Bangladesh Update #5

4 and a half weeks sure fly by! It is crazy that outreach is almost half over. We made it safely to Dhaka on the 8th and then we made it to Khulna on the morning of the 11th. We are staying with a pastor's house(in a smaller village outside of Khulna) which is connected to the church and a primary school that they started and run. They are amazing couple who has devoted their entire lives to ministry, as they put it "21 years of marriage 21 years of ministry". Ministry has been a lot of house visits, walking to different villages (we are working off our rice bellies with all the walking). It's definitely a different cultures in the villages as we just walk into someone's yard and they stop what they are doing bring out chairs and snacks. They sit and listen to us until we leave doesn't matter really how long. Some of the houses we have visited already know Pastor and his family and know the gospel but haven't accepted. Majority of the families we meet here are Hindus, and most have a little shrine in their house for the god (or gods) they worship as well as a little tree that they worship in their courtyard. Favorite ministry day in Khulna so far: So yesterday (Jan. 15/15 it weird to write 2015) on our morning house visits we were walking along and came to this cluster of houses with kids playing to the yard. We sat down and played games with the kids, shared the gospel with the women and children and had snacks. We were finishing our snacks when our translator (Richard) asked if we wanted to go or wanted to stay a bit longer. We were about to leave when one of the men pulled up on a flatbed rickshaw with a boar on it. We asked what they were going to do with it and Richard said they were going to butcher it. We decided to stay and watch. Now this boar was huge, probably close to 200 pounds! We watched as they stabbed it in the heart (I've decided that a shot to the head is much nicer than stabbing) and started to skin and butcher it. Our leader Colin held the cut off head of the boat and said the head alone weighed probably between 35-40 pounds. And don't worry we got video of most of this process. We thought that was the excitement for the day, but at the end of our house visits we visited this one lady's home. She was an older Hindu lady and she knew Pastor and his family. We started talking to her, she brought out snacks the usual. When she started telling us a little bit about her testimony we found out that her daughter was married and living in India (so she never saw her) and her son had committed suicide 7 years ago. She explained how they invested everything (sold land, livestock, gold jewelry, their life savings) into their son's university education in hopes that he would get a good job and take care of them in their old age. Her husband works as a driver in Khulna, they have just enough food to eat but no excess. What really got me was when she said, "My son's death is my punishment for all my sins." I know my sins are forgiven but she doesn't. Her storied burdened my heart so I told her my story about dad and how bad things happen. I hope to go back to visit her and continue talking with her. I love living in the village out of the city reminds me of home. Prayer request : quite a few of us have been sick this past week with what we think is the stomach flu, we are feeling better but are still a bit weak. Continue to prayer for health and safety for my team. Thank you all for your prayers and support! Love Melissa