orphan love

today i was awoken at 5:00am by the muslim prayers being blasted onto the streets on some kind of loudspeaker. it happens 5 times a day every day here. we met some more amazing people involved with the sbc, then headed off to visit alfred, our host’s, school and orphanage in the outskirts of dhaka. the children were absolutely beautiful. we got a tour of the grade school, which has grades 1-5. then the kids put on a talent show for us. they sang and spoke poems and did some dancing. then we had some time to play games with them, mostly hand clapping type games, which was super fun.

alfred then took us around the neighborhood and we went into three different familys’ houses, all familes of kids from the school. it seems like the neighborhood is lower income, but not the slums. each family gave us drinks and snacks, and we played with their kids.

then we went to the orphanage and spent several hours there. these kids have so much life. one of the boys recently came here when his father, who worked at world vision, killed his mother after he discovered she was having an affair. truly heartbreaking, but we’re so grateful alfred has given him and these other children a place to be. phillip and i organized an intense game of soccer with the boys, which was a blast. everyone got so worked up and the boys were loving it. kathryn was playing hopscotch type games with the girls. i actually jammed my toe during soccer, so i’ll have a bit of a limp for the rest of my trip, oh well. we had the best meal of our trip so far, bangladeshi food which we ate with our hands. rice and meat in sauce type dishes, and my favorite was the dahl. phillip, kathryn, and i brought all the kids in groups of 2 or 3 into a room and prayed for them, with alfred translating. it was a very genuine and beautiful time. phillip sang some songs with the kids and even led a successful game of phillip says (not simon says). i think we were able to show some real love to these kids and it seemed like it meant a lot to them.

we then spent a couple hours at alfred’s office. i met an 80 year old man who fought as a freedom fighter in a war between east pakistan (now bangladesh) and west pakistan (now pakistan). he did intelligence gathering, and was actually caught and beat mercilessly. somehow by the grace of god he was let go even though he saw many of his friends killed. he is a wise, intelligent man.

john and susan osborne met us for dinner with alfred and his wife. john and susan have lived in bangladesh for 35 years, and oversee many of the new zealand groups we have met (freeset and love calcutta arts). they are incredible people, and know so much about the culture. john challenged us on what it really means to be born again, righteous (not ethical) business, and letting the lord change our worldviews. very inspiring night.

had a wonderful time decompressing with our small rag tag team here at the guest house, and now we’re off to bed. tomorrow we have tea and alfred’s house, then we fly to mumbai. bill will be leaving us there, which makes me very sad. he’s become a great friend, and this trip would not be nearly what it is without him.

we love you all, and know that we are having a truly epic trip!

chris

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