Travelling to new lands!!

As the call to prayer bellows out over the city of Dhaka it’s a reminder to me that I have left India and touched down in Bangladesh.  That along with the fact that as my host was telling me about a certain town today I asked him how big that town might be?  His response was ‘oh maybe 2 million people’!  That’s when you know you are in a land of 165,000 million people in the area of perhaps 1/3 the size of Manitoba.  Wouldn’t Toronto with its 2-3 million people like to be called a ‘town’!

Numerous thoughts have struck me these last few days as I have visited this wonderful country.  In a conversation on my first day I was here, I found myself wondering how the history of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan ties into the current state of mission in this country? The history of India is a fascinating story.  Of course in 1947 the British left and India gained its independence, along with Pakistan and East Pakistan (which later became Bangladesh) after a brutal civil war in 1971.  But it was not an easy transition.  Though India longed for independence, they struggled at first to govern this great nation, and as a result for a short time, asked the British to help rule even though India and Pakistan were now independent countries.  And so the struggle began – trying to end colonialism, while having India realize they were capable of governing their own country.  And though it was a transition, today India is a strong nation and as I hear about some of the things coming out of this land, they are leading the way in aspects of technology.  I think this history has impacted mission here in Bangladesh.

For years beginning with William Carey the west brought the gospel to a land that didn’t have a gospel witness and thus needed the West to be the pioneers in mission.  Today I sit here, having the opportunity to visit a thriving, Bangladesh church, and I have spent the last few days on some lovely walks through the countryside with these leaders, having been given the opportunity to worship in their midst.  And yet in some ways the struggle is probably still there.  The West still thinking it must bring the mission and gospel to this land, while this church partnering with the West while being free to lead and operate the mission as they see God calling them too, because they are the ones so very capable of doing so.  And way beyond capable they are the ones most suited to bring the gospel to the cities and villages of Bangladesh.  Being among these people, and having been given the opportunity to worship together with leaders in this church just continues to raise for me the questions of what is the Western role in mission today, and how do we best partner with this strong Asian church?

 

As I strolled through the fields of Bangladesh yesterday, came upon a memorial to a young man who was martyred for his faith - beaten to death in the fields while proclaiming the name of Jesus. Became even more sobering when this young man's Mom came and stood by me telling me she was the mother of this man who gave his life for the gospel.  Found myself quietly trying to take in the scope of what I was experiencing.  A moment when I feel weakened in my proclamation of the gospel and yet built up at the same time to boldly proclaim the gospel of Christ no matter the cost - the very thing this young man did!!