So I just wanted to post one final blog to thank all of you for following our adventures. After about 40 hours, including a cockroach-infested 10 hour bus ride, we finally made it home to LAX and our loving families. Leaving Bangladesh was difficult for all of us and we shared many tears with the Adhikaries in saying goodbye. Our last few days were filled with a so many great lasting moments, like:
...a youth seminar where Kristin and Casey both preached, we all shared the Lifehouse (Mexicali) drama, we taught pharoah pharoah and Danielle and Jen both shared testimonies
...the final Sunday service where Andrea preached an out-of-the-park sermon, Felicia led us in moving worship and the church honored us with handmade gifts
...our final Bangla meal by Metali of mangos, eggplant, chicken, beef curry, roti, rice, tea and specially made coconut desserts
...a great time of debrief and sharing together as a team over Starbucks in the Dubai airport.
Praise God for his faithfulness to us in getting us home safe and providing for us every step of the way in Bangladesh. You can continue to pray with us for the relationships we made with Albert, Metali, Anik, Ayon, Dolon, Roma, Depali, Beena, Shabon, Francish, Tulu, Joy, Tapon, Ashim, and many others. We're looking forward to having a missions sharing night at Journey--we'll keep you all updated!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Greetings from the Desh!!
It's Felicia here to share what's been going on the past couple days!
None of us can believe we've come upon our last week in Bangladesh, but we're so excited for what God has been doing in the lives of the people at the church and in the villages, and how He's been working in our lives through it all. We pray that he will continue to use us for His purpose in our last few days of ministry!
Sunday evening, excitement ran throughout the apartment as Metali helped us put on our saris. This task proved to take much longer than we expected. Not an easy outfit to put together, a sari is a beautiful wrap dress, if you will, that requires a lot of tucking, folding, and wrapping. Metali was amazing as she made six American girls look like "beautiful princesses", in her words of course. We all felt so beautiful!! As the kids came for Sunday school, Kristin shared the story of Pharoh and Moses...but only the first half! She did a wonderful job and kept the kids in suspense as they will hear the rest of the story this upcoming Sunday. In the church service, Casey and Andrea both shared amazing testimonies of what God has done in their lives, and did an awesome job telling the congregation the personal, and sometimes emotional, details of their stories. It was Danielle's turn to preach this week, and she blew us all away! Giving a sermon on 1 Corinthians 13, she gave her insight on how important it is not only for us to continually love on another, but also for people of the church to strive to love each other in any circumstance. It was such a great message, loved by Albert, the congregation, and us as well! We concluded the service by partaking in communion, and ended the evening by taking lots of pictures. It's always a fun thing to do when you're all dressed up!
Monday afternoon, we traveled to another Hindu village. Greeted by a group of about 40 smiling little kids waiting for us to share with them, we jumped right into singing some songs. Allelu, Allelu is always a crowd pleaser, as the kids giggle when we speed up, continuing to stand up and sit down. For our team, however, we decided it's currently our daily thigh-burning work-out. Sad, but true. At least it's a fun one! I shared the story of Shadrack, Meshach, and Abendigo, bringing the kids up to act it out as I told it. It was a lot of fun! We went on to play games with them, but were not expecting how good they would be. Casey led a game of Four Corners, which the kids loved, but their little hearts weren't content with just one game! As we went on to
It's Felicia here to share what's been going on the past couple days!
None of us can believe we've come upon our last week in Bangladesh, but we're so excited for what God has been doing in the lives of the people at the church and in the villages, and how He's been working in our lives through it all. We pray that he will continue to use us for His purpose in our last few days of ministry!
Sunday evening, excitement ran throughout the apartment as Metali helped us put on our saris. This task proved to take much longer than we expected. Not an easy outfit to put together, a sari is a beautiful wrap dress, if you will, that requires a lot of tucking, folding, and wrapping. Metali was amazing as she made six American girls look like "beautiful princesses", in her words of course. We all felt so beautiful!! As the kids came for Sunday school, Kristin shared the story of Pharoh and Moses...but only the first half! She did a wonderful job and kept the kids in suspense as they will hear the rest of the story this upcoming Sunday. In the church service, Casey and Andrea both shared amazing testimonies of what God has done in their lives, and did an awesome job telling the congregation the personal, and sometimes emotional, details of their stories. It was Danielle's turn to preach this week, and she blew us all away! Giving a sermon on 1 Corinthians 13, she gave her insight on how important it is not only for us to continually love on another, but also for people of the church to strive to love each other in any circumstance. It was such a great message, loved by Albert, the congregation, and us as well! We concluded the service by partaking in communion, and ended the evening by taking lots of pictures. It's always a fun thing to do when you're all dressed up!
Monday afternoon, we traveled to another Hindu village. Greeted by a group of about 40 smiling little kids waiting for us to share with them, we jumped right into singing some songs. Allelu, Allelu is always a crowd pleaser, as the kids giggle when we speed up, continuing to stand up and sit down. For our team, however, we decided it's currently our daily thigh-burning work-out. Sad, but true. At least it's a fun one! I shared the story of Shadrack, Meshach, and Abendigo, bringing the kids up to act it out as I told it. It was a lot of fun! We went on to play games with them, but were not expecting how good they would be. Casey led a game of Four Corners, which the kids loved, but their little hearts weren't content with just one game! As we went on to
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Hello Everyone at home!!!!!
