So once again, the apologies. Bangladesh has been good so far, but frusturating. The day we arrived was Ramadan, which is their Christmas...so nothing nwas open for a few days. then Dhaka broke out into riots for about 4 days...so stores stayed closed and all public transportation stopped since they throw bricks and objects at buses. During our first week here we have only have had 2 days of ministry. But what is good, is that the team here from maui is really drianed. They are tired of being here and just want to go home. 5 of them have had or have Dengy fever (which is just as bad, if not worse then malaria), and two of them were the leaders of the team. So the team had no leaders and students had to step it up a bit. Yesturday we (amy jord and i) stayed behind at our house and took the time for prayer. We have felt like we needed direction. Yesturday was our first day back into ministry, and today we went to the slums of Dhaka, and man is this country really hurting, unbelieveable. i have never seen so many naked children in my life. This is not right, yet i feel numb to it. I have been seeing this for a couple months now, and it bothers me that im not bothered by it. you cannot go anywhere in the streets without someone coming up to you with their child, broken leg, or just random children walking the streets begging for money - no paretns, no adults. Yet what can we do...nothing.casue we are not sure if they actually need to money. We have decided to start carrying food around with us and give it to them. I came out of this slum today feeling sooo dirty, children grabbing onto your hands with snot coming out of thier noses, fevers, old ragged clothes, i even saw this little boy with green fluid coming out of his ear! And this is what they live in all day everyday. We went to a day care centre to just hold the children...and i had to just forget about the environment i was in, and hold that child and not let go. It was a great moment.
God has been teaching me a ton, mainly just about my faith, and the sincereity of it. How much am I willing to give up, what i believe, and is my faith just a result of my environment, or is it truly sincere; a faith that holds unswerevingly to the fact that God created this earth, that He made everyone of those children, their eyes, movement in their hands and body, their personality, their soul. That the Bible is a story of God's Love, and absolute desire and passion for mankind, and a relationship with Him. And the demonstration of that passion is sending Jesus Christ to live and die and RISE again. And a faith that believes that not only did Jesus live, was God, and is still God, but also Rose form the dead and now sits with God in Heaven at his right hand to hear our prayers and vouch for us everyday( the reason why we can pray and be in his presence). Being in a muslim dominate population makes that much more harder to believe in what seems so illogical, and unrational - yet the only truth. The Spirtual oppression here is unbelievable. Daily, thoughts of unbelief in God and His power and existance, constantly run through my head. I have been needing to spend more time in His word and prayer in the country. At first i thought it was me thinking these doubts, but i realized of how much the enemy is in this country, and He doesn't want to leave. God has been protecting us, and will continue to.
We have one more week left in Bangladesh and then we head off to Indonesia. Thank you so much for your prayers and support, it helps, it really does. God has been using this time to tst my faith and my loyalty to Him, and i couldn', and wont be abl e to continue to do this without your prayers. Please be praying specifically for the health of our team that the maui team here since it is the peak season for malaria and Dengy fever. And of course patiance, kindness, and love for the people in this country, and rememberance of why we are here. We are having a great time here, and really enjoying our contacts here, and the team. The team really needed us and continuely tell us of how thankful they are for us to be here.
i will try to update before we leave here, thanks again.
Can i leave you guys with one last word? Please take come time to evaluate the sincereity of your faith. Do you truly Believe everything God is, and living out your faith? Is it faith, or is it just beliefs?
Revelation 3:15-16 "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are
lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to
spit you out of my mouth."
This is what I am going through and debating in my head recently - are my beliefs my faith, or just beliefs.............faith without deeds is dead.
Are you willing ... to be a Christian?