Christian In Bangladesh

Happiness

2011-02-10T20:20:00.005+06:00

It has been over a month since I returned to Bangladesh. At the school I feel up to speed again. There are new children to get to know, there are new dynamics to fit into and there is evidence of growth in both students and staff.
In the teen group the teens have received me well. It is good to fellowship with them, and to see how they continue to contribute in church and in our own fellowship. There is a new generation of boys who are starting and we hope the girls will follow soon.
My time in USA, Canada, Norway, England and Denmark was fantastic. Reunion with family and friends was reassuring. Time to relax and see life from another perspective was a great and the reminders of the many people who pray for LAMB and for me was a real blessing.
Someone put the attached picture on the door to my office. The promises of easy access to the happiness available in Denmark might be hard to fulfil, but I'd love to share true happiness if you like. If going to Denmark remains an elusive dream you might chose second best; come see a happy Dane in Bangladesh.

From Minneapolis, USA

2010-09-01T19:44:00.003+06:00

"We would do well to seek a new appreciation of the inarticulate many who make up the body of the Church. They do a large share of the praying and pay most of the bills. Without them not a preacher could carry on, not a Bible school function. They are the flesh and sinews of the missionary program. They are the private soldiers of the Lord who do most of the fighting and get fewest decorations. The big stars of the Church get a lot of their glory now; the plain Christians must wait until the Lord returns. There will be some surprises then."
A. W. Tozer as quoted in The Life of A. W. Tozer by James L. Snyder

While we probably wouldn't use the word 'soldier' today, the truth is still that the work is carried by the many who pray and pay for the work other missionaries and I have the privilege of doing.

I have been reminded of the many who pray and support the work at LAMB through six weeks of visiting USA and Canada. It has been refreshing and encouraging. You have taken me into your fellowships and families and reminded me that we are many who work together - under God.

I am indebted to all of you; Thank you.

Ruth and Boaz

2010-05-31T21:31:00.003+06:00

The woman in the photo is closely following the hired hand who is gathering the rice from the field after harvest. It was evident that she was running to be right behind him in order to gather as much as she could.
When I asked another woman who had been with her in the field, she told me they could gather between six and seven 'se-er' close to as many pounds or three kilos of rice in a day.
I explained that there is a story about what she was doing in the 'Tourat', the Old Testament, and asked whether the labourers would ever leave any straws for them on purpose.
This 'Ruth' laughed at the idea, the owner of the field would be very upset if anybody did.
I guess what Boaz did in the Old Testament is still surprising today.

Visa

2010-05-22T08:42:00.005+06:00

Praise God for a visa for 2010. Our dedicated staff at the office in the capital Dhaka finally got my visa for 2010 this Wednesday, 19 May. While this might sound backwards, the practical implications of this is that I am now free to leave Bangladesh again. While the application process was running I would have needed special permission to leave Bangladesh, now I can come and go - or at least go.
I have planned a home assignment from July through December this year. My family and I were looking forward to the first Christmas together in nine or ten years. My new visa expires on 26 December 2010. This leaves me with a choice to either return to Bangladesh before Christmas and apply from here, or risk not being able to return until another work permit and visa can be issued. Given this year's experience, that requires a little bit of faith and a great miracle by God.

Bangla New Year 1417

2010-04-15T08:16:00.002+06:00

Happy New Year to all.
It is good to be able to celebrate the new year; it started with a storm that blew off roofs and killed four people in Bangladesh and over fifty in India according to media reports.
The storm blew down trees and all my mangoes but the roof stayed on my house.
During the day we celebrated with a procession, a fair and a cultural show.

Work Permit

2010-04-11T17:27:00.002+06:00

I am grateful to all the staff in our Dhaka Office and the HR Department for the work they have put in to getting my work permit for 2010. Thanks to all of you. I am also grateful to the investigating officers who gave a good report on me and to the people handling the application.
Most of all I am thankful to God for providing in good time for me to apply for a visa so that I can leave on home assignment this summer.
God is faithful.

Hosanna

2010-04-01T09:11:00.001+06:00

The Easter week is here and we have started celebrating Christ's victory over death. As the congregation walks around our village we sing, 'Hosanna, hosanna, the Kingdom of Peace has come.'
Every night throughout the week there will be worship services in the church and on Easter Sunday we end the celebration with a meal together; we don't end there, every Sunday we continue the same celebration of Christ the King.

Its a sin to kill a dog

2010-02-26T13:48:00.003+06:00

The poppy was unable to move as it lay just across the path from the enclosed bathing area behind the hospital. The mother and twin poppy were nearby watching as it lay whining in pain.
I couldn't make myself kill the dog, not least because of the big brown eyes staring helplessly at me. As it was only a matter of time, I called our maintenance department; a group of good people doing low jobs, including those that are considered bad by some.
Mr H, a Muslim, came with me and saw the dog and agreed that it would die but said it is a sin to kill a living being.
I asked about the colleague who had done it in the past. Mr. H informed me that he had been unwilling to do so since one of the last dogs he had killed had come back to visit him in a dream.
Mr H called the medical director who is a Christian. To him it would be a sin to take medicine from people to put a poppy to rest.
Next came another doctor, this time a Hindu, who suggested we take the poppy somewhere else where it could die in peace, it was better that way than committing the sin of killing a living being.
Next came a foreign doctor who, though she is from a country where euthanasia is practiced, didn't herself support it and so was unable to assist.
Regardless of who we were, we were unable to kill the little dog.

Total Solar Eclipse

2009-07-22T22:46:00.003+07:00

From Total Solar Eclipse

This morning we were all surprised at the splendour of the eclipse of the century. We have been longing for rain, but when I woke up to the sound of rain falling on my roof I was worried that our prayers had been heard just one day too soon.
As you can see in the photos there were some clouds, but we could see the sun except twice, first it was eclipsed by clouds for almost a minute and then the it hid behind the moon.
We could not have hoped for a better view of the eclipse.
My Ayah told me the story of how Ghona demands that the Sun repaid the loan she took when creating the Earth, the humans and all the other things in it. The Sun will never be able to make the final payment and so Ghona has her punished.
All Hindus, she said, plead with Ghona to release the Sun again. My Ayah admitted that she herself had stopped her cooking fire as a concession to that story when the Sun disappeared. She has heard a modern explanation of the phenomenon involving the Moon passing between the Earth and the Sun, she said but nobody in the village believes that. She has known the story since she childhood, and I'l have to concede that it did work again today.
I will go back to praying for rain.

