I didn’t have time to write a blog post for last week so here’s a report of our annual Fellowship Meeting.😃 Our members are in charge of hosting and pulling this event off. The missionaries plan revivals and they do fellowship. There was some drama before hand but the day of everything was pulled off very well. Shanto hired decorators to put up a big tent that everyone could eat under and hired a cook to cook for everyone. The Kulna brethren were responsible for different parts. Liton was in charge of fire wood, someone in charge of buying the vegetables, etc. We had it all day Saturday and part of the day Sunday. Saturday breakfast was supposed to be at 8 sharp. Shanto said emphasis on the sharp part. He had been grumbling that the foreigners blame the Bengalis when the schedule doesn’t go as planned and then here it’s the foreigners that are the late ones! We got there around 8:30 and breakfast was just being served. Some of us quick ate cornflakes at Trevor’s before we went. Kichuri was the meal of the morning! Quite a few of the members from away had arrived Friday evening already. Quite a crew… Josna, Sumita, Ang, Michael and Monica, Kobid, Samir, Liton, Hadun, Kokhon and Beauty, Shanto and Sotti… It was real feel of 114*. So we all had a grand opportunity for a lesson in endurance.😂 Right before church started Shotti came hauling through the crowd with the three massive ducks that needed to be butchered for Saturday’s meal. During the service the cooks butchered the old boogers. The ducks were stationed right outside the outhouse before the slaughtering took place. Layton had to use the bathroom right then during church so I had to go with him. I don’t blame him. I do not care for ducks whether they are alive or dead. While we were out in the outhouse Ridoy came out of church headed the same direction. He told me his brother got bit on the leg by ducks once because he knows him and I share a mutual fear of ducks. I went into where the food was being stored just to see what was in the tent and everything was COVERED in flies. I just laughed and laughed. Sometimes in the mission you just have to surrender to what is. Can you imagine the Hesston food committee having fly covered food and butchering ducks?😂🤣 I try my best to not compare Bangladesh to Kansas but sometimes one simply must acknowledge the stark differences so one can laugh in order to cope! We had a sermon in the morning which surprisingly didn’t last as long as I thought it would. Had a cha break and then a members meeting about getting the church registered in Bangladesh. This is something that has been an ongoing topic for several years already. The meeting was an air and share. Per Ripon’s research in order for the church to get registered in this country, we need to have a seven person committee complete with secretary, treasurer and chairman. We need a meeting three times a year and be able to show minutes from those meetings. Several members were quite concerned about this so called committee. Other churches get a committee here and it’s not long and the committee becomes the boss. The CSI men emphasized strongly that this committee is only a legal thing and registering the church would enable us to put a sign up on our building, purchase land for a church, and in the future we could maybe even get a missionary visa instead of a work permit. It was explained in deep detail that being on this committee does not mean you are the minister or the leader or the boss. You are a team. The chairman is of course a coveted position but the CSI men emphasized that the chairmen is not taking control of the church he is only the spokesmen for what the rest of the committee has decided. Most were in support of this moving forward but three men were not. The meeting eventually dispersed. For lunch we had rice, chicken and dal. It was really good. The dal looked abit sketchy but they had used a different type of lentils that I wasn’t familiar with. I didn’t eat much because I was still recovering from a round of parasites. Us ladies and kids stayed until after lunch. By then the heat was causing some mamas and small children to not cope very well. I did have a small fit because Shania was down in the dirt where all Shotti’s goats and ducks and cats are. I hope she doesn’t get worms. I squirted hand sanitizer on her booster seat tray before she ate off of it because of all the flies and made Layton wash his hands good. I try so hard to not let my OCD take over. Went back to Trevor’s house because we just couldn’t handle the heat any longer. We were all wet from head to toe from sweat. I was glad I had brought Gatorade for the kids with as much as they were sweating.. Anyways we took the kids home and We turned on all the ACs and turned the house into an ice box. We all laid down and fell asleep and slept for several hours. Shanto said no one needed to rest in the afternoon and church would resume at 3. Well the men messaged us and said everyone was resting😂 Went back around 5 and had more church. A short worship service. After it was done we all walked to the river and looked at how high the water had been from the cyclone. It was so much cooler by the water and there was a nice wind so we stayed for awhile and cooled off. I love going to the river and watching all the boats! Quite a few fishermen had nets set up. Walked back to Shanto’s and ate more rice and then made a beeline back to Trevor’s to cool off again. Everyone pretty much went straight to bed. Around 10:15pm I noticed the whole house was quiet. That’s one for the books, usually after the kids are in bed us adults all stay up late and have coffee and visit. When it’s so hot no one has much energy for anything. Sunday morning the men headed to Shanto’s around 8:30 for dim and ruti. Us ladies stayed home with the children. They were so wore out from the day before. They played quiet and hardly fought which is abit unusual for 8 kids. Anyways… Krystal came home mid morning with her baby. Poor Edward was so hot. He calmed as soon as he got into the cool house. Doyle came flying home and got Gatorade and Tylenol for all the men. They had another members meeting about the church registration. The majority still felt in favor of it. The three brethren that were very vocally against it decided to not participate and stay home which caused some frustration. One of them was eventually persuaded to come but he still refused to vote. So they did a ballot vote for seven positions. Monica got the chair man! All the members here look up to her and have great respect for her. Every members meeting she speaks up and says things just how they are. She is such a sweetheart. It was neat to see the rest of the members confidence in her. Jared Doyle and Trevor had to use google translate to read the names but eventually they got it all sorted out. Us ladies all took the kids for lunch. I was really worried when I got there and saw Jared. He had red welts on his neck from the heat. Lunch was duck. None of the white people ate any. Jared tried but got mostly bones in his serving. I did not let my children eat anything other than rice. The dal was like pea soup with a thick scum on it. The next morning several people woke up sick and was I ever glad I had not let the children eat it. Anyways after lunch the meeting dispersed. Went back to Trevor’s and the men all cooled off and slept. Doyle’s headed back to Golpaganj. We spent the rest of the day and night at Trevor’s. Monday morning Trevor and Jared went into Kulna to the bank and got a few details taken care of. We got back to Pink City around 4:30. So good to be back home. It is so much cooler here. Cool enough we even went out and took a walk! Looks like we might have had a good rain though this afternoon at some point. Layton went straight to his Legos and sat and built for quite awhile and Shania walked around the house making sure everything was in order.
Found out that Trevor’s didn’t get a replacement this time at board meeting. We all felt kinda blue about it. Darrell says Bangladesh is priority at the next meeting in September. Hopefully third time is a charm. I used to get kinda weary about all the plea for mission workers. Mostly because I was fighting inside about Jared wanting to go to the mission in the first place. But when you are the one in the mission and your colleagues time is up and there’s no replacement it sure hits different. God will provide…. Lisa and I decided God must have someone very specific in mind for Bangladesh. They are just not quite ready yet!!
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