s, master’s, and has now completed a doctoral degree! What I do know is that her kind spirit and gentle encouragement spurred me onwards toward a thirst for reading and learning all I can. The simple reality is this: the work Dr. Mary Nance has done … works! I am living proof!”
—Dr. Ashley Olinger, Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church, Williston, North Dakota
About the Author
Oklahoma born, Dr. Mary Moore Nance has taught in six countries. As literacy coordinator for Canadian Southern Baptists, she established Baptist literacy work across Canada. She has directed Baptist literacy outreach in Colorado for nine years. Mary, her husband John, and children Elizabeth and Matthew are career Christian workers.