Poverty and Hope

Most of my time is spent in the relative protected environment that is LAMB. Though we are here to ‘serve God by serving the poorest of the poor,’ the poorest are often far away. It may be that God has changed the situation for the ones who live near LAMB, a scarier scenario is that they do not have access to our services. Whenever I travel, often from the capital Dhaka to LAMB, the poor come much closer.

On one such recent trip, I was accompanied by a national colleague who was keen on being at the station early and so we had two hours to observe the life at the Airport Station.

The first people we noticed were a little family of four. As is custom in (rural) Bangladesh we engaged in polite conversation. The family was traveling the same way as us and both children were born at LAMB. The oldest, a daughter of four, was their reason for being in Dhaka. She had been diagnosed with a heart problem and they were now on their way home to raise the necessary funds for surgery. We did not ask what resources they have.

There was a steady flow of beggars passing by as we stood around our bags, some were old, some were disabled but a good number were young children. One old man with his mouth frozen into a kiss was selling soap bags. Convenient thread bags that would hold a bar of soap and could be hung around a tap so as to not fall onto the ground or into a drain. I didn’t see his stock diminish and when I bought one he informed us he would make Tk 2 for each bag he sold. He would have to sell 40 bags to make one dollar.

Many of the young children came by, asked for money or candy and went on their way, but one boy of about ten scooted past without stopping. On his leg was a big pink patch where the skin was missing, the leg was fixed straight and he used the other good leg and his two hands to push himself forward. My colleague commented that there was a syndicate abusing the children to raise funds by begging. If he hurried past in fear that I would get him medical help he is not the first child deprived of the kind of care that would reduce his ability to arouse sympathy when begging.

As we got on the train, the sense of helplessness that comes from not being able to bring any lasting change to these people’s lives was already there. The one bright spot was a perhaps 12-year old boy who, when asked why he sold water on the station at night rather than went to school, confidently said he was in 3rd Grade and worked at night to help support his family.

Before we settled in for the night, we discussed the recent open-heart surgery with one of the other people in the cabin, my colleague had a stint put into the coronary artery a few years ago and they had much to share. Another occupant and the young girl in the bunk above him did not share as much. In the morning when I asked the girl, who was probably not even ten, what grade she was in, she told me she didn’t go to school. The old man with whom she was traveling assured me that she, as his work-girl, did go to evening classes. I know she didn’t go to classes that night as we were on the train, but perhaps she does get some informal education. I have to ask myself, “What are her alternatives?” 

LAMB School serves God by providing education for the children of some of the almost 1000 staff; in doing so we are part of bringing the Kingdom of God to Bangladesh. Thank you for your fellowship in prayer to support this work. Coming back to LAMB, it was good to be reminded, as our new brochure does so well, that LAMB is making a difference in an area with over 5 million people. In 2013 almost 60 thousand patients received care at the hospital and over 45 thousand in our health care clinics, (This doesn’t include the over 250 thousand seen in government clinics that we support). In the training centre there were over 25 thousand trainee days last year. You can find more statistics and stories on the LAMB Website. 

At LAMB we thank God that we can be part of making a difference in so many lives; we thank donors, prayer supporters, partner organisations and the government for working with us to bring lasting change to people in Bangladesh.

Good going

My parents have visited again, I think it is the seventh time since I moved to Bangladesh in 1995 that they have come to spend time with us here at LAMB.

It is common for people in Bangladesh to have their parents stay with them for months on end, so it is no surprise that they come every other year. What is more surprising is that they do not stay in my house.
I have been blessed with being able to have them stay at Bashundhara compound with me and am thankful to the people who have let them use their houses.
What also surprise some people is that my parents were born so long ago, and yet are not very old. There are many much older people here who were born after my parents.

My parents have spent time helping and sharing with staff, students, neighbours and patients all over LAMB. I count it a privilege that they are able to come and that when they do, they are accepted as part of our community.

God has been with them in many ways; when they arrived there was a break in the otherwise pretty consistent transportation blockades which allowed them to travel from Dhaka to LAMB. At Christmas we were able to visit friends further north in Bangladesh because of another break in the political struggles and my father just made it to a Dhaka on a train that was three hours late, and got seen even though he was fifteen minutes late for a dentist appointment.

I am thankful for their time here, I praise God for his faithful protection of us all and pray for all those who are in need of safety, peace and parents to come give them time.

Christmas 2013

Dear Friends,

Looking back at 2013 it is hard not to notice the blessings of a year in England – studying, of the opportunity to come back ‘home’ to Bangladesh, of my parents being able to visit amidst the political unrest and perhaps most of all the blessings of seeing so many former students who, while often facing big challenges are doing great.

It is the time between Christmas and New Year when focus, if it is good, is decidedly on relationships and remembrance. Remembering that Christ came with a not just a message of, but to establish a peace that is for all people is very relevant for us in Bangladesh at this time. The country is preparing for a change in government, but there is no agreement on how that change should happen. The main opposition party is not taking part in the elections scheduled for 5 January 2014 so there is no question as to who will win.

The last two months have been filled with strikes and road and transportation blockades so many days that it has been difficult to get essential resources for the hospital. It has also been difficult for patients to come to the hospital so much that the number of critically ill patient admissions have fallen by app 75%. Peace may literally mean the difference between life and death for some patients.