No ghosts only evil spirits

2009-06-29T23:07:00.002+07:00

Six year old Victoria turned my attention from 'The Last Mughal' by William Dalrymple with the statement. She and two friends were playing dominoes on my floor - building towers and discussing life.
At first I was shocked and asked her where she had heard that, but like all good children she was too loyal to tell, and when I had caught myself we talked about belonging to God and not needing to be afraid.
That was when my good Christian friend and neighbour Sprint who is also six gave me the second shock of the evening, 'I used to be afraid,' he told me, 'until my parents took me to the local which doctor who put an amulet around my neck. Now I am not afraid, but my [older] brother is still a little afraid.'
'Oh.' I managed to respond, not wanting to set him up against his parents.
The children continued their conversation with the two girls asking Sprint about when he had seen Jesus from his chest up in a cloud while they had been praying. The discussion was matter-of-factly and discussions ensued about whether Jesus' hair was long like that in the picture on Jonna's wall or shorter like in the Jesus film they have all seen.
They all agreed that there was a heart on his chest; not the popular one we usually draw, but one the shape of a fist with blood dripping from it. This is from a poster many Christians keep in their houses to ward of evil.
It was a rare moment of insight into the beliefs of my neighbours and friends through their children. I can reassure you that the names have been changed but am less sure there is much reassurance in there being no ghosts around being that there are still evil spirits.
Earlier today I received a phone call from a friend who had received a letter threatening him to move away from where he lives and has always lived - or face the consequences. The letter came in the mail but was not signed. When I reminded him that he would be protected here he replied, 'The laws of the country protect me, but the laws of the religion I left are clear about the consequences of leaving the faith.'
I will reassure myself that I have been baptised into the family of God and had the sign of the cross on my chest and my forehead as symbols that I belong to the One true God.
Pray with me that the children - and my friend; whatever the evil they may face will Know the power of the Almighty God who has overcome All evil.

There is Life in Bangladesh

2009-06-14T21:39:00.006+06:00

Last week when my gardener invited me to visit his home church today for the baptism of twelve new believers I didn’t think I would go. Sunday is a work day and I don’t encourage (read; ‘allow’) my teachers to take time off on school days. As it is I only have one class on Sundays, and that with a co-teacher. From my gardener’s perspective the excuse didn’t really work. He ended up with support from my director and so I went.

I had planned on going by bicycle – it is only thirty minutes from here and I need the exercise – but then yesterday I was told the head of the church – the GS, was coming by in a car and invited me to join him.
We were due to leave at half past eight from LAMB so I had plenty of time for our monthly birthday celebration at the school which started at twenty to nine and finished in an hour. Church started at nine and we got there just in time for a light snack and tea. When the service was over at twenty past two we had been at it for over three hours. Nobody was troubled by the timing, and I have been here long enough that I impressed myself by not being bothered by it either. I’ll leave it to those who are so inclined to sort out when things happened and stick to the more interesting ‘what.’
I am not going to guarantee anything about the following as, apart from the sermon and my two minutes worth, everything was in Santali, a language I do not know.
The visitors, including myself, were invited to bring greetings and so we did. These included the clergy, the church politicians and representatives from two NGOs, one of which had paid for the feast afterwards the other being me. I didn’t realise until after I had had my turn that I wasn’t there as my gardener’s friend, but as the LAMB representative.
The first thing that happened after the introductions was a couple who were accepted back into the church after church discipline. They didn’t look too repentant, and the male part was an active participant in the church afterwards. I am blessed with not knowing anything about the story. The idea is that they are now forgiven so I really shouldn’t know; and don’t.
The sermon was exactly twenty two minutes from six before the hour until twenty seven past? It was a good sermon, the preacher who works at LAMB, started by saying he was going to read the text for today but was going to preach from Matthew sixteen. That’s not true, he started by praising the congregation for participating well and encouraging them to continue to come every Sunday so that the GS might be motivated to fund a bigger church building. The main point I took home from the sermon was that we can all be like Peter – perhaps not be too bright, but we can be used by God if we will let Him. (The sermon was in Bangla which I do understand.)
After the sermon, and before communion, there was to be baptisms. Two families from the village who have resisted the gospel have decided to become Christians. I would like to think that my gardener friend has had a part in this, but nobody took the honour for it, at least not in a language I could understand. Since there was a 'real' pastor there, the congregation also accepted three previously baptised Christian’s from another church into this congregation. They had been looking for a fellowship. We only call it sheep stealing when it is the other way. Besides, I have come to be rather fond of sheep stealing because it often means someone who is looking for money (rather than God) leaves one church and becomes part of another. In order to do so, he will have to go through some sort of Baptismal classes where he might hear the gospel again. He will then hopefully learn that becoming a Christian is not about getting rich – even if it is about God looking after his sheep.
Yesterday somebody called me and introduced himself with the following sentence, “I want to become a Christian because I need money.” He went on to explain how I would give him a job if he became a Christian and that many people do that. I told him that becoming a Christian would give him lots of trouble and no wealth and that he should try to find some of these people who have become Christians and rich to find out how they had done it, since I couldn’t help him. I can’t think of anybody who has become rich by becoming a Christian, but I know several Christians who have had their share for problems – my friend the gardener is one of these; he is an old man who doesn’t always have enough of anything in Maslow’s pyramid, not for himself, nor for his wife or children. No, that is not true, there seems to be genuine love between him and his wife. Her eyes were as bright as the sun and that in spite of her needing a cataract operation within the foreseeable future.
Sorry, I got sidetracked from the service, there were twelve new believers four little children, three not so little children an old widow and two sets of husband and wife, then there were the two toddlers whose parents took the opportunity now that the pastor was present to have their children baptised.

We aren’t quite done yet, but we did get ready for communion. It was an opportunity to see four pastors; the congregational pastor who has very little training and doubles as my gardener, the pastor who has responsibility for a greater area with several congregational pastors under him, then there was our former pastor at LAMB who is more senior again in some capacity and the GS who is the head of the church. They took turns giving out the empty cups, the oblate, the wine (rose water) and 'sitting out.' If there was anything that showed who was more important it might have been in the reading which my gardener didn’t do. Reading also required good young eyes as there were no electric lights in the church. (There were no candles either that would have made the heat unbearable.)

When everybody had been served, two of the pastors suddenly disappeared out the front of the church, I know from a photo shown later, that they went some ways into the village to find an old lady who was too weak to come to or sit in the church. The lady really needs wheels.
The last ceremony in the church was for a couple who had been married in a secular ceremony and now were blessed in church; a girl who might have been their daughter looked to be about eight so it was about time. (Couples who do not get their parents’ blessing to get married often run away and then get a church blessing once the marriage has been consummated.)
We were all ready to leave when someone remembered that the wives of two of the visiting people might also want to be introduced so we took the time to bring them up front and have them remind everybody who they were – as in who they were related to or perhaps how they are all related. It is a great pastime for many here to go through each other’s pedigree.

