Mutiny over

The mutiny is over for most, but for the families of those killed this is just the beginning of a long ordeal to deal with what has happened. Many will speculate as to how it could go so wrong; about fifty bodies have been found and the search is still on. You can read about this in Bangladeshi newspapers - see the links in my last blog below.
Pray for the children, wives and families of those killed that they will not, in addition to the loss of a father, a husband, a brother or a son also lose their own lives to grief, vengeance or hate.
Peace and order has been restored for most, pray for the peace of those who now grieve such losses.

Mutiny

Today the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR,) a division of the armed forces, mutinied for better pay and for autonomy - their officers are traditionally from the army. There has been fighting in Dhaka and tension in at least one other BDR camp.
In the late afternoon it looked as if a mutually acceptable solution had been found, but negotiations resumed at 9:30 pm because the BDR would not surrender for fear that the army would not honour the general amnesty declared by the prime minister earlier.
This is not a conflict that effects us a great deal in this part of the country, but it is a cause for prayer that the government will be able to maintain law and order.
If you want to get the latest Bangladeshi news first it is often available on bdnews24.com. If you want more in-depth news you should try The Daily Star.
I will go to bed and sleep, but before that I would like you to join in prayer for Bangladesh and all the people who feel they don't get the recognition they deserve. Pray for God's provisions for all, for justice for the oppressed and for a willingness to sacrifice not through dying but through living for others.

Too much old money

Money seems often to be a problem, most commonly because people feel they don't have enough. In an article, 'Withdaw false cases against JNU students' in The Daily Star on Wednesday, 11 February 2008 it was evident that there can sometimes be too much, too.
Agitated students from Jagannath University demonstrated for eight issues of which the last was a "demanded [for] removal of the Bangladesh Bank branch from the campus which pollutes air by burning old currency notes beside the campus."
I am sure there is a good explanation for this, but it is hard to imagine that there is that much old money to burn. You can read the entire article by clicking on the headline above.
If you have a better explanation, please leave a comment on this blog.

Dr Simon Sircar

The church of Bangladesh today, Sunday, 8 February 2009 mourns the death of Dr Rev Simon Sircar who died this Sunday morning at about ten thirty. We mourn with and pray for the family who grieve the loss of a husband, a father and a grandfather.
At the same time we praise God for the gift He gave us through Dr Simon Sircar. Dr Sircar was probably the greatest preacher of our time. For twenty two years he headed up College of Christian Theology in Bangladesh or (CCTB). Before that he served as a pastor in Immanuel Baptist Church in Dhaka. Dr Simon Sircar was the first Bangladeshi doctor of Theology.
Simon Sircar was known widely because of his extensive preaching ministry in churches of all (protestant) denominations. Many people testify to having met the Lord through his preaching and most Christians, at least in Northern Bangladesh will have benefited from his teaching and if not directly then most certainly from teaching by Dr Simon Sircar's students at CCTB.
Here at LAMB several Christians testify to the influence Dr Sircar has had on their faith and on how God used him to bring them into and closer into fellowship with God.
It was appropriate that the texts in our church today on Sunday Septuagesima were Jeremiah 1 about the anointing by God to speak His word to us. The second text was as appropriate from Phillipians 3 about the message Dr Simon Sircar preached, the message of the "righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." (NIV) The last reading was from Matthew 25 about the talents and the faithful servant who used the gifts of God and was rewarded with Heaven. Simon Sircar was such a servant. He is now sharing his master's happiness.