Libraries

In January's survey trip I met a pastor in northern India that impressed me. He impressed me not because of his charisma, his large church, or anything I saw upon meeting him; but rather after talking to this pastor and the people around his village I saw a humility and a Christ-likeness that I hadn't yet seen in the dozen other pastors I'd met in South Asia. Most pastors I had met wanted to talk about themselves, or preached a watered down gospel, or just said some nice things people wanted to hear. This pastor wanted to talk about Jesus and church planting and discipling other believers.
Out of curiosity to see what this effective man of God was reading, I asked to see his library. It had maybe 10 books, mostly Bibles. Some books were in English, some were in Hindi or Punjabi. This particular pastor speaks and reads English very well and said he wanted some more books. I said that if I ever came back, I would bring him some good books; not knowing at the time that I would actually get to fulfill this promise.

When it worked out for me to return to South Asia, I knew that at some point I would be able to travel back to this village and see this pastor so I made a list of some books I thought would be good: MacArthur commentary, ESV study Bible, Systematic Theology... I told a couple elders at church about my plan to give this pastor some books and asked if they had any other recommendations. The elders ended up adding to my list and buying all of the books for him!
A few weeks ago I was able to travel to this brother's village! In May I left the books in Delhi India with a friend, and when I saw them again I remembered just how many there were and got really excited again! We put them in a huge bag to take to him.
We got there around lunchtime. In my opinion, his wife makes the best Indian food and chai tea in all of India. After lunch and tea I told him I had a gift from my church and myself. I pulled out all these books that I think doubled his library. He didn't really know what to say but I could tell he was excited and grateful. For some reason unbeknownst to me, Indians don't smile in pictures, but in the photo of him and the books, he has a huge grin!
It was great to see him again and hear of all the new people becoming part of the Kingdom, people being baptized, people being discipled, and churches being planted. With all the crazy theology floating around South Asia, its good to know God is using this man to preach the Word. I hope that these new resources help him continue to learn and preach the Bible.

Snapshot

I haven't written an update in a while. I've been busy, but its mostly because the new life where everything is different, weird and cool, is now just normal everyday life.

This is a bit random but here's an update of whats been going on in my 'normal' life the last month.

The boss left for a 3 month sabbatical so for a while I was the only foreigner working with the company side of things in the office. His boss came in for a month to help run things, and it was good to have another Westerner around. He's gone now though, so its me and a girl from Australia who just got back from a long vacation. I'm learning tons about international business and getting some great on hands experience.

There is an American aid organization that wants our company to open up some operations in some areas they are working in. Our pitch is that if they help us access the American market, we'll have to expand our operations and will go where they are working. They supposedly set up a time for us to do a presentation at the US embassy for the ambassador and some other important people with lots of connections. I spent days and put together this great presentation with video and pictures that I and 2 others were going to present and then the day before our appointment, the company called and said their was some miscommunication and we'd have to reschedule. Our boss gets back next month so I'll try and get it scheduled then. Miscommunication...such is life here.

Summer is a time that lots of people leave Bangladesh, so there haven't been that many people at church, and all the care-groups have been on hold so solid Christian fellowship has been slow. There is one Bengali brother (we'll call him Hassan) who I've spoken about before; he and I get together at least once a week to look at scripture and pray together. He is one of my best friends over here. He is really living the Christian life as a Muslim background believer. Its 'easy' for me to be a Christian here. I'm white, I'm from the West, everyone like that is a Christian in the minds of people here. Hassan is harrased at work for not going to the mosque with his colleagues, and harassed by his parents and in-laws for being a Christian. He thanks me for getting together with him and says it is a blessing and encouragement. I wonder though if its not me that is getting the bigger blessing. It is a gift from God to see this candle trying to burn so brightly amongst so much darkness. I'm glad that I can encourage him and pray with him.

I'm going to be a Bengali TV star. Somehow I met a famous Bengali writer/director/show host maybe equivalent to Regis Philbin. One of the shows he does a couple times a year features foreigners who dress up like Bengalis, do normal Bengali things and speak in Bangla. When about 30 of us went to rehearsal the night before shooting the show he asked who spoke good Bangla...one girl next to me pointed at me and said "He does." I don't think I speak great Bangla after 3 months here, but long story short I got the role with the most lines...all in Bangla! I stayed up late memorizing all my lines and was back at the studio the next morning for shooting. The show will air in the middle of September after Ramadan. I'm not sure if I want the extra popularity...we'll see what happens.

One of my neighbors, a German guy, is living here working on his masters thesis paper. The paper is about the difference between social work/business that is only socially motivated, and social work/business that is faith motivated. He wanted to interview me. For over an hour I answered questions about poverty, Bangladesh, development, the needs I see here, why I'm here, my goals, do I share my faith, and on and on. It was interesting, hopefully we'll get to spend more time together and have more discussions off the record.

Many of the relationships I formed with guys at Bible study have slowed down. They usually don't want to come to my side of town, and there's no good place to meet on their side. We've gotten together at some coffee shops recently and they keep turning the conversations "Can you help me get a job" or "Can you help me get a visa to the USA?" One of these guys I'm going to continue to meet with, the others...they need some prayer, I can only hear these questions so many times in a week. Its so obvious to me that there is a need for business as missions, all these young university graduates (and a couple million non-graduates) need jobs and thats the need they want to focus on and talk about before they talk about their need for a Savior. They don't see their need for a Savior, they only see their need for a job and for food. As I read the gospels I see Jesus time and time again meet a physical need and THEN after He has people's attention, He meets their spiritual need. In theory I can write off the needs around me and say "well, I can only meet so many" but in actuality, I can't! I see them, they call out to me for help, I can't help them, and it stresses me out and breaks my heart.

Every 3 months I have to leave the country because of my visa requirements so last week I went to India. It was a breath of fresh air (once I got out of Delhi.) Of course, I got to see Amanda and we had a great time. I stayed with some friends of her's I stayed with in January. It was cool to see them again and play with their kids. One night I went with one of the missionaries their to a church that has started in a nearby slum. Just before dark we wandered through the dirt streets amongst small brick buildings. Kids were playing with old tires, adults were cooking rice and lintels. 9 guys showed up as the power went out and we lost our 1 bulb we were using for light. We lit a candle and 2 guys had flashlights on their phones. I shared my story with the guys and they listened intently as someone translated. Then we talked about repentance and baptism and sang some songs in Hindi. It was great to see God building His church in the slums of northern India.
We did some stuff with the different people in her city most of the time, took a trip to the mountains for a couple days, but overall I just relaxed. It was a good break from work and life in Bangladesh.

I'm half-way done with my term here. In some ways its gone slow, others very fast. This week I'm going to do a sort of assessment of how I've achieved for not achieved the goals I've set for myself, and whether or not to adjust my focus for the last 3 months. Pray for me as I do this assessment and head into the last half of my term. God has done some cool things and I want to see Him do even more! I want to finish strong. For those who are supporting me financially, thank you, and please don't forget to actually do so. Thank you all for your prayers, support, and your emails/comments of encouragement.