I had not been bored for a second in church, it probably helped that our former pastor had asked me to bring a camera, and called me up front to document every part of what happened, but also because I had time to reflect on how the congregation was alive and involved. It was great to be reminded that there is Life in Bangladesh.
I was also impressed by the relationships between the sexes. We sat on opposite sides in church, but there was room for all. The pastors were all men, but the men and women worked together at the feast afterwards, at least my gardener and his wife did. And they talked to each others as friends.
By the time we got to the end of the service I had passed my camera off to a boy of perhaps twelve. He was keen and did a great job taking photos.
I had time to enjoy the day and rejoice in what God is doing in one little corner of His kingdom in Bangladesh.

Lichu

2009-05-23T19:51:00.004+06:00

This might not be the conventional spelling of what is possibly the best fruit in the world but it is worth sharing our blessings with others. God has certainly given us a fantastic treat.
One of my colleagues' daughters who goes to a boarding school is home on holidays. She invited me to come visit. When her mother asked what she was going to feed me, she replied 'Lichu' ['Li' as in list, 'ch' as in church and 'u' short and aspirated in a way I can't match to another English word.]

As we arrived, two colleagues and I, they were cleaning the seeds for next year's rice, and I got to help a bit. Then we were fed the lichu and tea. As we were about to continue our round to three other families from the school who live right there a wind blew up with the promise of rain.
We hurried home. As I savour the lichus and enjoy the relative cool of the evening we are still waiting for the promised rain.
Next come the mangoes...

Family everywhere

2009-05-06T19:47:00.002+06:00

I went to Greece to spend Easter with my family; my brother and my parents. It was a great time because we know we belong together. It was good to reconnect and spend time together,
When I came back home, it was definitely like coming back to family here in Bangladesh. There are so many great people who make up for not having any biological family nearby.
Tomorrow I am going to Dhaka for a WMPL Field Conference. That is much like family too. I look forward to spending a couple of days with other missionaries talking about what God is doing in various places, to be refreshed and to be encouraged to continue in the work God has given me here.

With our hands

2009-04-26T17:09:00.004+06:00

One of the highlights of of my week is first grade writing. The twelve pupils are keen to learn and work; they have the energy and enthusiasm of a hundred wild elephants.
The result isn't always as colourful as here but it is often hard for them to stop once they see what the result will be like.
On each 'leaf' they wrote something they can do with their hands. There is much good to be done.

Easter in Greece

2009-04-25T16:03:00.003+06:00

After a holiday in Greece I am back at LAMB. It was wonderful to spend time with my family; parents and brother in Athens. There is so much (rubble) to see. Everywhere you look there is another pillar, column or piece of an ancient statue testifying to how old the place is.
The Greeks can boast of the oldest democratic constitution in the world - more than two thousand years old. It didn't include women and slaves, nobody is perfect. (They have changed it since.)
In Dubai, on the way to Athens, an electronics show offered to take a three dimensional photo of me and save it in a square of crystal glass. It was impressive, but it was nothing like the 3D statues the artists made in Greece around the time of Christ. The (remains of) old buildings and statues were truly impressive. The 3D photos in Dubai were a little expensive anno 2009. I reckon it would have been expensive in 9 AD too.
It was a great way to celebrate my mother's seventieth birthday.
Easter Sunday we participated in a Sonrise service at Areopagus, where Paul spoke to the Athenians. There wasn't quite the crowd I imagine would have been there in Acts 17, but the message was still about salvation in Christ.

Easter

2009-04-03T11:36:00.002+06:00

I'm going on a holiday to Greece. You can see photos from my trip by clicking here but not until such times as when I have taken photos and had the opportunity to upload them there.
Leaving LAMB School for two weeks seems like a treat, and it is good to be able to leave knowing that there are good colleagues who will keep it running and care for the children here.
In Greece I will meet up with my parents and my brother to celebrate my mother's seventieth birthday. She is still young and it was her idea that in stead of the hard work of organising a party we go on to Athens together and relax.
I will miss the teen group and the church service they will lead on the Saturday before Easter Sunday. They have been working on worship, prayers, Bible readings and a sermon with a power point presentation explaining the stations of the cross. I have put photos of their illustrations made in plastic beads on my Danish blog.

Horror

2009-03-20T22:15:00.004+06:00

When Karen asked for two days off two weeks after her grandfather died, I thought this was the traditional memorial service held by many thirteen days after someone dies.
The grandfather had died on the railway and, as is the tradition here, (almost) everybody that visited had lifted the sheet that covered his remains and seen the mutilated body. Though only nine years old, Karen had also seen the body.
On the second day of the ritual one of Karen's friends came to school saying that Karen had been possessed. I was called to talk to the children and asked what was going on.
The friend said the following. 'Karen smelled like she was possessed; of death and rotting [flesh].'
We talked about what other reasons there could be for the smell, and then about Karen being created and loved by God, and agreed that Karen belonged to God.
In the afternoon I talked to a colleague from the same people group (Santal) who explained that the ritual centres around calling the spirit of the deceased and appeasing it with sacrifices of food and wine.
I could hear the women ululate from my house and knew that the rituals continued to late into the night on the second day. Towards midnight a storm blew up and added to the fear of those present. (I know this from the testimony of a colleague who sheltered some of the relatives who had come to take part in the ritual.)
When I asked Karen about what had happened, she told me of her fear when 'the spirit had taken hold of her.' I don't think the makers of horror movies could have imagined it worse.
I asked Karen, and her cousin who is also a student at the school, whether they knew that God loved them; the cousin said he did, but Karen said no. I asked whether they knew that Jesus was stronger than the all spirits, again the cousin said he knew, and Karen that she didn't.
Some will question the truth in this story, please do.
I request your prayers for the children for whom this is what happened; pray that they will know that they are loved by God and that He is stronger than all that might otherwise scare them. Pray also for their families that they all may know the Truth and be set free.

Mutiny over

2009-02-27T17:51:00.005+06:00

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

2009-02-25T22:34:00.002+06:00

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

2009-02-12T21:13:00.003+06:00

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

2009-02-08T20:23:00.005+06:00

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.

