Nomaskar! (Hello)

Hello again from Bangladesh!!

God has been moving in both big and small ways here with our team. We have gotten into a semi-regular schedule going between village outreaches and Children’s Programs/Adult Seminars. Our daily schedule goes something like this: We have breakfast at our house at 8:30, then have either bible study, intercession or worship as a team until we leave the house at 10:00 for the village. When we get there we either have outreach or programs, and then head back home for dinner. For village outreaches we always try to be led by the spirit, which leaves plenty of room for God to completely blow us away! Once we reach the village for the day, we normally introduce ourselves, do some songs and dramas, and then share our testimonies and/or a message. Afterward, if the spirit leads, we get to pray over the village people whether they are Christian, Hindu, or Muslim. For the rest of the visit we have been able to build relationships with the people there by asking them about their everyday life and sometimes even learning how they work. It is always a little bittersweet when we have to load into the van and pull away, leaving a big group of villagers waving and some children running behind the van. As for the days that we put on a program, we arrive in the villages to a big group of children ready to listen to us. We sing motion songs, do dramas, play games, and act out bible stories with them as some of the characters. It is really awesome to see the children come out of their shells and start laughing and dancing around with us by the end of the program. After that is over, we switch over to the adult seminar which has been for teachers or church leaders. We have taught on Spiritual Leadership, Justice and Discipleship. It is really cool to experience God speaking through us!

One day during an outreach program we got to pray for an elderly woman of the village who was blind and going paralyzed. We prayed over her, as well as praised and worshiped God, for over an hour. It was a big blessing for us as a team to feel God’s presence so strongly. When David, our translator, asked how she was doing the woman said that she could see a white woman sitting in front of her, which was Kenzie. She still could not see completely, but we left the village that day knowing that God had more healing to come for her. It was a good learning opportunity for us to praise God even though we might not see the healing. We have also seen some Hindu villagers come to Christ, and multiple others definitely touched by the words spoken over them. Cesar gave us an awesome spot-on reminder as a group one day that we may not be here to do the reaping in this land, but to sow seeds into the villagers or to water seeds that have already been planted. Also, it has been really important to us to empower the churches we visit and help to build them up. The churches here have been small and pretty new, and God has put it on our hearts to build them up as much as possible so that they can continue to do His work. Especially since our team is only here in Bangladesh for 3 months, it is important to our team to uplift the Christians and churches here, and teach them to hear God and follow Him so that they can continue to plant seeds and raise up more followers. Some days of ministry have been difficult in the beginning, simply because it seems like the villagers are restless and not receptive. But God has been teaching us to dig in and continue to look to Him through those times. And He has always guided us and by the end of the day shown us His purpose for that visit.

Our team has continued to grow closer and learn from each other and God. It is really awesome to reflect on where we were spiritually when outreach began and how God has grown us since. Again, God has blessed us abundantly with one another, and shown us how we each have such a specific and important part to play on our team. We have been battling some sickness here lately, and a couple days a few of us had to stay back and take a day off to rest and spend time with our Father. On those days of ministry when we are missing a member, the rest of the team can feel the absence and it has taught us how important each one of us is to the team.

Thanks to everyone all over the world for keeping us in your hearts and prayers!! We can’t stress enough how grateful we are for those prayers and we can really feel them in our day to day lives.

Prayer Requests:

-Health!

-To continue to have our love for the Bangladeshi people grow

-That we can continue to be led by the spirit during ministry

-That there would be an amazing outpouring of the Spirit

-Revival for the whole team!

-Revival for Bangladesh!!

-That God would reset a fire on all of our hearts every day and that our thirst for Him would grow more and more

-Continued unity for the team

-That God would continue to show Himself to us and to the country