These past few days have been very busy! Thusday we spent most of the day preparing for the Sunday School Teachers Training that we did for about 20 members of the churches here. And on Friday, that is what we did all day. It went very well so thank you for all of your prayers! We can really feel them here. Kristen kicked the day of by introducing our group and explaining what kinds of things we would be teaching them today, and that every child learns differently and so when teaching sunday school you should try and include a bunch of different things so every child can gain something from the lesson. Next up was Casey and she taught about story telling. She gave pointers on how to keep the kids intresed (like being really animated, doing hand motions, and telling stories that the kids might not know). Then she told them and example story of Jonah, making waves with her arms and throwing an invisible Jonah overboard, and getting the audience involved. After Casey, Felicia took a turn. She taught about bible verse memorazation. She told them diffrent ways that the can make it fun for the kids(like using a song or making them stand in a line each holding a diffrent word of a verse.) And then there was the songs. For a group of grown ups, they were crazy. Andrea went up and taught Father Abraham, Praise ye the Lord and I will Never March. They loved these. Some of them were acting like little kids again and were having alot of fun. By the end everybody was laughing. Andrea could hardley breathe. After that Danielle taught them all crafts like the salvation bead bracelet, this was also very fun! After that we taught them games... this was probably the craziest part of all. We spent about and hour playing games led by Jen like Upset Fruit Basket (aka I Love Rick Ellis) and it was an intense hour! Again everybody was laughing and at one point Andrea could not breathe. At the end of the day it was a very big sucsess. Metali and Albert both commented on how great they felt the day was and how impressed they were with all our teaching. That was super encouraging to us.
Saturday morning we went to devotions and then spent about three hours cutting out pictures that Samaritan's Purse had given Metali to use in their church. And then Saturday night we went to a prayer night at Francish and Tulu's (2 members of the church). It was about an hour and a half long and a good time with the Lord. After Tulu made us some Bomb.com tea and gave us some pretty sweet biscuits (aka cookies)!
When we got home, we had an interesting night. Everbody was just sitting around relaxing when Casey and Jen decided to make dinner. About 30 seconds later they run out of the kitchen screaming. They told us there was a rat. Some of us were skeptics. Derterminded to prove herself right, Casey shocked us all by going back into the kitchen to find it. And indeed eventually she did. There was some more screaming. Kristin bravely went back into rat teritory to close the kitchen door. Again, we went to call on Metali to assist us with a problem. But they weren't home. So we waited. For two hours. And then we finally got Metali over to take care of it, she calmly said "Go get Albert." So Albert comes over with a mop and locks himself in the kitchen with it. There was some shuffling and then he said something to Metali in Bangla. She leaves and comes back with and broom, which apparently was being whittled into a spear for..well you get the idea. Again we hear some shuffling and shouting and again Metali comes back with a new weapon to use on the rat. Unfortunately, when she opened the door to give it to Albert, the rat made a run for it, straight for us. We all screamed, including Metali. We were glad to know that we weren't just being wimpy Americans. To save ourselves from the charging rat, some of us ended up on top of chairs (in Andrea's case she almost ended up on the ground because she tripped...big suprise there). Other hiding places included standing inside of suitcses, standing on air mattresses and clutching the person next to you for dear life. In the end, the rat out smarted us all and escaped out of the door (under actually). Albert made a baracade out of styrofoam that he said would keep it out. So then some of us went to bed, exhausted from the episode and some stayed up for a long time after because of adrenaline.
Today (Sunday) we slept in and cleaned and Anik came over and made Cookies and Spagetti with us. We are now getting ready for church. Danielle is Preaching today. You can be praying because next Friday we're leading an all-day Youth Seminar for about 25 teenagers and young adults at the churches and we'll be spending much of the next week planning dramas, songs, teachings, worship, and testimonies to make the day a great experience for them.
Thank you for keeping us in our prayers!
Love you all, Andrea :D
P.S. One more valuable detail: we are knee-deep in a prank war against Albert and Metali.
These past few days have been very busy! Thusday we spent most of the day preparing for the Sunday School Teachers Training that we did for about 20 members of the churches here. And on Friday, that is what we did all day. It went very well so thank you for all of your prayers! We can really feel them here. Kristen kicked the day of by introducing our group and explaining what kinds of things we would be teaching them today, and that every child learns differently and so when teaching sunday school you should try and include a bunch of different things so every child can gain something from the lesson. Next up was Casey and she taught about story telling. She gave pointers on how to keep the kids intresed (like being really animated, doing hand motions, and telling stories that the kids might not know). Then she told them and example story of Jonah, making waves with her arms and throwing an invisible Jonah overboard, and getting the audience involved. After Casey, Felicia took a turn. She taught about bible verse memorazation. She told them diffrent ways that the can make it fun for the kids(like using a song or making them stand in a line each holding a diffrent word of a verse.) And then there was the songs. For a group of grown ups, they were crazy. Andrea went up and taught Father Abraham, Praise ye the Lord and I will Never March. They loved these. Some of them were acting like little kids again and were having alot of fun. By the end everybody was laughing. Andrea could hardley breathe. After that Danielle taught them all crafts like the salvation bead bracelet, this was also very fun! After that we taught them games... this was probably the craziest part of all. We spent about and hour playing games led by Jen like Upset Fruit Basket (aka I Love Rick Ellis) and it was an intense hour! Again everybody was laughing and at one point Andrea could not breathe. At the end of the day it was a very big sucsess. Metali and Albert both commented on how great they felt the day was and how impressed they were with all our teaching. That was super encouraging to us.
Saturday morning we went to devotions and then spent about three hours cutting out pictures that Samaritan's Purse had given Metali to use in their church. And then Saturday night we went to a prayer night at Francish and Tulu's (2 members of the church). It was about an hour and a half long and a good time with the Lord. After Tulu made us some Bomb.com tea and gave us some pretty sweet biscuits (aka cookies)!
When we got home, we had an interesting night. Everbody was just sitting around relaxing when Casey and Jen decided to make dinner. About 30 seconds later they run out of the kitchen screaming. They told us there was a rat. Some of us were skeptics. Derterminded to prove herself right, Casey shocked us all by going back into the kitchen to find it. And indeed eventually she did. There was some more screaming. Kristin bravely went back into rat teritory to close the kitchen door. Again, we went to call on Metali to assist us with a problem. But they weren't home. So we waited. For two hours. And then we finally got Metali over to take care of it, she calmly said "Go get Albert." So Albert comes over with a mop and locks himself in the kitchen with it. There was some shuffling and then he said something to Metali in Bangla. She leaves and comes back with and broom, which apparently was being whittled into a spear for..well you get the idea. Again we hear some shuffling and shouting and again Metali comes back with a new weapon to use on the rat. Unfortunately, when she opened the door to give it to Albert, the rat made a run for it, straight for us. We all screamed, including Metali. We were glad to know that we weren't just being wimpy Americans. To save ourselves from the charging rat, some of us ended up on top of chairs (in Andrea's case she almost ended up on the ground because she tripped...big suprise there). Other hiding places included standing inside of suitcses, standing on air mattresses and clutching the person next to you for dear life. In the end, the rat out smarted us all and escaped out of the door (under actually). Albert made a baracade out of styrofoam that he said would keep it out. So then some of us went to bed, exhausted from the episode and some stayed up for a long time after because of adrenaline.