Planting season

2009-01-31T21:18:00.009+06:00

It is the time of the year when; no, it is one of the times of the year when the farmers are busy planting their fields.
The country undergoes a transformation from dirt brown to light green. It is fascinating to watch both the change and the labour that goes into this, the most important activity done in Bangladesh.
The farmers provide food for everybody. If the rice crop is good, everybody eats. If it isn't, many go hungry.
In this photo the life giving water is lead to a field far away. (There are more photos if you click on the one shown.) Over the next couple of months we will watch as the rice grows, the colours darken and then when the rice ripens we will watch as it brightens into yellow and harvest. Then there will be another planting season in April or May.
I hope to be able to show you the fruit of this labour.

Good news and bad news

2009-01-27T21:39:00.001+06:00

The good news is that the present head of the government has expressed 'embarrassment' at misconduct in her own ranks.

Another news item is that 50,000 cases filed against members of a certain political party and 70,000 against another will be reviewed. This will be done because the filing of the cases or their verdicts might have been politically motivated. (The Daily Star, Tuesday, 27 January 2009.)

The good news is that if you belong to the first political party there is a political likelihood that you will get away with it. The bad news is that if you belong to the other you probably won’t.

The challenge for the present government is to prove the fear of the bad news wrong; a little more 'embarrassment' will go a long ways towards showing that the good news is that there is justice for all.

Please, Most Honourable, rise to the occasion; and to the rest, please pray.

It's the time of the year when

2009-01-18T21:51:00.003+06:00

the countryside is transformed from this

by men like these

to the green and beautiful place we know as Bangladesh.

At my door today

2009-01-12T20:18:00.004+06:00

I didn't know until today, but Chappo, like Bimol, had arrived yesterday afternoon. They both come from 'my' village and are neighbours, but they had not travelled together. They both wanted to see a doctor and came via the only person they know at LAMB - me.
Bimol stayed at my house and we spent the evening together talking about his family and my recent visit there with friends from Denmark. He shared about his concern for his children; their education and the engagement of his oldest daughter. We talked out and he went to bed while I was still preparing today's lessons at my laptop.
Chappo stayed on the veranda in front of the under-fives clinic. Because she is a woman she couldn't have stayed at my house anyway so perhaps it didn't matter that I hadn't seen her. We couldn't have talked much anyway; her village Bangla is a challenge, to say the least, for me to understand.
Chappo has come almost every month for several years now. She has a chronic illness that requires her to take medicine every day. A former missionary pays for her medicine and travel every month. (400-500 Taka; GB£ 4-5, US$ 6-7 or DKr 30-40) This has made a tremendous difference in her life. The first time she came, Chappo looked much older than her 50 or so years.
Bimol didn't stay for lunch as his back pain didn't require much other than pain killers and the compulsory worm medicine we seem to give all patients at LAMB - I don't think they are related. He wanted to get home as soon as possible.
Chappo came to the school to find me after she had seen a medical assistant. There was something not quite right with her heart sound and a senior doctor had been called upon to see her. Chappo understood as little or less about what the medical assistant had said as I did of her Bangla; she did understand enough to be afraid.
I was able to find a staff member in the out patient department who made sure Chappo got seen and reassured her as best he could.
The doctor took Chappo off of the medicine that so changed her life after her first visit to LAMB; perhaps the abnormality of the heart rhythm is a side effect of the medicine. Before she left on her four-hour return journey, Chappo came to the school and thanked me for the help I had given her over the years - her gratitude is hereby passed on to the former missionary who has paid for the treatment.
She didn't need my advice, she just needed someone to listen to her fear and encourage her hope in God. Then she left on her own.
Chappo is facing the realities of death - please pray for her. I know there are millions like her, but Chappo was the one who came to my door today.

Thank you Md Ahmed

2009-01-06T20:19:00.003+06:00

After almost two years under a caretaker government led by Md Fakhrudin Ahmed Bangladesh today has a democratically elected parliament. The enormity of the achievement is hard to overstate. There is a world of difference between what would have been and the democratic elections that took place on 29 December 2008. Md Ahmed and his team of advisors have diligently worked to bring to justice the corrupt and to ensure free and fair elections for a country so proud of the freedom it gained in 1971.
I don't think any two year period in the history of Bangladesh has done more for democracy and freedom; many corrupt politicians have been brought to court; unjust systems have been changed; transparency in politics has been improved; new voters previously excluded because of cast or creed have been allowed to vote and today a democratically elected government was sworn in.
All of these changes have been accomplished by the diligent work and uncompromising effort of the Chief Advisor and his caretaker government since 11 January 2007. It has been possible only because Md Ahmed had the support of the armed forces and of the grate majority of people in Bangladesh.
There is reason for praise, there is reason for hope.
Thank God for Md Ahmed and pray for the newly elected Government.

Eid Mubarak

2008-12-08T19:00:00.004+06:00

Eid greetings from Bangladesh. Tomorrow is the second most important - or perhaps it is just the second most celebrated - Muslim festival of the year; Qurbani Eid. The day is celebrated in commemoration of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son, and that God sent a ram in the son's place.

In the market just outside LAMB all are in a 'festive mood' the papers will say tomorrow. And it is true. It is evident in the bustle around LAMB that people are happy. Families are together again and that is good.

Tomorrow the celebration will including sacrificing a goat or a cow. For those who can't afford one there is no condemnation. You can share up to seven people to one animal, and for those who are really poor there is the share that comes from the tradition that the sacrifice is divided into three parts; one for the host, one for neighbours and friends and the last one for the poor.

This year Qurbani Eid falls in the week after final exams in schools all over the country. The school year here is from January to December. So many will be relieved that the exams are over and, like Abraham, that they passed the test. For the students there is the hope that they will reach the next level. Be 'promoted' from grade four to grade five and more tests. For Abraham that he will be promoted to the ranks of the righteous.

The man in the middle here is selling perfume; it is special perfume produced without alcohol. He explained to me that it is sold only on this night and that we need to smell better on Eid. As a true Bangladeshi, hospitable to the core, this was followed to an invitation for tomorrow.

I find myself praising God that the Test is complete, that we celebrate the Substitute who took our place. The righteous Abraham is worth remembering and it is worth modelling our lives after his obedience. But there is so much evil in me, in us, in the world that without someone to take our place there would just be another test after this one and promotion from grade five to six next year or worse still; failure.

Praise God this is one exam we don't have to pass.

So many people belonging at LAMB School

2008-11-25T22:14:00.002+06:00

It is awesome to think of all the people who are a part of LAMB School, and I don't mean just the teachers and students. At a party on Monday, there were at least three people missing - not counting four coming in December. This means that with spouses and children we are more than forty people at LAMB School.
I give thanks for that, and for each one of the man who contribute to the school.

