Rudolph

This morning I am rudolph the red-nose. :) Yesterday was gorgeous - so we left the door open to our room (the door onto the balcony) to let some heat in. It's so hot here normally, that the buildings are made to stay cool inside - and cool it is! It's warm outside, but coooold inside! From leaving the door open, though - the bugs came in. And they decided that I (especially the tip of my nose) was a good midnight snack. Tonight I will use the mosquito net. Learning curve. :)

We did find a way to enjoy the sun yesterday while being safe - the roof of our building!!! We took blankets up there and took a nap, read, just enjoyed the sun. We will likely do the same today. I'm so glad we found this now - not right before we left - I would have been so sad!

We talked at length yesterday with Prodip about our mission emphasis. He encouraged us to not only try to share our faith with non-Christians at the office, but also to try and encourage and challenge the Christians who work there - focusing on training them to share their faith with the clients (the women who take the loans.) One of the receptionsts at the guest house used to be national staff with Campus Crusade for Christ - his name is Samuel. I will talk with him the next time I see him to find out if he has the 4 Spiritual Laws in Bangla. :) God is weaving us together - it's soooo cool! (I was trained by Campus Crusade for Christ using the 4 Laws to share my faith - it's a simple outline of the Gospel and how you can become a Christian.) You can read it for yourself if you look up "Campus Crusade for Christ" or "4 Spiritual Laws" on-line.

You may be wondering just what it is that we are eating and what our living conditions are. (Maybe not, but I'm going to tell you anyway!) :) Except for breakfast, every SINGLE meal we have rice. Rice, rice, more rice!!!! We have lots of tea (with lots of milk and sugar - yum!!!) with every meal and in-between meals, as well. Breakfast is 3 pieces of thick toast and a fried egg. We have peanut butter and jam to put on our toast. Very good. Lunch and Supper are the same - rice, vegetables, fish, and chicken. The food has lots of spice - but is not hot. (They tone it down for us!) It's very, very good - though I'm always really hungry by the time I'm ready to eat again - the simple carbs just get burned up. (It's white rice, not brown.) Our YWCA guest house is a nice building - we are on the 3rd floor. Our room has 3 beds, 2 desks, and a bathroom with a flushing toilet. bonus! The shower is just attached to the wall, so when we take a shower, the entire bathroom becomes the shower stall - quite a challenge to keep your towel dry. We didn't have hot water (or warm, even) the first few days - so Holly and I just used the bucket in there to wash our hair and that was it. Now they have fixed the hot water - but it only lasts about 2-3 minutes. We have the art of showering here down to a fine art - you start with hot and cold on - both full blast, but you have to keep turning down the cold in order to keep it warm. So, with one hand you wash yourself, with the other, you keep turning down the cold.... and you do it fast. There is good water pressure - so that makes showering fast possible. :)Holly's water just stopped this morning - right after she had put shampoo in her hair - so she had to rinse with the water that collected in the bucket that is in there.

I'm working on my Beth Moore Bible Study, 'Believing God' - I've already written some of our 5 statement pledge of faith in earlier posts, but I want to finish it. It's proving to be a wonderful lesson for me while I am here.

1) God is who He says He is
2) God can do what He says He can do
3) I am who God says I am
4) I can do all things through Christ
5) God's word is alive and active in me

The whole concept is that God has a whole range of promises and blessings in store for Christians, but most of us don't actually trust Him enough to even ask for them. It's a lesson in learning to make believing God a 'present active participle' verb - a continuous action, not just a one time thing. It's very good.

I'm so glad that the lessons that God is teaching me are touching your lives. I'm so glad to be able to share them with you. I'm praying for all of you reading this - not just for the people of Bangladesh. I hope that God will reach down and touch your life, as well. Seek Him - He will be found by you.

Abar dekha habe (see you again!)