In Which They Have Fellowship…
Friday 8/4: We packed up and left the house around 7:30. It was a few minutes after leaving that we made the sickening discovery that the AC on the van had quit. Thank goodness that it was a cloudy cool day. We drove through rain but kept the windows open otherwise the windshield fogged up. At one point Shania’s burp rag was used as a rag to wipe the fog off the windshield! Since we left on Friday the traffic was good. All of a sudden though things came to a halt, we couldn’t figure out why. As we approached the area we soon realized that many many motorcycles had parked under an overpass to keep out of the rain, so a three lane road was now a 1 lane road. If they would park their bikes somewhat in an orderly fashion along side the road it would help but instead they were all scattered hodge podge thus clogging up the road. Having 5 children 6 and under in the van proved to be controlled chaos. We only stopped once. Seemed like it was best to just power down and keep on hustling. We kept all the windows open the whole way to Kulna to stay cool. I was worried how Layton would handle the trip. He woke me up at 3 am before we left and was having bad stomach cramps. We prayed about it together and finally around 5 he was able to relax enough to go back to sleep. He was much quieter than usual on the way to Kulna. I was so glad we made it there without any vomiting or diarrhea episodes. Got to Kulna around 1230. They have gotten quite abit of rain in the past two weeks! We noticed a lot more standing water in the rice and jute fields. Had a quick lunch and then we all took naps. Around 4 we headed to Santos for fellowship. None of our Dhaka members, Meso and Masi, Beauty and Harun’s wife were unable to come. Harun had the opening and Trevor had the message. After the service everyone took a break and then there was a members meeting. This fellowship this year was the first time that the members themselves were in charge of organizing and orchestrating it. The decision was made last year that us missionaries are merely guests attending. Since so many members did not attend, that was a topic of discussion about why aren’t our members more enthused about the meeting and getting together? Some were planting rice, some didn’t want to pay for their bus fare there, some had ill family members. Reminded me of the parable about no one wanting to attend the banquet. Several of the members do seem to have the vision and realization that if they care about their spiritual life they need to arrange meetings and attend and not always depend and expect CSI to fund it and arrange sleeping arrangements and transportation. (We take care of revivals but not fellowship.) As one member put it “If we care we need to attend.” Another member said “in school our teachers teach us how to do a job and then it’s our responsibility to get a job, the missionaries have come and encourage us and share the gospel so now we need to take responsibility for our spiritual lives.” And I had to chuckle because I do love a good dose of this Bengali honesty…. One member was asked why he wasn’t enthused about coming as he had been one that made a stink about it. He said “I can’t afford to host it at my house.” Another brother said “I didn’t ask about you hosting I asked you why didn’t you want to come?” Then another brother was having another lengthy ramble and the interpreter said “he’s talking and talking but not saying much!”😂We had supper around 8. Rice, Dal and vegetables. We just had the kids plop on the floor and dished out the rice and dal so they would eat and be quiet. By the time super was over Shania had absolutely had it with all the noise. Santos yard was full of mud so the kids were just playing inside their small house. Jared so kindly brought the children and I back to Trevor’s. Some good showers, a cool quiet bedroom and some alone time with mama seem to calm my children’s nerves immensely. I’m learning to not push them once they have reached their limit. It just goes from bad to worse! Tucked them in for the night and after they were asleep we escaped back downstairs to be with the adults. Good times and hilarity followed. Laughter doeth good like a medicine when one is weary from dealing with matters of the soul.
Saturday 8/5: Breakfast was at Santos. Lanae and I stayed at the house with all the children. Santos yard is full of mud and there is a pond right by the church. We just felt better having the children in a bit more of a controlled environment. Sounded like they had a church service and then a members meeting where people could express themselves or share what they felt too. Later we packed up the children and went to Santos for lunch. Had SPICY chicken curry with rice and dal. I thought it was just me thinking it was spicy but all of a sudden the children were all gasping and hollering for water to drink!😂 After lunch fellowship was over. The members left and went to their houses. Jared and Trevor took a van full into Kulna to get on the bus. Santos did an excellent job hosting us all! It was encouraging to see. The rest of us went back to the house and put all the kids down for naps. After naps we turned them loose outside! They had all been begging for sand and water. They all played and played in the sand pile. Right when they were coming in to clean up it poured and poured rain. The kids were so filthy you could hardly see the color of their clothes. So Lanae got a bucket of soapy water and some shampoo and Jared got the hose going. We lined them up and gave them all showers out in the rain. It was hysterical!!!😂 Anyways… same routine as the day before… after the kids were in bed the adults stayed up late. More hilarity ensued. Coffee and bars happened. It feels good to just laugh and be crazy with the others… doeth our souls good! Around 1130 pm Jared and Trevor went to pick out van up from the mechanic. They had dropped it off there earlier in the day to get the AC fixed.
Sunday 8/6: headed towards Golpagange after having breakfast with everyone. Doyle and Jared helped Kelly move all the furniture and meds from his old eye clinic into his new dokan. It’s a brand new building and looked really nice. After that was accomplished we headed for Dhaka. Such relief to have a working AC. The children slept about half of the way home. Made good time and it felt so good to be home!
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