Oh wow! I thought it couldn’t get any better than yesterday but boy oh boy it did. To the extent that a couple of days ago I thought this was a useful experience, but I would never come back. What I have learnt in the past two days from Pastor Benjamin has been amazing and I think that many in our church, especially those who focus on outreach, would benefit from spending some time with this most amazing, humble, passionate Godly man.
Today we travelled north for two hours in the mad, sweltering traffic of Kolkata, experiencing the smells of the tanners for the first time – I thought Kolkata was bad!!! We then got onto a boat and travelled for about 20 minutes into the interior and on the border with Bangladesh. We arrived at a village that – like many of the thousands of villages in the area – formed the centre of a brick making business owned by the village elder. The bricks were made by hand in pits next to the river, dried in the sun, then fired in the furnace. Unexpectedly all of the buildings in this small village were made of bricks, not all of which were actually fired being of a grey rather than red colour.
Our Transport
The format for the visit was the same as yesterday, however we found out that there were many Muslims in the village, which is why we came across an imam when we first arrived, so the atmosphere was a little strained at first. But the presence of white men and women (not often seen in these parts) was enough of a novelty factor, as were my attempts to try out my Bengali. They let us do our sports with the children and the women, listened to the gospel, chatted with us and saw us on our way.
The next village was quite a different experience. Big Life were running a health clinic so whilst the ladies and the 2 husbands stayed to help out at the make-shift clinic, Pastor Benjamin and the men went for a prayer walk. To cut a long story short we ended up in the home of one of the village elders (unusually a women) and spent a long time talking with them, drinking coconut milk from coconuts that one of the young lads had stripped from a coconut palm, and sharing the gospel with them. It was almost a surreal experience as we sat on their veranda, outside their bamboo hut with a mud floor, looking out across paddy fields, fish farms and the river, drinking coconut milk straight from the coconut. But it was also a God experience as they listened attentively to our stories, the gospel and prayed with us. This extended, matriarchal family consisting of four family units has now asked to be taught more about this Jesus; praise God! Oh and they also invited us (the English) to visit with them again.
Our new friends
Every time we do this I hear the words "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.” I pray that I am able to assimilate all that I have learned in this short time from Pastor Benjamin because I know that if I can, then I will be a better minister, a better pastor and a better man able to serve God.
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