Two more Christmas Cards

2008-11-22T13:18:00.004+06:00

Some of the boys, with a lot of help from some of the girls, managed to finish the last two Christmas cards today. Have a look at the cards and send an email to christian.lamb 'at' gmail.com if you want to buy some. Don't forget your mailing address.

Bangla B

English G

In business

2008-11-21T18:37:00.008+06:00

I didn't ever think I would be doing this, but the photo you see here is of a post card we hope to produce and sell to raise funds for the teen group at our local church. The cards say 'Shubho Borodin' or 'Merry Christmas 2008'.
The postcard was designed by the girls in the teen group - the boys weren't as efficient, but if they get one ready, it will be added later.
We would like to sell them for US$ 1.50 for the first and US$ 0.25 for each additional copy. This include postage anywhere in the world. There isn't really any good way of paying for this, so if you know how to do that, please help out.
If you don't and still want a Christmas card, send an email with your mailing details to christian.lamb 'at' gmail.com and you might just get a card anyway. (You will have to change the 'at' to an '@'.)

Seize the moment

2008-11-19T07:13:00.000+06:00

As I woke up to the second to the last ‘normal’ day of the school year and started with a moan about the fact that all the time I got between a group of visitors who spent four days at LAMB and the painters whom we hope will paint the new building and scrape all walls and ceilings in the old before also painting them was a literal twenty minutes while I was teaching a science class it dawned on me that we are tremendously blessed at LAMB School.
The visitors were an inspiration and they came because they support the work we do through prayer and giving.
The painters haven’t started – it was the ‘mistri’ (the foreman) who came to talk about starting on Saturday and we have room to move around, partly because of good colleagues elsewhere at the project.
At the school we seem on top of the exams that will start on Sunday. There are new teachers coming next year, and two have started even before the ones they replace have left.
So, on this Wednesday morning my gratitude goes to God who is faithful. I might moan again before the day is out, but at least I have captured this moment.

Treats of Bangladesh

2008-11-16T21:22:00.001+06:00

Some of the treats available in Bangladesh can be seen if you click on the picture to the right of this article. Have a treat.

A branch that won't break

2008-11-13T21:25:00.006+06:00

That is what a friend of Troy's told him today. I don't know the friends name and it doesn't matter since Troy isn't really called Troy either. Troy is no longer a new believer, and it is encouraging to hear him tell about how people come closer to God because of him.
Today's friend asked Troy to pray for him. When Troy asked what for and heard that it was that a childhood sweetheart would divorce her husband so that the friend could marry her he said he couldn't.
Troy has obviously learned a very important lesson about God. While God is faithful and hears our prayers, he won't give us all the things we ask for; especially not when getting them would break His own commandments.
The friend was shocked - he wanted it so - and how could Troy know that that was not going to be within God's plan.
That was the question Troy had for me; but he ventured to tell me his own story of a dream about two broken branches in a tree that he was climbing. The dream which had repeated itself ended with a third that held his weight and arrested his fall.
The first branch was when Troy had tried to save his family by looking for a job in the capital and returned more broke than when he left. The second was when he came back home and after a few weeks was arrested for fourteen hours because some police officer needed to arrest someone and found him handy.
He told of the peace he had felt as he remembered his dream and knew that the next branch would hold.
When, after this his pastor told Troy that God must love him when he let him go through so much trouble, he knew that he wanted to be baptised.
Some time has passed since then and the question is now; how does Troy and the rest of us know when to get of the branch we are sitting on?

The poor at my door - what happened

2008-11-09T23:32:00.003+06:00

The truth is I don't know were this is going. As with so much 'good' we just don't know whether it will bring anything GOOD. I just found out that Thomas never went back to work at the brick kiln. I hope he and his family still eat, and that he has found someone to work for who will treat him well.
The harvest season has begun in our area and there should be work for all so that none will have to go hungry.

Daily Poverty Busters

2008-11-01T20:40:00.002+06:00

I have added a link to a new blog with ideas for how to make a difference for the poor.
The blog is a result of the tension between realities and the standards of Isaiah 58. It is an attempt at turning thoughts of despair and frustration into something anybody can do.
It is not an intellectual site and all the ideas must be measured and tried against common sense and the reality in which you live. They must be tested against the greatest commandment to love the Lord your God and your neighbour as yourself.

The poor at my door

2008-10-25T23:41:00.002+06:00

This evening Thomas* came to my door again AGAIN. It has been a while since he was here so I guess I shouldn’t be too upset but I certainly wasn’t too happy. What can I do for him? Is he lying again? What difference does it make? whether I help and whether he is lying?

I listened to what he said – that he had worked for thirty days, but that his manager had told him not to come back for seven days. Now, three days further down the road the family went without food again AGAIN. Why his father wasn’t taking part in the governments 100-days work programme that all the poor are part of – he was drinking. Why he didn’t have money after three days without work – they only paid sixty taka a day. Why he had been asked to not come back to the brick field where he had worked – don’t know.

I know the owner so without thinking much about it I called him. I didn’t get to say anything except that Thomas was in my living room. The owner asked me to give Thomas the phone and after a few minutes of talking to Thomas, the owner told me that Thomas had not been turning up for work, and when he had it was often late – but he could come back tomorrow.

Why he hadn’t been going every day – because it was hard work. Why he hadn’t gone on time – it was early in the morning or not enough time to eat.

There is no doubt that the manager is less than pleasant to work for, that they treat Thomas like a dog and that he probably can’t do things well enough for them, but the owner of the kiln has given other children the chance before and helped them learn to drive a tractor, helped them get skills that would help them get good work elsewhere. I am sure the owner isn’t easy to work for either.

I asked Thomas whether he wanted to become like his dad or take the abuse he gets in order to make sure he doesn’t. I also ask him to make sure he was at work by seven tomorrow and every day from now on, since I had risked my prestige by asking that he get his job back.

I didn’t tell him I was as surprised as he that that is what the brick kiln owner did when all I wanted to know was whether Thomas was telling the truth when he said he had been asked to not come back for seven days.

I wish I could choose which poor people come to my door; if that had been the way it worked perhaps Thomas would have had the choice not to be one.

*(Thomas’ real name isn’t that; he is no more than 15 years old.)

How would you like your ants

2008-10-15T17:03:00.002+06:00

Life is full of little problems and sometimes they come in great numbers. A little over a week ago, or perhaps it was two, I got to my dining table and found that there were ants in the muesli I had been saving for special occasions. I shook the bag – that usually disturbs them enough to make them scramble for the little hole through which they had come. The only problem with this was that it also disturbed the content of the bag, seriously hampering any evacuation attempts they made. I ended up pouring the whole thing into a flat plastic container with a lid and when I couldn’t tease more ants out I folded a piece of soft tissue paper, put it in a corner of the container, put the lid on and left it in the fridge a couple of hours before I took the tissue paper and the few assembled ants out. I repeated the treatment once and think I got them all.