Today (Sunday) we slept in and cleaned and Anik came over and made Cookies and Spagetti with us. We are now getting ready for church. Danielle is Preaching today. You can be praying because next Friday we're leading an all-day Youth Seminar for about 25 teenagers and young adults at the churches and we'll be spending much of the next week planning dramas, songs, teachings, worship, and testimonies to make the day a great experience for them.
Thank you for keeping us in our prayers!
Love you all, Andrea :D
P.S. One more valuable detail: we are knee-deep in a prank war against Albert and Metali.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
"That is a ROYAL BENGAL TIGER!"
Hello faithful prayers and followers at home! Or should I say Emmanuel! God has truly been with us and faithfully sustaining us so far. Jen here, enjoying my role as leader and having the privilege of watching these girls shine. I'd like to write this blog with some of highlights of our experience so far and especially of the events of the last few days.
1. Yesterday Albert and Metali took the day to give us a tour of our city, Khulna. I enjoyed seeing them both have a day to relax and all the laughter we shared. The day included ice cream, a boat ride, a trip to their large bridge (building bridges to change the world!), getting caught outside in a HUGE rainstorm and ending up sopping wet, our second meal out with fried chicken, rice, and "thai" soup, and lastly a trip to the Khulna zoo! When we came upon the cage of the tiger, Casey bounds up and exclaims "hey kitty!" and Metali quickly corrected her, "that is a ROYAL BENGAL TIGER!" Albert pipes in "That is the national beast!" We all rolled with laughter.
2. Metali's brother, Dolon, has been such a wonderful friend to us. He frequently meets us in the evening at Metali's mom's house with fried treats from the street vendors, and is always eager to take time to spend with us, taking us around town and doing anything we need. We have all commented that his provision, generosity and love for us has been something we've really cherished.
3. As a group of girls, we've had some great late-night conversations about all that is happening in the ministry here and all that God is doing in us. All the good conversations happen late at night, right? I've enjoyed catching the subtle comments of insights and changes the girls are already looking forward to making when they come home. We even have a few praying about being missionaries in the future. Pray with them about what this trip will mean in the journey God is taking them on.
4. Metali and Albert's two sons have been our greatest joy here. Anik is a clever witty 10 year old always eager to come over and play "the uno" with us. And by uno we mean crazy slap uno where Anik always seems to have less cards than the rest of us. Their other son is Ayon, a one and a half year old bounding with energy non-stop, always looking to make us laugh with his antics. Most evenings we end up at Metali's mother Roma's house for tea and that's when Ayon is in his prime awake time dancing around and singing and screaming and copying everything Anik does. They both have taken to calling us "Jennifer Auntie" or "Felicia Auntie" which is adorable. We've also loved helping Metali out a few times during the day so she can go out by watching the boys in our apartment. Always an exciting adventure of what Ayon is getting into and life in a world without diapers :)
5. One last village trip that we haven't written about yet was a trip to a Hindu village where we again acted out our now well-rehearsed Good Samaritan skit (Andrea plays a great robber and Kristin always falls with such grace) complete with a few great renditions of our Bangla children's songs (we now have 2 fully under our belt). The village was so grateful for our presence that they climbed up the tree and picked us guavas (granted not quite ripe and Metali helped us later descretely discard what we didn't finish) Though these experiences may sound similar, each day we most enjoy going out and meeting people in the villages and sharing God's love. Albert will tell us to plan for 10 children and easily 75 people show up when we arrive! For many of us its our first time in a culture with very little to no context about Christianity continues to be challenging and inspiring. In other news, that day we saw a 4 foot long water snake.
6. Everyone is handling the heat and the occasional stomach pains really well. Attitudes have been great and considering all the cooking, cleaning, washing, babysitting, and lesson planning we're doing, everyone's been a champ. One food we all collectively decided we do not like is Betel nut. They chew it wrapped in leaves and it turns your mouth red (and it upset our stomachs) but like good missionaries we ate what was offered to us! They all cracked up at our expressions.
7. Lastly, we could use your prayer for tomorrow. On our Friday (which is their Sunday day off from work holiday) we are leading a Sunday School Teachers Training. Albert and Metali were so impressed with our teaching in the sunday school our first sunday that they asks us to create a training day for teachers from all our churches. Danielle's leading crafts, I'm leading games, Kristin is teaching on different methods of teaching, Casey's doing a few lessons, Andrea's doing songs and Felicia's doing memory verses and we're all ending with a complete sunday lesson all thematically arranged (if you're wondering, We're going to recreate Moses and the plagues with crystal light packets and roaring renditions of "Pharoah Pharoah" complete with motions) It feels like a big responsibility and we've all been busily working all day today (Thursday) on our parts of the training. Pray that this is a helpful day for their children's workers and God uses our skills of years in children's ministry to help their churches here.
We feel your prayers, always appreciate and read your comments, and miss you all a lot at home. Homesickness has kicked in a bit so definitely pray that we are all present here for the last 10 days in the Desh! We love you all.
-jen
1. Yesterday Albert and Metali took the day to give us a tour of our city, Khulna. I enjoyed seeing them both have a day to relax and all the laughter we shared. The day included ice cream, a boat ride, a trip to their large bridge (building bridges to change the world!), getting caught outside in a HUGE rainstorm and ending up sopping wet, our second meal out with fried chicken, rice, and "thai" soup, and lastly a trip to the Khulna zoo! When we came upon the cage of the tiger, Casey bounds up and exclaims "hey kitty!" and Metali quickly corrected her, "that is a ROYAL BENGAL TIGER!" Albert pipes in "That is the national beast!" We all rolled with laughter.
