Naomi and John Biswas greeted by church members in Bangladesh.
By Roger Lippross
GLENDORA, CA. I have just returned from the first Grace Communion International (GCI) conference held in Bangladesh March 16-19. With the emphasis on God’s love for all. The main goal was to educate, encourage and inspire local churches and leaders of the Bengali Evangelical Association (BEA) which is GCI's mission arm in this nation of 160 to 165 million people.
Many of you know about this work as you have been supporting it for many years with your generous offerings. This trip was my second and it was very different, because this time there was a team of people from different countries such as the UK, the USA, Australia, India, and Sri Lanka. GCI President Joseph Tkach was represented by Rick Shallenberger, pastor of Christ Fellowship Church, Cincinnati.
We were able to begin the meetings in the capital, Dhaka, in a building rented from the Baptists. About 165 people crammed in to hear us – Hindus, Muslims, Adventist, Anglicans, Catholics, and our own people. Normally there were no chairs as the locals sit cross legged on the floor. Our Baptist friends with their chairman David Das went to great lengths cleaning and setting up before we arrived, even serving us all lunch on both days. This took much effort for them to make it happen. We were also fortunate to have the donated translation services of Peter Mazumder who is General Secretary of the Bible Students Fellowship of Bangladesh. He made the English speakers sessions come alive for the Bengali attendees.
One of the main guest speakers was the Anglican Bishop of Bangladesh who very much supports the work of BEA and our GCI denomination in his country. The GCI Discipleship Manual edited, translated and paid for by the Glendora congregation under the leadership of pastor Neil Earle is something that has impressed them for its sound Biblical orthodoxy. Our Bengali attorney, a Muslim gentleman also attended all our meetings with his daughter.
As one of the speakers for the first two days in Dhaka I spoke on Christ Jesus our Hope. Since there were non-Christians in the audience I had to focus on “Who Is Jesus?” You see, many in Asia are confused by the mixed messages about Christianity. It is common to hear that Christianity is a “white man’s religion” that imposed Western domination on Asians and – while some of that may be true – that is not what true Christianity is really about.
So here’s a shortened version of what I tried to get across, with a time slot of only 20 minutes for each English speaker allowing for a total time of 40 minutes including translation.
I said:
Many even in the Western world see Jesus as a travelling preacher and prophet but there is so much more. Jesus talked about setting up His kingdom which is something beyond our total understanding – like explaining atomic energy to a cow. So why did He come and who is He. He is the hope of the world, as it states in 1 Timothy 1:1. There are many other such scriptures we could add.
He came to save us from ourselves as the whole world needs to be saved.
He came to tell us about God. That God through Christ's atoning death has forgiven our sins giving us a new and better way of living based on faith and love, not on Law, and legalism. He has opened the way for an eternal relationship with Him in His Kingdom.
He came to show us how much God loves us and wanted to put our sins away – hence his crucifixion and death.
But Jesus was also resurrected to become now our Helper, Sustainer who is preparing a place for us in His kingdom (John 14:1-2).
Jesus came teaching us to repent, to change our ways and look to him as our savior to love God and each other.
God and Jesus love people, I said, they are One in being in scope and purpose (John 10:30). This God is not against us, not out to squash us. God is on our side. John 3:16 contains the essence for much this.
Jesus is our hope for eternal life in the Kingdom of God in a world more real than this one (John 6:54).
I told them about the presence of hope in my own life after WW2 in England when food was still rationed and we had little to eat and my mother with 4 children to get us through. During the war our house was destroyed by a Nazi bomb then at the end of the war my father died, but she had hope, so she rented a wooden hut so we could stay together. Even through this poverty we found hope in the future. As Christians we should also have hope in the future that Jesus has promised us. I told them that my mother had the Christian hope before she died – an entrance into God’s Kingdom had been prepared for her and for you by Jesus Christ.
I said you would have liked Jesus, He is just like the Father. He is kind, gentle and loving and has infinite patience. He is also especially kind to the poor – "Blessed are the poor" (Luke 6:20). Since he is also our Creator he knows all about us (look up Colossians 1). He came to give hope to the poor and lost. Luke 19:10.