The ants, however, had been so encouraged by the supply of food that they were not deterred by the slight setback of the muesli and immediately went into the toaster.

Toasted ants are probably full of good protein, but I still prefer my peanut-butter-chocolate-spread-and-banana sandwich to be without ants so I cleaned it as best I could. It has a removable tray at the bottom which needed to have every crumb removed before the toaster was safe. Keeping a toaster free of crumbs is not easy so I ended up heating it up and then putting it on top of my fridge – the ants haven’t found it yet.

One should think that that my peanut-butter-chocolate-spread-and-banana sandwich would be safe now, but things aren’t that easy.

The bread box had a little hole in the corner of the lid and before long the bread was crawling in ants. Last time this happened my ayah baked the bread which made the ants crawl as far away, the only way they could; into the bread before they died from the heat. That is how I know I don’t like them in my peanut-butter-chocolate-spread-and-banana sandwich. I had learned my lesson and simply gently brushed the ants off into the sink and decided that from now on my bread would have to be in the fridge, even if that does make it hard.

There was now nothing left on my dining table that didn’t have a screw on lid on it – except for the powdered milk so that is where they went. I spent a good hour rescuing the poor ants from the milk powder. As soon as I tried to scope one out the surface would disappear under four others. I tried to keep track of the problem, but ended up minutely going through the whole container until every little wriggling black spot had been removed. Finally I had learned my lesson and there were no more ants on my dining table – except for when I was eating and they would scamper down from the ceiling to see if they could eat the toast out of my hands.

Then came the kitchen; they found a way into a plastic container and into a packet of noodles. Fortunately we could wash them right of the noodles before Alan, a shorttermer, cooked a delicious Chinese meal for me. I checked every other container on the shelf in my kitchen. I think the ants were watching. I didn’t find any more ants so I heaved a sigh of relief right until I pulled out the wooden ladle which was crawling in ants. They were eating the end of it. I silently blamed Alan for not having cleaned it. It is kind of nice to be able to blame someone, even when I have to be humble enough to not do it to his face. I scrubbed the ladle with soap and put it back in the tray. It was crawling in ants almost instantaneously again and it probably wasn’t Alan who washed it in the first place anyway.

I said the ants were watching for the next day they were in one of the containers I had checked. They were eating dry spaghetti. There were no ants in the bag when I checked the day before, but they had managed to find a weak point in the metal lid on my spaghetti tin, pried it open and gone straight through the plastic bag to munch on my spaghetti.

These ants are persistent and hard working. I don’t know what they will be in when I get home today. I just wonder if the ants pray as much as I do about life's problems and I pledge to be as diligent as they in solving the problems that I face.

Picture Quiz

2008-10-09T16:41:00.002+06:00

There's a picture quiz if you click on the map in the right hand side of this page. You can write your answers by commenting under each picture. Correct answers will be posted later.

Simple giving

2008-10-01T11:13:00.004+06:00

I always find giving difficult; there are the beggars whom I might give a few taka because it puts a quick end to the encounter, but I know that I have given them no lasting help; there are the friends who need a little money to get out of a sticky situation, and for whom I will go from being a friend to a benefactor if I help; and there are the habitual beggars who think it is always worth a try to see if they can get something and so ask.
On Tuesday I had the privilege of being able to help without any of these issues. A family of four; Ratan aged six in a white 'dhoti' with his sisters Ratna in class five and Shampa who was barely two years old and finally their mother whose name and age I don't know.
Ratan was the one doing the begging, wearing just a white cloth around his waist and a white thread over his right shoulder it wasn't difficult to see that this was a family in mourning - and being that he was the only male, and thereby the most senior member of the family - it was he who stated the facts; They were begging for food and money because his father had died seven days ago.
They were happy to share their names and what class they were in at school, and also that they were from Kalibari not too far from LAMB. The father had suddenly died - my guess would be a heart attack, but I don't think they know. I even got a smile from Shampa who was obvious too little to understand, and from Ratan who with a hole where his two front teeth were missing was clearly too young for the responsibility that had now become his let alone to comprehend it.
It was easy and a joy to be able to give - not that they will have been greatly helped - but they were obviously in a situation where they needed help, they weren't abusing a relationship to get something they didn't deserve and this wasn't a bad habit.
Please take a minute to pray for this family.

Praise and Worship

2008-09-27T10:59:00.001+06:00

The seminar in Lalmonirhat was a blast of an event. The participants enjoyed the music. The teaching was good and the programme well organised. The most encouraging thing for me was the number of dedicated Christians with a commitment to trusting in God. There was a Christian TV-producer and a lady who, in-spite of physical challenges (She lost her sight when graduating from high school.) has a job and sings on national radio. These role models helped all feel proud of being Christians and gave a sense that Christians can do well in Bangladesh. The most important part of their message, I think, was that they both praise God for being with them in the challenges that life brings – rather than pray that he would take them out of the difficult situations they get in. The blind lady did not ask that we pray for her to get her sight – though there were several people whose ministry is to pray for the sick. Her testimony was about a God who was with her.

I enjoyed touring the city during breaks with Liton and Elsie. (Friends at LAMB) Liton is from Lalmonirhat. In the past Liton has always talked about how everybody would call to him if he walked down the streets of Lalmonirhat, and invite him to come visit. He gave the impression that he was a bit of a celebrity in his home town. I never really took him seriously. As we toured the city together people called to him, invited him to come visit. He might not be a film star or a sports idol but there is no doubt that he is at least as popular as he said. We managed to visit eight different friends in less than three hours and there were many who were left out.

Praise and Worship

2008-09-03T18:07:00.002+06:00

This weekend a group of teenagers from LAMB Congregation are going to participate in a nationwide Praise and Worship Seminar a couple of hours north of Parbatipur. We leave shortly before work finishes Thursday and plan to return Sunday morning, except that I have to be back by Saturday evening for a farewell for a shorttermer at the school.
Please praise and give thanks for this seminar.
The music will be a mix of contemporary western worship processed and recreated as Bangladeshi songs along with genuine praise from the hearts of the youth here. Pray that we will not only feel closer to God at the seminar, but will walk away from Lalmonirhat in closer relationship with the one who is worthy of our praise.

