Mission Voice Article

 Mission Voice

Jared and Brianna Regehr 

Dhaka, Bangladesh 

July 2024

 

Greetings (Nomoskar) from Bangladesh. We came to Dhaka in November 2022. Moving from a rural area of Kansas to one of the mostdensely populated cities in the world has been an adjustment. Over time, we have come to love the people and culture and enjoy our work here. 

The population of our city is ~25 million. The geographical size of Dhaka is 100 square miles. For comparison, the city of Wichita, Kansas has a population of ~450,000 in 160 square miles. When we are out and about, we never lack for interesting things to see. People riding on top of the trains and buses. Rickshaws piled high with bags of vegetables and with the vendor riding on top. Motorcycles with a father, mother, and two-three children riding on it. Trucks with stacks of rice in burlap bags piled twice as high as the sides of the bed of the truck. Double decker buses that lean to one side (it is amazing that the buses don’t tip over). Traffic jams with vehicles flowing and moving in every direction. Markets with fruit and vegetables stacked high and the vender sitting in the middle of the pile. Colorful clothing drying on the railings of the apartment buildings. Children flying kites made from twigs and old plastic or using an old foam container as a toy boat in the gutter. People sleeping on the raised curb beside the road, inches away from the buses and cars driving by. Goats tied up on the roof of a market (probably no room for them on the street). Cement buildings in various stages of construction for as far as the eye can see. Driving in this busy city has been somewhat of a sanctification at times, with the rickshaws, buses, CNGs (green three-wheelers that are used to haul people and goods), motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians vying for a spot on the road. Recently a Metrorail (subway) was opened, along with an elevated expressway, which is comparable to an interstate at home, in hopes of improving traffic congestion. To see the teeming crowds of humanity constantly moving around, leaves one wondering, how does one reach the ones that are searching for God? How many are longing for a relationship with a loving God that extends grace and mercy versus an Allah who determines your salvation on a good deeds versus bad deedsscale?

We are here under CSI. We have a small office/clinic and medication dispensary. It is open three mornings a week from 10am to 1pm. We see up to 40 patients a day. We allow only women and children to participate in our program. Many women come for vitamins or medications for minor illnesses or underlying medical conditions like thyroid issues, hypertension, or diabetes. The women can come once a month for vitamins and prenatals. We have many cleft lip/cleft palate babies and children come through our program. In our last fiscal year (June 2023-June 2024) we helped 100 children who suffer from cleft lip and palate problems. They come and are evaluated by our physician, who refers them to a local hospital. They get blood work done and have their surgery at the hospital. Depending on the severity of the lip/palate, many children come back multiple times to have lips, palates and cosmetic facial surgery done. It is beautiful to see a child come back from the hospital with a closed lip and a beautiful full smile. The babies and children come back and stay at the clinic for several days afterwards to rest and heal. We give them the antibiotics and other medications that they may need. After surgery they can only have milk for nutrition. We assist with this as well and have a milk program to assist with this. Many babies come from surrounding villages, so they will stay until their post-op appointment. We have two employees that live at the clinic. They cook meals for the mother and the baby and help care for the babies as needed. 

We also occasionally assist in some major medical expenses. A family must bring in doctors notes, cash memos, and reports from blood tests and/or X-rays to receive reimbursement for a major medical event. We also use any Bible School funds that we receive from home to help in these areas. Last year we used some Bible School funds for a girl that was electrocuted and received severe burns to her arm, which eventuallyrequired amputation. There are so many that beg for assistance. It is hard to discern who to help. We also have those that fake an illness or disability. They will bring fake or old cash memos to get some extra cash. We think of the song, “Oh to be His hand extended… Reaching out to the oppressed. Let me touch Him, Let me touch Jesus, so that others may know and be blessed.” 

We have three members here in Dhaka currently. Two are faithful attendees and one has chosen not to worship with us currently. We hold a church service every Friday morning at the CSI clinic, along with a singing meeting one evening a week. Being a Christian in this country is challenging. The Muslim faith is very dominant and overpowering. We are reminded of this many times, as the prayer call from many mosques around goes wailing through the air 5 times a day. Dhaka has ~6,000 mosques. This is to ensure that every Muslim can hear the call to prayer. Christians are the extreme minority here. It is not uncommon for an employer to hire a Muslim over a Christian. We are not able to pass out tracts currently. We do have a few tract racks in some Christian clinics that we keep filled. Occasionally we will receive emails asking for our tracts and/or Bibles. 