2. Metali's brother, Dolon, has been such a wonderful friend to us. He frequently meets us in the evening at Metali's mom's house with fried treats from the street vendors, and is always eager to take time to spend with us, taking us around town and doing anything we need. We have all commented that his provision, generosity and love for us has been something we've really cherished.
3. As a group of girls, we've had some great late-night conversations about all that is happening in the ministry here and all that God is doing in us. All the good conversations happen late at night, right? I've enjoyed catching the subtle comments of insights and changes the girls are already looking forward to making when they come home. We even have a few praying about being missionaries in the future. Pray with them about what this trip will mean in the journey God is taking them on.
4. Metali and Albert's two sons have been our greatest joy here. Anik is a clever witty 10 year old always eager to come over and play "the uno" with us. And by uno we mean crazy slap uno where Anik always seems to have less cards than the rest of us. Their other son is Ayon, a one and a half year old bounding with energy non-stop, always looking to make us laugh with his antics. Most evenings we end up at Metali's mother Roma's house for tea and that's when Ayon is in his prime awake time dancing around and singing and screaming and copying everything Anik does. They both have taken to calling us "Jennifer Auntie" or "Felicia Auntie" which is adorable. We've also loved helping Metali out a few times during the day so she can go out by watching the boys in our apartment. Always an exciting adventure of what Ayon is getting into and life in a world without diapers :)
5. One last village trip that we haven't written about yet was a trip to a Hindu village where we again acted out our now well-rehearsed Good Samaritan skit (Andrea plays a great robber and Kristin always falls with such grace) complete with a few great renditions of our Bangla children's songs (we now have 2 fully under our belt). The village was so grateful for our presence that they climbed up the tree and picked us guavas (granted not quite ripe and Metali helped us later descretely discard what we didn't finish) Though these experiences may sound similar, each day we most enjoy going out and meeting people in the villages and sharing God's love. Albert will tell us to plan for 10 children and easily 75 people show up when we arrive! For many of us its our first time in a culture with very little to no context about Christianity continues to be challenging and inspiring. In other news, that day we saw a 4 foot long water snake.
6. Everyone is handling the heat and the occasional stomach pains really well. Attitudes have been great and considering all the cooking, cleaning, washing, babysitting, and lesson planning we're doing, everyone's been a champ. One food we all collectively decided we do not like is Betel nut. They chew it wrapped in leaves and it turns your mouth red (and it upset our stomachs) but like good missionaries we ate what was offered to us! They all cracked up at our expressions.
7. Lastly, we could use your prayer for tomorrow. On our Friday (which is their Sunday day off from work holiday) we are leading a Sunday School Teachers Training. Albert and Metali were so impressed with our teaching in the sunday school our first sunday that they asks us to create a training day for teachers from all our churches. Danielle's leading crafts, I'm leading games, Kristin is teaching on different methods of teaching, Casey's doing a few lessons, Andrea's doing songs and Felicia's doing memory verses and we're all ending with a complete sunday lesson all thematically arranged (if you're wondering, We're going to recreate Moses and the plagues with crystal light packets and roaring renditions of "Pharoah Pharoah" complete with motions) It feels like a big responsibility and we've all been busily working all day today (Thursday) on our parts of the training. Pray that this is a helpful day for their children's workers and God uses our skills of years in children's ministry to help their churches here.
We feel your prayers, always appreciate and read your comments, and miss you all a lot at home. Homesickness has kicked in a bit so definitely pray that we are all present here for the last 10 days in the Desh! We love you all.
-jen
Sunday, July 11, 2010
'Banglish'
It's kind of difficult to share about everything that's happening here only because there's SO much happening each day. It certainly is a different world- but it's been truly special. The word that continues to come to my mind as this journey progresses is 'precious'. Everything and everyone we meet is simply precious. We're beginning to make friends with some of the others members in Albert and Metali's church which is also nice. It helps us to not feel so isolated. Many people know at least a little English so we can greet each other. We've been having informal tutorials after morning devotions from one of the church members so we've got a little Bangla under our belts too. Most of our new vocab consists of phrases like"How are you?", "Great job!", "Hot tea", and "Very beautiful". Metali has also been very excited to teach us some of their Sunday School action songs in Bangla. We are all getting VERY good at the actions...but our Bangla needs some cleaning up. But it's fun and a great way to relate to the children at the villages who already know most of those songs.
Saturday evening we went to another Hindu village. Upon arrival Metali told us that the people in that village weren't familar with the Gospel really at all. That was a little different for us since everywhere we'd been until that point had some understanding of our message, if not our bible stories. We altered our bible story plan just a little and taught The Good Samaritan in a skit. We do a lot of skits here- and we love it. Usually we pull some of the children to act out the story as one of us narrates and helps, but this time we did it. That part was fun, and the people there seemed to enjoy the story and engaged with some of Metali's questions. I didn't understand, and maybe I still don't fully understand, the impact our visit had on the group gathered there until we were all finished and essentially ready to leave. We'd done our prayer and were waiting for the OK to start heading back to the road when Metali called us back to stand in front of the group. And at that point one of the men stood and addressed us. He spoke of their gratitude for us and our visit. He said that they were moved that a group from so far away would come visit them there, across the world, in their village to tell them about the love of Jesus. And then he invited our group of six to meet the children and adults there, to literally wade into the group and have them touch us. It was something I'd never experienced before. It's hard to explain. It wasn't like a 'rockstar' or 'celebrity' thing- having the foreigners mingle with the Bangalis- but more akin to maybe a part of our story spreading through a place that has yet to hear the Gospel. I don't know. That was my experience. It was moving. We held those children and held hands and loved everyone from the newborn babies to some of the elder members of that community. And while they still hold onto a religion totally different from our relationship with God, they engaged, and I believe they really heard God's message.
