The second day out in the villages with the Big Life Ministries. This time we went south and it was a much shorter drive with less pot holes. It rained for most of the day on and off so it was much cooler but a lot more muddy!
Walking through the village was a surreal experience and felt like a dream. There were palm trees on every side, the road was too narrow for a normal car (but could fit an auto-rickshaw, just about !), there were green pools and brown pools surrounding us, goats and cows and chickens that were not concerned about human company. It was beautiful.
We began at the local Big Life House Church, which was mostly women, a few men and a couple of children. We sang songs and shared testimony. The testimonies of the women were ones of blessings through the small things when life is really hard. We were told that for some of the women, as they had converted to Christianity, their husbands resented it, and as a consequence their home life became difficult. I really felt for these women who had all sorts of other troubles, around poverty and family life but who could still testify to God's greatness. We spent some time praying for the women before they left to go further into the village.
The rest of the day was taken up by going to homes to which the church had been invited to pray for the house and to talk to them about our faith. This kind of thing seems alien in a western culture where we keep our selves to our selves in our houses and don't like being intruded on. In this situation, however, it felt natural and welcomed, even when the householders disagreed with the people from the church. Most of the conversations were conducted in Bengali, but it was interesting to watch and listen to the conversations to try and understand what was happening.
It has been really interesting to be part of Big Life the last few days and to see how they work. Their passion and commitment sets a great example and is something we all commented on. There is so much we can learn from that at home......
No comments:
Post a Comment