At times we feel discouraged with the lack of growth in our church here in Bangladesh, but over time there has been some growth. Pray for our church that the members can strengthen their relationship with each other and God. We know a slow growing tree has more strength than a quick growing plant that quickly withers and dies.

September 2024

 Well just like that September is over. Seems as though we just blinked and zip it’s over. I’ll see if I can recount the months events in a precise non rambling manner. 

The biggest highlight was that Brandon and Jennifer Koehn and their family from Mize Mississippi came to visit for 10 days. Josna and Sumita have looked forward to this for months. Honestly we all have. We have heard much about Brandon boss! They flew in Friday at 2 in the morning. Bring the robust souls they are they came to church with us. It was so fun to see Josna and Sumita giggle and carry on in the excitement, Nathon was overjoyed as well! A lot of backslapping and carrying on was had. These people love when former missionaries come to visit. I don’t know who gets more excited Nathon or Josna and Sumita!  We took Brandon’s out to lunch to Shuktara. It was so enjoyable to visit with them and hear how things were back in their day. They couldn’t believe how much Dhaka has changed in the past 8 years. They were impressed with Al the plants and trees planted in the medians on the streets. We shopped Farmgate for a bit then they went off on their own and we came back to pink city. They spent most of their time here over in the Kulna area. We were so glad they could because now since no one is there, it helped a lot that they could go spend time with those people. All too soon it was time for them to leave. Monday before they left, the clinic girls made beef curry, shrimp curry, pilau, sobji and pyash. Some of us clearly thought it was our last meal and ate accordingly. It’s so fun to the visitors children’s reaction to this country and culture! Looked like Brandon’s kids just jumped right in. After being here, I think every youth age person should visit another country to broaden their horizons. It changes a person. 

Shania is 18 months now. This past month she has really grown and started doing a lot more new things. It is quite evident that she is very observant. I saw her pick up my phone the other day and use her dress to clean the screen off.😂 She loves to give hug and kisses to daddy and Layton. She will just go up to Layton and want to hug him. One day she came up behind me when I was sitting and she tried to rub my shoulders.  We are SLOWLY making progress with getting her to sleep through the night. Those parents that have their kids sleeping through the night at 6 weeks old… good for them. The rest of us try. She is starting to enjoy playing with her dollie. She wraps it up and holds it and bounces it and goes “sssssss.” My heart cannot even. Shana has been trying to get her to talk, She is getting quite a vocabulary!  On the days when there is school and clinic Shania is quite sad when everyone leaves. She likes “her” people close by. She stands at the door and cries. 

Layton is still really enjoying school. He likes to come home and tell me the latest Mercy Watson happening from Story hour. He always hopes it’s a science experiment day. One day they put gummy worms in baking soda and vinegar. And another day they put mentos in coke. He too seems like he is getting really tall. Had to go through his shirts the other day and take out the small ones. We bought him a cricket bat and ball and Nathon has been teaching him how to play cricket when he comes over. Layton jumps at Scootie rides any chance he gets! One morning I took him with me when I went to get dim and ruti for breakfast. It’s a little restaurant maybe 5 minutes down the road. Shana and I go there at least once a week and pick up breakfast. (We can feed our whole family breakfast for $3) We were sitting in there waiting on our order to be done and one of the local high school students came in. Layton whispered “is he a protestor?” I said “no I don’t think so.” Anytime we get caught in a traffic jam he wonders if it’s because of a protest. 

Jared keeps busy with clinic like usual. The numbers are slowly creeping up. 40-45 patients are starting to become more and more common. Every so often we close the clinic for a day or so and it keeps the crowds at bay. One day they had 5 patients and their mamas back in the patient room. Last week Jared was inflicted with dengue (a mosquito carried virus). One Friday after church we were grocery shopping and he told me had body aches. I told him it was probably from the heat because it was very hot that day and he was dripping by the time church was over. We got home and by evening he had high fever. Lasted several days and the body aches were really bad. He came downstairs shuffling like an old man. He spent two days in bed just because it hurt too much to move. 2 days after his fever broke he got a rash all over his body. He itched like I have never seen a person itch. Reminded me of some of my liver patients that itched. He literally was climbing the walls. It seemed worst at night and he could sleep because the itch was beyond miserable. He took so many different things and nothing seemed to help. I prayed and prayed that God would ease the itch for him so he could finally rest. Eventually it eased up. By now his rash is mostly gone and the itch has mostly subsided. He still has achy joints but from what we’ve heard that can persist for awhile. We are thankful he wasn’t sicker. This time of year there is a lot of people being hospitalized from it. 