Sunday morning, was relaxed and we spent time around our apartment getting ready for church. We made some chocolate chip cookies under Kristin's super-yummy leadership and we also figured out how to make pizza- we're talking home-made dough and real mozzerella cheese here, folks. It all turned out pretty good and we even shared pizza and cookies with Albert, Metali, and their family. A good taste of home. That afternoon we had church. Andrea and Felisha led some of the worship time. As always, they sounded great...even when Andrea's guitar pick broke mid-song. They finished the set a capella and, honestly, I didn't even know the pick had broken until later. They're such professionals. Yesterday was also Felisha's turn to preach at church. I wish you all could have heard her words. It was a beautiful time of learning and growing for all of us. She moved that church, and taught us all much about discipline and allowing God to work in us even amidst the difficult times. Each of the young women in our group continue to amaze me as this adventure goes on and yesterday Felisha did just that as she taught on another facit of God's love for us.
We know you're praying for us and your encouraging words help sustain us while we miss you. It's fantastic to see God moving in this place; and we are blessed to have this opportunity.
With Love,
Casey
Saturday evening we went to another Hindu village. Upon arrival Metali told us that the people in that village weren't familar with the Gospel really at all. That was a little different for us since everywhere we'd been until that point had some understanding of our message, if not our bible stories. We altered our bible story plan just a little and taught The Good Samaritan in a skit. We do a lot of skits here- and we love it. Usually we pull some of the children to act out the story as one of us narrates and helps, but this time we did it. That part was fun, and the people there seemed to enjoy the story and engaged with some of Metali's questions. I didn't understand, and maybe I still don't fully understand, the impact our visit had on the group gathered there until we were all finished and essentially ready to leave. We'd done our prayer and were waiting for the OK to start heading back to the road when Metali called us back to stand in front of the group. And at that point one of the men stood and addressed us. He spoke of their gratitude for us and our visit. He said that they were moved that a group from so far away would come visit them there, across the world, in their village to tell them about the love of Jesus. And then he invited our group of six to meet the children and adults there, to literally wade into the group and have them touch us. It was something I'd never experienced before. It's hard to explain. It wasn't like a 'rockstar' or 'celebrity' thing- having the foreigners mingle with the Bangalis- but more akin to maybe a part of our story spreading through a place that has yet to hear the Gospel. I don't know. That was my experience. It was moving. We held those children and held hands and loved everyone from the newborn babies to some of the elder members of that community. And while they still hold onto a religion totally different from our relationship with God, they engaged, and I believe they really heard God's message.
Sunday morning, was relaxed and we spent time around our apartment getting ready for church. We made some chocolate chip cookies under Kristin's super-yummy leadership and we also figured out how to make pizza- we're talking home-made dough and real mozzerella cheese here, folks. It all turned out pretty good and we even shared pizza and cookies with Albert, Metali, and their family. A good taste of home. That afternoon we had church. Andrea and Felisha led some of the worship time. As always, they sounded great...even when Andrea's guitar pick broke mid-song. They finished the set a capella and, honestly, I didn't even know the pick had broken until later. They're such professionals. Yesterday was also Felisha's turn to preach at church. I wish you all could have heard her words. It was a beautiful time of learning and growing for all of us. She moved that church, and taught us all much about discipline and allowing God to work in us even amidst the difficult times. Each of the young women in our group continue to amaze me as this adventure goes on and yesterday Felisha did just that as she taught on another facit of God's love for us.
We know you're praying for us and your encouraging words help sustain us while we miss you. It's fantastic to see God moving in this place; and we are blessed to have this opportunity.
With Love,
Casey
Saturday, July 10, 2010
If you can't take the heat, stay out of Bangladesh!
Hi everyone, Danielle here giving you an update of our awesome trip so far!
I believe we left off at the hindu villege. The next day we had morning devotions which was lead by our lovely Kristin, she did a great job talking about the passege "I am the vine you are the branches..." from John 15. Albert was very moved. Later Metali took us all out shopping to add some bangles and jewelry to our salwar camises (or three piece traditional outfits) We went to what looked like an outside mall and it was awesome!!! We went from store to store looking at beautiful jewlery and after seeing all sorts of options we of course bought a few things to look pretty.
After our shopping experience we went to shabon's place, one of the members of the church. Although he was not there we enjoyed spending time with his wonderful mother and sister and seeing his family home over biscuits and cha (tea) Next we went to Ro-ma-ma's place, Metali's mom who's name is Roma but we've nicknamed Ro-ma-ma, which is always filled with laughter. We were even more excited when we recieved our beautiful new salwar camises. They look very beautiful and now we actually feel like we fit in here and stick out a little less.
The next day was my turn to do morning devotions. I talked about the Psalm 145:8-21 about how we need to remember to praise the Lord and remember how amazing and wonderful He is. A few hours later Casey, Metali, and I went to the market. It looked like a farmers market times 10. Everything was fresh and there was all sorts of fruits and vegetables, everything that was in season. There was also a whole area just for chickens! aAs you may have guessed we did get a chicken, however considering we don't know much about picking a live chicken we looked to Metali to help us with that. It was quite an experience of which neither Casey nor I could stand to watch. Instead we waited over by the potatoes while Metali laughed, we always have a lot of fun with her. We must say, the fresh chicken tasted really good.
A couple hourse later we vistited an all boys Christian orphanage. It was a very moving experience. The boys ranges from all sorts of ages from about 6 or 7 to teenage years. We sang many songs which they helped lead and sang along with. Casey did a wonderful skit with them followed by a short teaching on the Prodigal God by Jennifer.
Now on to yesterday, well our yesterday. Albert had planned a "Day with the Lord" for us and the Khulna Friends Church leaders. We started at nine am and took a nice litte ride to the other side of town. We ended up at a nice little church where we talked about Psalm 145. We had disscution followed by personal time and then lunch. After a delicious lunch of curry and lentils we continued talking about the bible and having a bible study type of discusion. It was so nice hearing stores how amazing the Lord is and how many moving things He has done. It was great to be able to spend the whole day talking about the Lord with others who feel strongly and love the Lord so much! It also involved some personal time of solitude, which we all shared was moving to each of us. Thanks for your continued prayers and support from home. We're all doing great and we know its because of your faithful prayers. More to come soon!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Bishti (rain), Gorus (cows), and Rickshaw's...OH MY!