A break

2008-06-13T13:51:00.004+06:00

It is the last weekend before the end of term. I have been tidying and getting ready for teen-group today. There is one more week to go before the summer holidays and more than ever do I feel the need for a break.
Yet, there is so much to do. At half past seven this morning a local believer came by to ask for a loan. She wants to buy a goat-kid and raise it so that in nine months time she can have more kids (goats) and start moving out of poverty.
The way out of dependency is long and filled with risks; a goat is so easy to steal, and so easy for her husband or son to sell if they need a little money. It has to be cared for almost like a child and all of that just so that the family has a little more food - in nine months time.
Twenty five years ago some poor families were given a piece of land to live on. It wasn't clear to everybody who the land belonged to or what right they had to be there – or perhaps it was - but today, these families live on land that is worth millions of taka and yet remain poor because they can't come to an agreement with the legal owner - a church - about who has the Right to the land.
Twenty five years ago it was a good gift that someone gave these poor families, today they are no better of because somewhere during these years they decided they wanted all the land for themselves; and the church decided it wanted it back.
I know these two aren't related, except for that they are part of poverty, but it is with fear and trembling that I give a loan (US$ 10, GB£ 5 or DKK 50) to someone so that she can buy a goat. Not that I doubt her intentions, not that I doubt her need, but I sincerely doubt that poverty will concede defeat and give her the break she so sorely needs.
May God have mercy upon her.

Surrender

2008-05-24T22:07:00.000+06:00

This morning I read an email informing us that one potential teacher candidate wasn’t going to come teach at LAMB School. I felt like giving up and wondered whether I had misunderstood God’s plan for us. I was wondering about times when I hadn’t searched God’s will as it seemed like He was telling us O Levels weren’t going to happen. As I entered the school grounds, I surrendered it and our future into God’s hands and prayed for the students who had been hoping to do their O Levels here. Before lunch one person offered to teach two subjects and suggested another teacher for a third. I still don’t know how God will provide someone to teach Physics, Chemistry and Biology but I know it is in His hands. Thank you God and thank you readers for your prayers.

Reasons why

2008-05-23T13:55:00.002+06:00

His opening remark yesterday was, “If you raise the monthly fee, I can’t pay it.” My reply was, “That sounds like blackmail.” I calmed down after that and started to listen.

By some mistake the finance department had charged a fee this parent wasn’t supposed to pay – probably my mistake. I assured him the mistake would be corrected and he was greatly relieved. He then went on to tell me about how he no longer was able to buy meat or even eggs for his children, how he hadn’t been able to buy them any fruit this season and how – having taken an advance to pay the older brother’s school fees at a different school meant he wouldn’t get any money this month. The extra fee we had charged meant his advance wasn’t going to be paid back until next month.

As I listened I went through regret, shame and then joy. Regret and shame at my initial reaction and then joy; Here is a father, who has put all his money into the education of his children, whose wife endures living in a lean-to up against her brother’s brick house so that they can send their children to school. Now the oldest daughter has her tenth grade diploma, the oldest son is a star ninth grader in another private school and the youngest is possibly the best in grade 1 at LAMB School.

What a privilege and joy that we can be a part of helping this family by educating one of their children.

Garu gari

2008-05-13T22:49:00.000+06:00

It has been years since I last saw a real live ox cart in Bangladesh. This one, unlike more modern versions, has wooden wheels as opposed to car wheels and is pulled by cows rather than by water buffaloes. When this specimen passed by on the road where I live I had to get my camera and take a picture of what is fast becoming an extinct means of transportation.

Chutney

2008-05-05T21:17:00.000+06:00

What capacity for feeling possessive the human soul possess. I sit in my living room, writing this as my ears are picking up every hint of falling fruit in my garden lest the neighbours should get there before me. This is the story of every Kal-boishaki storm in Bangladesh, when mangos are prematurely torn of the branches and brought down into jars of chutney. I don’t make chutney and wish I could leave the mangoes for my neighbours to pick up, but I would rather give them to them so that they know of my generosity – and perhaps returns a jar of chutney for the favour.

Hail

2008-05-04T12:09:00.000+06:00

Fortunately they are tiny little. None that we saw were more than 1.5 cm
across. Please pray that the Lord of the Harvest will have mercy upon the
farmers for this harvest of rice that has been awaited with so much hope.
When rice prices go up, the poor can't buy enough to feed themselves and
their families. We all knew that the devastation from SIDR was a loss to
overcome. There have been talks about a bumper harvest which would solve the
food crisis in Bangladesh for the time being. Last week the harvest began;
then came Nargis; we all prayed that God would not let another cyclone hit
Bangladesh. It turned South East and made landfall in Myanmar Friday night.
Now everybody is hoping that God will continue to protect the crop and the
people whom it is meant to feed. What do we pray; that God will teach us to
trust in Him? that God will make us into the people he wants us to be? or
just plainly that God will give us our daily rice?

Art Projects for Teens

2008-04-25T18:38:00.001+06:00

Karina and Christina taught the teen group how to make bouquets in teen group today. These beautiful flowers were made from old pop bottles and foam fruit wrappers. The teenagers had a wonderful time and did a great job. It is such a privilege being able to spend time with them.

If only

2008-04-22T21:30:00.003+06:00

When the poor labourers came to work the first day, one brought her son of about nine. His shorts were worn thin where there weren’t holes in them. Boys go around without but not at the age of nine.

A couple of days earlier I had gone to their house because the oldest son in the house was begging for food. I knew he might lie about their needs and sell any food I gave him, so I felt I had to go see his parents. It would be much easier just to give him money, but I couldn’t take responsibility for letting him get away with taking the food and money for himself; he might get habits like his father’s.

I asked his mother to come work for me, digging a new garbage pit near my house. On the first day, she and the three others working there made TK 125 each, the next day they were down to Tk 110 and then they didn’t show up. I know they don’t always eat, and I was desperate not to rip them off, while also not giving them charity. The boy’s mother and father came on the third day and managed to make TK 190 together, but that was only because I increased the rate by 25% and then rounded every possibly measurement up to the nearest foot. I didn’t want them to know that I was fixing the numbers in their favour.

The ground was hard, but giving in to the need to be charitable is not an option. There has been too many people creating dependencies and to many people who never took responsibility for themselves because of it. Yesterday two of the people who came the first day turned up again. I guess they were hungry. It was much easier with four than with just two but the dirt was no easier to dig than four days earlier, and even with all my creativity I couldn’t justify paying them more than TK 100 each.

That is just under three kilos of rice, and not enough to feed a family of six. Today I could pay them TK 120 each with only a little fixing of numbers. It is so hard to help well but I was thrilled to be able to do that. The rate I paid today was twice of what I had been told others would pay. Perhaps that is when they dig from fields where the soil has been tilled every season. The best advice I was given was to pay two thirds of the rate I use now, but that was for twelve feet under ground, and we are not even half way there.

