Assalamualaikum!! (Another Hello)

A warm hello from all of us here in Cox's Bazar, Chittagong!!

Since our last update everything has been running pretty smoothly for our team. Our last week in Dinajpur up north was amazing! One afternoon while our team was prophesying over one another, and a Muslim man named Abusalam, who Tyler and Cesar were getting to know, walked into our house, wondering if we were free to visit him and his family. God opened some major doors for us and allowed us to prophesy over him as well and answer some questions that he had. Another day during a village visit, our translator, David, gave us a heads up when we arrived that the villagers here might have questions about Jesus, but none are Christians. So after introducing ourselves, Kenzie and Kelsey shared their testimonies and the Holy Spirit led Cesar to tell them the whole story of the bible, from creation to Jesus coming back. We got to stress to them how much Jesus loves them and that the difference between our God and our religion to others is Jesus. It was awesome to see the men and women listening to every word said and soaking it in. After we finished talking, we asked if anyone wanted to accept Jesus Christ into their hearts and lives. Each member of our team sat in our chairs praying that at least one person would stand up, but God blew us away by having each and every villager listening to us stand and accept Him! It was a HUGE moment not only for the village but also for our team, as God downloaded a lot into our hearts. It was encouraging to see that the villagers were so hungry for God, but it was also really sad that they went their whole lives without even hearing the simple gospel. What could be possible if everyone got to hear the gospel and got that chance to have faith in Him? Later, we had a little "celebration" with them, including Orange Tang drink and cookies, just as the angels were doing in heaven, to welcome our new brothers and sisters. There was so much of God's joy and love there, and God even healed a few women of their back pains and one woman of pain down her whole left side. After leaving that village, we went to eat at someone else's house and a man wandered in and said that he has had back pain for the last 3 years, and couldn't bend over at all. We asked him if he believed that God could heal him and after he said no, prayed over him. After praying, he was asked to try to bend over and he bent and touched his toes!! God worked another miracle, showing His love to that man even though he had no faith. He is soo good! With our time up north coming to an end, we continued to go to the different villages for visits or children's programs. In the last couple of days we got to see a few more healings or people coming to Christ, including one elderly Hindu man. As we left his village, Cesar even got to wipe off the Hindu mark painted on his forehead as Kenzie replaced it with a cross necklace! The month we had in Dinajpur was a huge growing time for each of us individually and as a team, as God spoke to us through our ministry and even just the people around us.

So after some sad goodbyes to our new friends up north, we took our bus to Dhaka on the 14th, and got to stay the night back in the pastor's house that we stayed in during our orientation week. We were hugely blessed to catch up with our YWAM contacts and have a day to unwind before our next bus down to Cox Bazar. 

Since stepping off the bus here, God has once again been blowing our expectations and our minds. We have another amazing contact and translator, Kamajohn, who is so filled with joy and passion for his work here. There is no YWAM presence here in Cox Bazar, which is a big tourist spot for Bangladesh. We are staying a few minutes’ walk from the beach and are surrounded by hotels and busy streets. At first it was a bit of a shock because we went from one of the poorest parts of Bangladesh to one of the richest. As for ministry, so far we have gotten to worship amid the Buddhist temples and proclaim His name over them, and visit a few completely Buddhist villages where Kamajohn has been building relationships. In these villages, we are only the second or third foreign people to come there, and it has been very eye opening to learn about the Buddhist culture and religion. At one village, we asked one man if he had ever learned anything about other religions, like Hinduism or Christianity. He answered that he has no reason to know any other religion because he has Buddhism. At another village, we were invited into their temple to look around, and on our way out were asked to play a song for them. So with God’s help, we got to sing praises to our amazing God right in the middle of a Buddhist temple, with the monks sitting there, watching and smiling! It was a huge God send and the Buddhist man that was leading us around told us that the song we sang warmed his heart (But really it was Jesus that warmed it!). He continued to ask Tyler and Nathalie some questions, and Nathalie got the opportunity to pull out her New Testament bible and give it to him to read. It was not only completely awesome to have that opportunity to speak Jesus into his life, but also to see how God is moving even in the middle of a temple. We have also been learning a lot about the power of prayer while here as we go out on a lot of prayer walks around the city. When we pray, we get to open doors for God to work in ways that we don't know. Outside of our scheduled ministry we have also gotten to spend a lot of time with the street kids. Since it is such a touristy place, there are also many beggar kids always trailing behind you. It all started when we went out with 100 Taka each (a little more than one dollar) to bless the kids that we meet around the shops. We split into two groups and met back at our hotel 2 hours later with huge smiles on our faces. Tyler, Nathalie and Kelsey headed out to the beach with one 11 year old girl and eventually ended up with 11 girls, playing with them and laughing. Each little girl got a "Bondu bracelet" (friendship bracelet), which gave Nathalie and Kelsey the opportunity to tell each girl how beautiful they are and that they have worth. The other group, Cesar, Heidi, Izi and Kenzie bought a soccer ball and headed out to the other side of the beach to play with any kid that wanted to. They soon gathered a crowd and had a blast kicking it around and eventually sharing some bread with the kids and one old beggar man too. Since that night we have gotten to go out and build relationships with individual kids and just play with them. Some of them have no money to go to school, or some don’t get the chance to. We met one little boy named Bapi that followed us around one day on a prayer walk. Bapi is somewhere between 5-7 years old (A lot of Bengalis don’t know their age) and has 6 siblings at home with his Mom and Dad. He told us that his dad has a job, so we asked him why he still begs for money, and he told us that he had the opportunity to go to school, but his Mom would beat him if he did. She wanted him to go out on the streets to get money instead of get an education. So now he sings for money, and he told us a story with a big smile on his little face about how one day he sang for a lady and she gave him 500 Taka (about 6 US Dollars) and his mom bought him chicken to eat. It is stories like Bapi’s that have captured our hearts, and God has spoken to each of us through every little kid that we meet. It is truly amazing to see the kids run towards us on the beach and leave their baskets with necklaces or seashells that they are trying to sell behind to play with us, even for only a few hours.

God has really been blessing us with amazing ministry here in Cox Bazar and through each person that we talk to. As a team we have continued to grow closer and learn more about each other. We are starting to grow past good friends and towards being sisters and brothers in more than just living with each other for 3 months. God has given us such amazing team mates and it is really sweet to get to know each other in really deep ways.

We will be staying here in Cox Bazar until Thursday, January 30, and from here we will be going to Chittagong for transition, then to a Buddhist village called Fattichari.

Prayer requests for our team would be that we would continue to have amazing ministry opportunities and that we will continue to look to God and grow in Him even when the ministry hours end, individually and also as a team. Also for our health once again, as we have been battling different sicknesses all outreach. Also pray for Kamajohn’s wife, as she has Gall Bladder stones and has to go to the hospital often. We have been praying for healing for her, but if everyone around the world that reads this will join in, that would be so powerful!! We all send out a HUGE thank you once again to everyone that has been supporting us and praying for us, you guys are awesome!!