Greetings from Khulna!
Our ministry in the villages has begun. Monday we went to a small Muslim village to work with some children. When we arrived, there were about 12 kids that were anxiously waiting for us to come. The children performed some of the songs that they knew, and it was such a blessing to see all of these children singing about Jesus with such joy on their faces. We sang some of our songs (a favorite has been "Father Abraham") and told the story of David and Goliath. Casey had the full attention of all of the children as she directed them to act the story out. As our time in this village continued, more and more people came over to see what was going on. What started as a ministry with about 12 children grew into an opportunity to share with about 40 children and adults.
Tuesday we took took an EZ Bike to a Hindu village that is quite a bit further away. We crossed a bridge made out of bamboo (in the middle of the bridge Metali stopped and shook the bridge, which immediately brought a few screams). Six girls walking to a village grew a lot of attention. We were not able to do exactly what we had planned, because there had been a death in the village. The people here are so hospitable that they found another place for us to go and share with the children. They served us fresh fruit from the trees that were right there. We sang some songs for the Hindu children, but they were a bit shy to join in. By the last song, however, they were excited to join in! As we were leaving the village, the children followed us out and posed for lots of pictures. They love to see themselves in the camera screens!
All of the traveling to and from villages has been quite an adventure! Last night we rode a rickshaw vans, which are bikes with wooden platforms attached to it. Basically we just have to hold on very tightly, especially over the bumps. Once we got to a little village on the way back, we stopped to transfer from a rickshaw van to an EZ Bike. We were standing on the side of the road while waiting for our drivers. We drew so much attention from the village! About 100 people surrounded us staring at us and taking tons of pictures on their phones. It seemed like every eye in the village was on us.
A few fun stories...
After the spider incident, we learned that Metali is afraid of spiders. In the villages, people direct the cows home at the end of the day, and there were quite a few cows going by us very quickly. Metali runs off the road and hides! We told her that we will protect her from the cows if she protects us from the spiders.
In the Hindu village, we saw a poster of Arnold from back when he was a bodybuilder.
As you can imagine, having a group of six girls together can become quite giggly. We have had so many fun experiences, and Metali and Albert have been laughing at us so much! One night Metali told Albert that she was going to come and sleep in our apartment so that she can have some more fun with us.
Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support! Please continue to pray for the ministry opportunities that are coming up, and that the rain will not hinder any of the plans.
Kristin
Sunday, July 4, 2010
one more quick funny story...
Jen has one more quick story to tell:
I'm washing dishes from dinner when I hear Andrea screaming from her shower. "AHHHH! IT'S A SPIDER AS LARGE AS A TARANTULLA!" I, naturally, turn to Kristin and sarcastically say, I'm sure it is. Andrea bursts out of her shower and we look in and in fact this was the largest spider I'd ever seen. We discussed its size at length and I kid you not, it was the size of a grapefruit. So we all kind of scream a bit, Casey handed Kristin her shoe to kill, I grabbed spray...none of which worked. So Kristin calmly says, "we need assistance." Across the hall we go, knocking on Metali's door, who opens and immediately responds completely deadpan "what happened." We tell of the spider and she says, Albert was right. Metali immediately comes over and owns the spider with the broom, sweeping it down and killing it. She and Albert were cracking up at us and our girliness. Albert told us they squish these spiders with their hands, no need to be worried. Ha. We'll get right on squishing them with our bare hands. Also worth noting, this story made it into the announcement time during the church service tonight. The whole congregation was rolling in laughter at us. Yep, it's official- we're six American girls in Bangladesh.
I'm washing dishes from dinner when I hear Andrea screaming from her shower. "AHHHH! IT'S A SPIDER AS LARGE AS A TARANTULLA!" I, naturally, turn to Kristin and sarcastically say, I'm sure it is. Andrea bursts out of her shower and we look in and in fact this was the largest spider I'd ever seen. We discussed its size at length and I kid you not, it was the size of a grapefruit. So we all kind of scream a bit, Casey handed Kristin her shoe to kill, I grabbed spray...none of which worked. So Kristin calmly says, "we need assistance." Across the hall we go, knocking on Metali's door, who opens and immediately responds completely deadpan "what happened." We tell of the spider and she says, Albert was right. Metali immediately comes over and owns the spider with the broom, sweeping it down and killing it. She and Albert were cracking up at us and our girliness. Albert told us they squish these spiders with their hands, no need to be worried. Ha. We'll get right on squishing them with our bare hands. Also worth noting, this story made it into the announcement time during the church service tonight. The whole congregation was rolling in laughter at us. Yep, it's official- we're six American girls in Bangladesh.
Hey everyone! Felicia here. Just wanted to start out by saying thank you for the many prayers you've devoted to our team. We're really feeling God work already!
Yesterday, we met Albert at the church office for a morning devotion, where he also introduced us to the other staff members. Every morning, except Sunday's, the church's staff members meet for about a half an hour, starting their day out with prayer and worship, as well as time in God's word. It was exciting for us to share that time with them, and we know it will be a great way to start out the day and further our relationship with God. I know that for me, it was convicting knowing that they set apart this time every day, when I find Facebook or Glee a better filler of my day! We also learned that Albert and the staff teach students English by having them type out Bible verses in the computer lab. So they learn English and the Gospel all in one! We thought that was a creative ministry,
Later that day, we went shopping with Dolon, Metali's brother, to get fabric for our 3-piece outfits. When we got to inside the building, there were beautiful fabrics of every color and design, jeweled and sequined to catch any girl's eye, hung from the walls in countless small shops. Being girls, we naturally had the workers pull countless outfits down to find the perfect ones. After picking our final choices, we all had big smiles on our faces and couldn't stop laughing about how excited we were for the outfits to be made! I felt bad for Dolon as he bartered for the outfits, which took a long time, but he got us a good price! For having put up with 6 giggly girls for a couple hours, we should have bought him a new outfit! He's a very brave man.