Another colleague told me he wouldn’t be able to pay what I pay. He didn’t complain about pushing prices up. From much else he does I know he has concern for the poor. It is just that he and most others can’t afford to pay more. I have been given money by a church in Denmark that I am using so for me it is not so difficult.

I found a quote on the internet, said to be by one of the first Muslim leaders, ‘If poverty had been a man, I should have had him executed.’ It is so hard to know how to help well, but I think I already said that.

Over the weekend a colleague who had heard about the boy and his shorts went to town and brought a new pair for him. Two days later, as he came to get his parents after work he was wearing long pants – I guess because the shorts weren’t decent. The look on his face and the tone in his voice as he put the shorts under his arm, chatted to his mother and they left for home was worth a million.

If only helping was always that simple.

Happy New Year

2008-04-14T12:26:00.002+06:00

Today is the first year of the Bengali New Year 1415. It is celebrated by some with early rising to see the sunrise. I rose early, but that was only because a neighbour started hammering on his metal door at six.
My plan had been to stay in bed until the parade reached Bashundhara where I live and then join them for the cold rice called 'panta bhat'. In stead I got up and joined the preparations and the march from which I got the photo and others. (Follow the links on the right to the Danish and English School blogs.) We walked around the compound, went outside and across the rail road and had a dance at Bashundhara - where I got this photo. It is a great way of celebrating the beauty of Bangladesh.

On poverty

2008-04-05T21:46:00.000+06:00

Today I went for a walk through a village where a number of our students live. I was going with a message to one family, that they had used their last chance to pay outstanding fees. (Their monthly fee is Tk 150 or about US$ 2.20) This is less than 10% of what it cost the school to educate their daughter and about 25% more than what a labourer is supposed to get for one day’s work.

On my way I noticed how there was a brick structure going up where the said family lived – how then was it that they hadn’t paid their bills, if they had the money to build a brick house? Brick houses belong to the rich.

They weren’t in, that is, my student was there with her nephew who is just five months younger than she is, her sister – not the nephew’s mother and this sister’s newborn baby boy. I needed to talk to the parents so I went in to the neighbour’s house where there was much activity getting new straw for the roof – a necessity before the rain starts in June.

This family had just paid their outstanding bills and I was glad I didn’t also have to remind them about fees. The father works far away and though he sends money home, it is not anywhere near enough for the family to survive. I sat for a while listening to the mother talking about her work as a day labourer; She makes Tk 50 for a day’s work – half of what she has to pay each of the two men who will come to re-thatch the roof, and only slightly more than the Tk 35 she has to pay for a kilo of rice.

She told me how her cousin, who works at LAMB, had said he wouldn’t pay the school fees and then had done so anyway. She had been six months behind. Then she went on to talk about the youngest of her four children who is supposed to get Tk 100/per month from the government but to whom the teachers say that since her father has a job, they won’t give her anything. She wondered who then would get the money.

She told me of her oldest for whom she has to pay Tk 25 every time she goes to take a test and how it is more important to educate the children than to eat.

Then she pointed out that a third student’s toddler sister was playing in the yard; an L-shaped area of about four by four meters. The shape had been a square until she had allowed this family to build a house there when they had been kicked out from where they were living before. They had moved once before when the government cleared all the land along the rail line. The benefit she gained was that there now is an adult male living in the compound; helping to make life a little safer for the three daughters, her son and for herself.

I was served water and puffed rice as we talked.

While we talked the mother of the first family had returned from work and brought her outstanding bills. I was short with her as I mentioned how they had enough money to build a big brick house, but not to pay the measly Tk 150 we charged to educate her daughter.

It turned out of course that the new brick building belongs to someone else. Our student’s grandfather has sold about 60% of the land his daughter lives on. They were given some of the money as compensation, and had built the foundation and one room; today they told me they had no more money, and they still needed another 500 bricks as well as cement to build one more room and that is before windows, doors and the roof; not to speak of plaster for the walls come into the equation.

On the way out I went past one more student’s house; they have added two rooms to their brick house – to make it three rooms total, and hope to put on a roof one of the next few days. The bamboo and old tin was ready. The second grader pointed out which room she wanted and I was encouraged to see, that here was one family for whom life is getting a little better.

Teen Group

2008-04-04T22:51:00.000+06:00

Dipa taught the about the armour of Christ using Sweet as a prop when the
teen group went to Siraj Nagar to participate with another group in a
seminar.

Bina

2008-04-03T22:41:00.000+06:00

Tuesday before Easter one of my colleagues (not at the school) and her husband were watching TV when they heard moaning noises from their 12 year old work-girl. The girl had wanted to go back to her village and her grandmother since she had come about a month previously. It is very common that families send their daughters (and sometimes sons) away to work at a young age. This often solves two problems – the work-girls family have one less mouth to feed and the family the children work for have someone who can take care of little children or help with household chores. My colleague went into the room and tried talking to the girl who at first didn’t respond. It didn’t take long before she noticed that there was a ring of hair around the bed in which the girl lay. Someone had cut the hair and placed it in a band around the bed. When my colleague touched the work-girl to make her wake up, she felt a strange sensation going through her body and didn’t remember anything until almost three hours later.

When a friend of mine (I apologize for not using names, but some of the readers might recognise people) arrived at the home it was closer to midnight. The work-girl was on the veranda and the woman she worked for was sitting in the living room laughing and crying. A group of church people had gathered and were singing and praying in another room. My friend didn’t have to ask to get the story. He could see the hair for himself and noticed how beautifully it had been cut. Soon the church people arrived in the living room and started praying and asking the woman to say each other’s names, to hold and read a Bible and to say Jesus’ name. They were quite unsuccessful. The only exciting thing that happened was when the work-girl came into the room and they started shouting at each other; the woman shouted to get the girl out of the room.

After having failed, the church people decided to leave and prepare themselves better before trying to right the situation again. They came back after some time and realised that the woman had been sitting in a corner of the room. After putting her in the centre and laying hands on her and many more prayers had gone up the woman finally started talking coherently; reading a Bible verse, saying people’s names and even Jesus’.

The following morning the work girl was taken back to her step-mother and the village she had come from. On the way there she said, ‘my grandmother is happy now that I am coming back home to perform puja.’ (Puja is an act of devotion in Hindu religion.)

Please pray with me for this girl, her name is Bina.

Blogging in Bangladesh

2008-03-24T15:45:00.001+06:00

So that you may keep yourselves informed about what I do here in Bangladesh I have decided to start a blog. It will include stories, news and pictures from my life here. You can always continue reading the school blog for information about the school.