Others have died too; activists have had an affinity for setting vehicles on fire killing passengers and staff on-board. This has mostly been far from where I have been, but the other day when travelling in Thakurgaon my parents and I passed a group of riot police who were walking towards a fire on the road. It was encouraging to see how a number of people made sure an approaching truck did not proceed into potential danger. While not exactly messages of peace, the intent was clearly to save the driver in the truck.

My parents arrived during a few days of respite when a visiting UN peace negotiator was trying to help the parties find a peaceful solution to the impasse. This break in strikes and blockades allowed my parents to come, and it allowed the LAMB Board to meet.

It was encouraging to have the opportunity to sit in on the board meeting and listen to the reports from all the varied parts of LAMB’s work. To hear about how our Community Health and Development Department is working with the health authorities to run 414 clinics in two districts and to hear that many of them are increasingly independent of outside (our) help.

At the hospital our staff continues to work to offer medical care that is both appropriate and accessible, including to the poorest of the poor in our catchment area of perhaps 1.5 million people. Making decisions about what treatment not to offer in order to ensure the greatest benefit to the most people can be very difficult. Decisions about whom not to treat are very difficult, especially when some treatment is readily available elsewhere.

You can read more about LAMB and the work we do here: http://www.lambproject.org/

In church the most encouraging event was a farewell cum Christmas party. The spontaneous dancing and praise around the bon-fire afterwards was an encouraging testimony to the Spirit that is active in our fellowship. Do pray for the teen group as we enter another year; for God to be active in us and for the fire to spread amongst us.

 

The peace that we seek is often reflected in the children. These three are from the youngest generation in our* village near Thakurgaon. I don’t think they are unaffected by the turmoil around them, but perhaps the fact that they don’t understand it helps them live in their childish reality. To enter the Kingdom of God we must be like little children and live in a reality that supersedes the political reality of the adult world of worries around us.

Thank you once again for your prayers in another year,

* I call Kamarsenua my home village because our family had a house there in the early eighties. 

Prayer Letter November 2013

…that all kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Lord, are the only God.

 Is 37:20

Dear Friends,                                                                                                November 2013

Greetings from a beautiful and much cooler Bangladesh than the one I first encountered when I arrived home at LAMB in mid September. After three weeks storms brought temperatures down to around 30 ˚C and they are now sometimes even below 20 ˚C in the morning.

It has been great returning to LAMB after a year away; the welcome by friends, staff and students has been overwhelming. The fact that the school seems to have be running very well increases the joy of being part of it once again.

Returning has brought new opportunities for engagement at work and in church; at the school my replacements have decided to stay on for (at least) another year giving us the opportunity to reconfigure responsibilities and focus on continued development at the school. We were hoping to get some construction under way, but need to find funding before we can do so. Some of my colleagues are hoping to have extended leave the way I did. Please pray for teachers who can teach English and other subjects to children aged 12 to 16 (Grades 6 – 10/Years 7-11).

It feels like the team at LAMB is committed to doing God’s work; this is a good foundation for working through our, sometimes contradictory, ideas about how and what doing God’s work looks like. At times we may be confused about what is God’s plan and what is our own personal agendas. Pray for humility and the ability to listen and hear each other.

In the Bengali school year it seems to be exam season – in fact, it seems to always be exam season – our sixth-grades have had three sets of mock tests for their final “Primary School Certificate Exams” scheduled for 20 – 28 November. Grade nine started their final “Junior School Certificate Exams” on 7 November. I don’t know how many mock tests they have done, but when they come back, we have our own week of assessments before the Christmas break. I wish we could just ignore these exams, but the results may make the difference for what further education opportunities our children have after they graduate from high school.

We believe our school provides good education but because our style is so different from other education available locally it can be a challenge for our students to adjust after LAMB. We give thanks that so far, our students have been able to continue their education in various schools in Dhaka, at Hebron in India and further abroad.

The government’s five years are up and it is time for their final exam. The opposition has called for ‘hartals’ (general strikes) since the incumbent government was supposed to step down according to the last constitution but not according to latest amendments. The hartals have resulted in about 20 fatalities so far. Most of them were ‘little people’; either ‘foot-soldiers’ who were deployed to fight ‘the good fight’; people who were caught out perhaps because they couldn’t afford not to work and even children. The incumbent government insists on an ‘all-party’ government to oversee free and fair elections, the opposition demands a ‘no-party’ government. What they agree on is that the others can’t be trusted in free and fair elections . Our students seem to have similar experiences as they return telling about how teachers and invigilators help individual students copy answers and solve problems during the tests.

The church has been without a pastor for a year now, the candidate selected after the first round of interviews has turned down the offer. Please pray for the church council to find someone willing and able to fill this role – someone whom we will be willing to have teach us God’s word.

In the teen-group I am getting good help from two others, but pray for a permanent national Christian to come help set direction for the group. It can feel like a big challenge to teach and organise a group of discerning (or critical) teens.

One passage from Isaiah recently caught my attention. In it, the prophet talks about good things the people have done but mourn that they do not recognise that the resources and conditions that allow the work all come from God (Isaiah 22:8b-11). It is my prayer that we all will recognise God as the source of all the good he does here at LAMB.

Thank you for your continued support and prayers. Pray especially for the children as they study and grow, for their teachers to have wisdom and insight into how to teach and for us all to know God and his faithfulness.