While Jesus worked many helpful workers in his life, I explained that the greatest miracle of all time is that God became a human being and walked the earth, explaining that the Bible shows us that Jesus has always existed, he was not just born as a baby who became the Son of God. He is the eternal Word who became a man (John 1:14). I also referred to Jesus calling himself "I AM" in John 8:58 using the same name He called himself in Exodus 3:14-15. Israel’s God and Jesus are linked.
I reminded them again – and they were very attentive sitting on the floor – that our hope is that in Christ’s eternal loving kingdom, which will one day directly rule this earth, there will be no more pain and sorrow and death. My mom left this world with that hope.
I ended by saying how I prayed that God’s Spirit like the breeze will blow afresh on all of them, whispering to them who Jesus really is and that life through Him never ends. This is real life God offers through His Son. It continues forever in a world more wonderful than words can ever describe. Jesus Christ gave us this good news. A message of hope. Jesus is our hope. The hope of the world.
I know that this sermon may seem elementary to those of us in over-churched America but remember we had Muslims and Hindus with us and they listened attentively. They too would like to know more about Jesus.
While in Dhaka and the village meetings, John and Naomi Biswas, the founders of BEA, passed out Bibles to many of the people. They grasped them like gold. How wonderful to see these refreshing and sincere attitudes.
Then on March 18 we departed for the 6 to 8 hour drive south to the villages of Sathsimulia and Nargipal where the bulk of our people are located. This meant a ferry crossing of the wide Padma River, a tributary of the Ganges, where some 200 had been drowned some weeks before when a ferry sank. The countryside is very green with many fruits as well as rice, jute and vegetable fields. When we showed up at the BEA Mission the next morning we were impressed by how well-organized everything was. This was due to the efforts of a lady named Manju Bala who is John Biswas’ “right hand man” in Bangladesh. Everything was so well-planned with banners advertising the GCI Fellowship Gospel Church (our name in Bangladesh). We especially enjoyed our new little church topped with a cross. John Biswas jokes that “it can seat 40 Americans but 200 Bengalis.”
The BEA mission is built around the Herman Hoeh Community Center which also doubles as a tsunami shelter when such things overtake this typhoon-threatened country. Next to it is a large building built some years ago by a donation from the Canadian branch of GCI. This structure is used for classrooms and training for our Bengali “little Florence Nightingales” nurses-in-training. These young women fan out into the countryside after their graduation to help the sick. There is also a Derek Hanway Bible School held in one of the buildings. It is named after one of your well-loved and sadly now deceased deacons, Derek Hanway of Glendora. Derek was on the BEA board for many years.
On our stay we must have met with some 2500 people altogether. Six hundred were in the next town, Nagirpal, which greeted us with rose petals, and good food served in a bamboo framed building with beautiful cloth coverings. And of course all the people were well-dressed because it was a church festival. Once again many non-Christians were in attendance. Once again free Bibles were passed out – for many it is the only book they may ever own! Think of that! Thanks to your support we can do these things. We had to leave for the long drive back, but the festival went on till the early hours of the morning. Imagine the seeds that have been sown. It reminds you of Matthew 10:35, “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, preaching the kingdom of God, and healing every sickness and disease.”
Here is how GCI’s Asian coordinator Rod Matthews from Australia – and my fellow traveler – described the impact of BEA:
“From BEA’s mission center, nurse's aides are trained to go into the community to bring education and medical assistance to the poorest people in the villages, gospel workers are trained to bring the good news to anyone interested in listening, goats are distributed to needy families to raise and breed to help them to reach self-sufficiency and raise the nutrition levels in the family. Schools have been started to give the children an education not otherwise possible in the remote rural areas, and a better future in a world rushing away from them.”
As Rod summarized our March experience in Bangladesh:
“This is the ministry of the living Jesus Christ who has invited us into all he is doing there. This is your church responding to that invitation. It is not an easy place to reach, but you would be humbled and moved and inspired by what God is doing in the deep south of Bangladesh, and thrilled by our involvement.”
Thanks to you brethren for your support in this effort. If you would like to donate or to get more involved simply visit the BEA website at bengalimission.org
(With reporting by Neil Earle and Rod Matthews. Roger Lippross is a longtime GCI member and publisher. He is Assistant Pastor in New Covenant Fellowship of Glendora and Advisor to BEA capably assisted by his wife Anthea.)