Today, we attended our first church service, which acutally occured in our apartment! Since ours is right next to Albert and Metali's, this is where they have church services. Also, unlike our early bird services at home, church started at 4:30pm, which was nice. The church is not very big, but it is very strong, as Albert has explained. Danielle and Casey led the children's sunday school with stories, games, and fun songs. They did a great job and the kids loved it! During worship time, the congregation sang their hearts out, praising God and leaving all other thoughts aside. It was so encouraging to hear them give testimonies and praises to God, as it showed our dedicated their lives are to Christ and His plan for them. Andrea and I also got to lead worship, sharing some of our songs as Andrea played her guitar and I sang. Jen did an amazing job giving her sermon today, and it really touched everyone's hearts, while also making them think and grow in their faith. We all loved that the church service didn't have a set time and as Metali explained, "We have the rest of the week, we can afford to give God our Sunday afternoon and evening." It's so true!
We are all very touched by the hearts and lives of Albert and Metali, as well as the people of the church. Hearing their testimonies and stories of their lives really encourages us as we get ready to dive into ministry tomorrow. WE ARE SOOO EXCITED!! Please pray for hearts and minds to be open for not only our team, but also the people we minister to in the villages. For Muslims, it's very hard to become Christian because there is a great deal of persecution. We know nothing is too great for our God though, and we have faith that he will do mighty things through us and the Friends church here!
Because of His Love,
Felicia and the team :]
Yesterday, we met Albert at the church office for a morning devotion, where he also introduced us to the other staff members. Every morning, except Sunday's, the church's staff members meet for about a half an hour, starting their day out with prayer and worship, as well as time in God's word. It was exciting for us to share that time with them, and we know it will be a great way to start out the day and further our relationship with God. I know that for me, it was convicting knowing that they set apart this time every day, when I find Facebook or Glee a better filler of my day! We also learned that Albert and the staff teach students English by having them type out Bible verses in the computer lab. So they learn English and the Gospel all in one! We thought that was a creative ministry,
Later that day, we went shopping with Dolon, Metali's brother, to get fabric for our 3-piece outfits. When we got to inside the building, there were beautiful fabrics of every color and design, jeweled and sequined to catch any girl's eye, hung from the walls in countless small shops. Being girls, we naturally had the workers pull countless outfits down to find the perfect ones. After picking our final choices, we all had big smiles on our faces and couldn't stop laughing about how excited we were for the outfits to be made! I felt bad for Dolon as he bartered for the outfits, which took a long time, but he got us a good price! For having put up with 6 giggly girls for a couple hours, we should have bought him a new outfit! He's a very brave man.
Today, we attended our first church service, which acutally occured in our apartment! Since ours is right next to Albert and Metali's, this is where they have church services. Also, unlike our early bird services at home, church started at 4:30pm, which was nice. The church is not very big, but it is very strong, as Albert has explained. Danielle and Casey led the children's sunday school with stories, games, and fun songs. They did a great job and the kids loved it! During worship time, the congregation sang their hearts out, praising God and leaving all other thoughts aside. It was so encouraging to hear them give testimonies and praises to God, as it showed our dedicated their lives are to Christ and His plan for them. Andrea and I also got to lead worship, sharing some of our songs as Andrea played her guitar and I sang. Jen did an amazing job giving her sermon today, and it really touched everyone's hearts, while also making them think and grow in their faith. We all loved that the church service didn't have a set time and as Metali explained, "We have the rest of the week, we can afford to give God our Sunday afternoon and evening." It's so true!
We are all very touched by the hearts and lives of Albert and Metali, as well as the people of the church. Hearing their testimonies and stories of their lives really encourages us as we get ready to dive into ministry tomorrow. WE ARE SOOO EXCITED!! Please pray for hearts and minds to be open for not only our team, but also the people we minister to in the villages. For Muslims, it's very hard to become Christian because there is a great deal of persecution. We know nothing is too great for our God though, and we have faith that he will do mighty things through us and the Friends church here!
Because of His Love,
Felicia and the team :]
Friday, July 2, 2010
Emmanuel!
O hey everyone! We are safely in Khulna now J. The Flight from Dubai to Dhaka was about six hours long. We were all pleasantly surprised to find that we had our own personal TV screens for this flight too. We also were happy to find out that we all got to sit in one row. The man who sat next to Felicia (who was on the end) was very nice and helpful and spoke pretty good English. We all started to get a little nervous when after 30 minutes our bags still hadn’t shown up! Eventually they all came though. The guitar was not on the same belt thing so when we started to walk over to report it missing, we happened to pass a different belt thing and saw it going around on that one (Andrea was super happy about that, she ran over to it and MIGHT have tripped a little bit). Outside of the airport we found our contact (Dolon, Metali’s brother) very easily because he walked right up to us (its not hard to find the only white people in a crowd).
Instead of taking a puddle hopper plane like we had originally planed we took a chartered van. This worked better because our flight from Dubai to Dhaka was about 4 hours late. The driving here is insane! It honestly takes serious skill to drive here. The roads are bumpy and uneven, and people are trying to squeeze their cars through spaces that they should not. It took us about an hour to cross a mile long bridge because no one would stay in his or her lanes and it would stop traffic going the opposite way. After the bridge the road and traffic were so bad that a lot of us got carsick. We saw an elephant about two hours into the drive that was really cool! If the windows of the van had been down it could have reached inside (it is kind of scary when you are about to fall asleep and you look to your right and see a giant elephant head looking out you) The van was nice because it had air conditioning, but outside it was really hot. About halfway through our ride we had to take a ferry for about an hour. After the Ferry we got to go Indian Jones style for about an hour and a half but it was fun (the Dramamine that some of had taken 5 hours earlier was now in effect so we didn’t get sick).