We took a few days off of life and went to Rajshahi. We have never been there! We weren’t ever able to make it when Elwoods were there because I was large with child at that point. It is beautiful there. Lush green jungle. The drive there was interesting! Lots of road construction, narrow two lane road where you play chicken and dodge the oncoming traffic and get ran off the road by the buses. The rice paddies were thick and green and on the levvis were mango trees. Oh my…. “Too much beautiful” like these people say. The mango groves and banana tree groves were immaculately groomed to perfection. At one place along the road it looked like a wholesale banana place. Thousands and thousands of banana bunches were all on the ground waiting to be sold or shipped off. We passed a lot of trucks and CNGs that were packed full of them! The banana bunches are so heavy, I saw a grown man carrying just one and it looked like quite a chore. I’ve always wanted to count how many bananas are on those things. We got into Rajshahi and what a neat place. Literally… hardly any trash on the roads at all. Shana noticed that even the sewer cutters along the edge of the street didn’t have trash in them. The River Levvi was built up quite high and it was covered in plants and bushes. Quite a sight for our Dhaka eyes!!  We splurged abit and got a nice motel with a pool on the roof. It was 13 stories high. From the pool we could see a great view of the river and could faintly see India even. Shana thought maybe she would just swim across and go see her old haunts😂 the first day there we got there around 2:30, checked in and admired the luxury that beheld us. Spent the rest of the day there at the motel, swimming in the pool for hours and then had supper at the restaurant there. Jared rested a lot since he was still achy and itchy. Shana and the kids and I spent the evening at the pool again. There was a small cafe beside the pool so we got us some dessert to enjoy. The second day, we drove around and enjoyed the beauty and cleanliness some more, took some easy bikes and drove to the river and walked along it for abit. It started to rain and rained and rained so back to the motel we went! Later in the day we went to Michael’s and had snack with them and visited for several hours. It was so different seeing this time. The past two times we’ve visited them it was in Kishorganj. Michaels brother and family, Michaels mom, their three children and several other family members all lived with them! Now it’s just Michael, Monica, Marcie and Anamkia and Michaels mother living there. Felt kinda empty! Michael was very sleepy and his speech was slurred. Him and Jared were still able to visit. I really enjoyed seeing Monica again. We back the next day and had lunch with them. Monica’s cooking is so delicious! She made chicken curry, pilau, sobji and fried cauliflower! Their family actually ate with us! We had a church service with them. Short. We left for a few hours and went back to the motel and then went back late evening for cha one more time with them. I wished I could have talked more with Monica. She told me she wishes her and the girls could leave and move somewhere else. Michael is not easy to live with and his anger is always the problem. They left him once for awhile earlier in the year. Jared wanted to ask Michael if he was taking his meds like he was supposed to be but he wasn’t sure if that was our place to get involved with that. When we left Monica hugged me and cried. I told her I would pray for her. I got her phone number so I can message her or call her. I felt so guilty after we left. Here they are living in an unfinished cement house. Michael doesn’t work because of his depression/anger issues. They all seem tired and worn of the situation and just want him to better and easier to live with. Here I am in my beautiful house in pink city. And to think I have the nerve to get annoyed when my rugs don’t match or something trivial like that. I felt like such a heel. But it was good for me to see once again that those things don’t matter at all. 

I really think God sent me here to realize that a lot of the things I get worked up over are so dreadfully earthly. 

Once again at the September placement meeting, no one was found to replaced Trevors. This is the third time. Hopefully the fourth time in December will yield fruit. Until then we are waiting… 

Ok, I think I have carried on long enough here! We plan to leave tomorrow for Golpaganj and Kulna. 😊 Love to you all! ❤️