Toongabbie Anglican Church Blog

Current Mission Activities

Latest from Bangaldesh — July 11

Tuesday 12 July, 2005 · Posted by Neil Atwood

Hi all

We all made it back from Kaligram in more or less one piece. Towards the end a few of us had tummy bugs/fevers etc. We are getting over them but please pray for continued healing.

Today we are having an unplanned day off before heading off to Dhaka (the capital) tomorrow.�

Kaligram was an interesting experience₀ It was very challenging for some to come face to face with poverty and the standard of living in rural Bangladesh. On a slightly funnier note (but still quite challenging) was the team dealing with the bathrooms we had to use.The boys suffered from a lack of privacy and a range of wildlife (one frog, one mouse, a cricket and grasshopper plus mozzies). The girls though more private had to deal with a toilet that wouldn't flush very well, a leech, a spider and several toads. Their room and our dining room was also frequented by a couple of cats and a large dog. The only animals we liked were the geckos as they helped limit the bug population.

To limit the frog population a number of young boys armed with sticks would nightly come in and round them up. They emerged from the bathroom with half a dozen slightly flattened toads dangling by their feet and a very satisfied look on their faces (the boys not the toads).�

While we were there we did a number of things. We ran a couple of chapel services (songs, magic, drama). We did lessons for the entire school in 2 big classes, and went on a village outreach to talk to a local Hindu family about Christianity.

An encouraging time was when we listened (through translation) to the testimonies of several Muslim converts to Christianity. They showed amazing faith and love for Jesus, many suffering persecution, death threats etc in the first few weeks of coming to Christ. Many had been kicked out of their families and communities. Those who had been Christians for longer told amazing stories of them bringing their families and other families to Christ. One man said that over the past 20 ish years he has brought 900 people to the Lord through setting up churches as well as personal evangelism. �The centre is doing a wonderful job of equipping new believers to share their faith with their families and villages.

That's about all for now. Thanks for your prayers, please continue to pray for our safety and wellbeing, hope all is going well back at home

Murray, Ellie, Jess, Sarah, Lorien, Ben, Graydon, Maram and Quy.

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