Finally we arrived at our apartment, which is right next to where the Adhikari’s live. Have two bathrooms (complete with Squatty Potties), two bedrooms, a bigger living area, and a Kitchen. The kitchen even has a water filter. For everyone at home the water in Khulna does not have Arsenic poison and is safe to drink because it is a deep well. Also, Khulna is one of the safest places in Bangladesh. The food here is very healthy and very good. We are all still trying to master eating with our hands. We are about to go to the market to buy food for dinner, which should be a lot of fun! From our apartment we can hear the almost constant honk of horns, the chirping of little Gecko things, Roosters who are confused about the time, and five times a day the Muslim Call to Prayer. Last night we all went right to sleep because we were so tired! (Some people like Kristin, Andrea, and Casey hardly slept at all while traveling).
The Adhikari’s are incredibly gracious and very grateful that we are here. Albert and Metali speak very good English and have two sons, Anik and Ayon. Tomorrow we start our ministry so please pray that everything goes well, and for our health and safety.
XOXO,
Andrea
Addendum from Jen: Tonight we all enjoyed the fun experience of our first rickshaw rides, trip to the open-air market, and a fun evening after of visiting Metali’s mother, sipping delicious tea and giggling at little 2-year-old Ayon kicking the soccer ball around. We also got to watch a caravan of honking motorcycles waving their Brazil flag in anticipation of the World Cup Game. All of us wanted to be sure to get this blog to you as soon as possible but we’ve been without internet for a few days. Thanks for your support and understanding and prayers family and friends. We’re all doing great, feeling great, and loving our experience so far. Oh one last thing, the title of the blog is the Christian greeting here, Emmanuel!
Instead of taking a puddle hopper plane like we had originally planed we took a chartered van. This worked better because our flight from Dubai to Dhaka was about 4 hours late. The driving here is insane! It honestly takes serious skill to drive here. The roads are bumpy and uneven, and people are trying to squeeze their cars through spaces that they should not. It took us about an hour to cross a mile long bridge because no one would stay in his or her lanes and it would stop traffic going the opposite way. After the bridge the road and traffic were so bad that a lot of us got carsick. We saw an elephant about two hours into the drive that was really cool! If the windows of the van had been down it could have reached inside (it is kind of scary when you are about to fall asleep and you look to your right and see a giant elephant head looking out you) The van was nice because it had air conditioning, but outside it was really hot. About halfway through our ride we had to take a ferry for about an hour. After the Ferry we got to go Indian Jones style for about an hour and a half but it was fun (the Dramamine that some of had taken 5 hours earlier was now in effect so we didn’t get sick).
Finally we arrived at our apartment, which is right next to where the Adhikari’s live. Have two bathrooms (complete with Squatty Potties), two bedrooms, a bigger living area, and a Kitchen. The kitchen even has a water filter. For everyone at home the water in Khulna does not have Arsenic poison and is safe to drink because it is a deep well. Also, Khulna is one of the safest places in Bangladesh. The food here is very healthy and very good. We are all still trying to master eating with our hands. We are about to go to the market to buy food for dinner, which should be a lot of fun! From our apartment we can hear the almost constant honk of horns, the chirping of little Gecko things, Roosters who are confused about the time, and five times a day the Muslim Call to Prayer. Last night we all went right to sleep because we were so tired! (Some people like Kristin, Andrea, and Casey hardly slept at all while traveling).
The Adhikari’s are incredibly gracious and very grateful that we are here. Albert and Metali speak very good English and have two sons, Anik and Ayon. Tomorrow we start our ministry so please pray that everything goes well, and for our health and safety.
XOXO,
Andrea
Addendum from Jen: Tonight we all enjoyed the fun experience of our first rickshaw rides, trip to the open-air market, and a fun evening after of visiting Metali’s mother, sipping delicious tea and giggling at little 2-year-old Ayon kicking the soccer ball around. We also got to watch a caravan of honking motorcycles waving their Brazil flag in anticipation of the World Cup Game. All of us wanted to be sure to get this blog to you as soon as possible but we’ve been without internet for a few days. Thanks for your support and understanding and prayers family and friends. We’re all doing great, feeling great, and loving our experience so far. Oh one last thing, the title of the blog is the Christian greeting here, Emmanuel!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
It's a small world after all.
We're in DUBAI! All safe and sound and waiting for our next flight. The first leg, our 16 hour flight, was great. We flew over the top of the world, so it was light the entire time, until we landed in the evening- just after the sun had set here. I guess the other side of the plan had a pretty spectacular view of the sunset, but we missed it. The consensus is that it felt like less than 16 hours- which is always nice. We basically loved flying Emirates! Lots of entertainment options (movies, tv shows, video games, etc), mostly decent airplane food, fairly comfortable seats, etc.
I don't think most of us really know what time or what day it is right now, but that's ok, because it's going to change again after our next flight to Dhaka. The plan was to take a puddle jumper from Dhaka to Khulna, where we will be staying; but instead we're going to have an 8 hour chartered van ride. I think we're all in agreement that this was a good move.
Dubai airport isn't as spectacular as some of us thought it would be, after hearing about Dubai and all of its incredible architecture and sights; but it is nice and has all the amenities that any international airport would offer. We're a little bummed that we got here after dark and weren't able to see any of the buildings or islands that we've heard so much about- but maybe we'll get a look when we pass through here on the way back.
While we waited for board our plane at LAX, Andrea and Jen tried to teach Danielle and Casey the card game, Rook. It was a valiant effort, but Casey and Danielle could probably use some more practice.
As we were deplaning this guy walked past our group and asked if we were from APU. Jen loved that. Guess it is a bit of a small world.
Special thanks to Stan Leach for the tip on Starbucks by gate 1 at Dubai Airport. We found that AS SOON as we cleared airport security, and we're all very thankful for that nugget. Might have been even better if the barista had any idea about the exchange rate. He made his best guess and we all paid somewhere between $5 -$8 USD for tall coffee drinks. After Starbucks we found our gate and opted for a little exploring just to see what we could see and kill some time. Felisha pulled out her camera and played the tourist. Casey soon joined in and we quite the sight, I'm sure.
We still have a few hours before our 2am flight and everyone's napping, reading, and journaling now. We have felt your prayers and are grateful for you, our extended team, and all of your support. You cannot know what it means to embark on this adventure knowing all of you are behind us, praying for us, and encouraging us.
With Love in Christ,
Casey (for Team Bangladesh)
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