MONTHLY MISSION FOCUS

We are excited to welcome our daughter, Alyssa, and her husband, Jarvis, of 1.5 years, to Bangladesh on February 22nd!  They will get to stay for only 10 days, but we’ll take it!  This will be Jarvis’s first visit to Bangladesh and Alyssa is eager to show him her old stomping grounds.

This coming summer, we will welcome our son, Ben, as he will be coming for a 2 month visit during his summer break from teaching middle school at Calvary Baptist Academy in Normal, IL.  He is eager to plug into different ministries here.

Please share an update on your ministry.

Chrissy is currently the supervisor of the National School and we just started a new school year on January 2.  We are in full swing now with overflowing students in most grades.

Our grades often have waiting lists of people in the community wanting to send their children to our school.  But our seats are limited.  Pray for our 12 national teachers (all believers) who have the opportunity to share Truth each day.

Bob is currently upgrading the camp facilities to include security cameras and wifi for the staff.  This will be a good step forward to provide better security when we have 100+ campers at each of our camps. As Field Team Leader,  he is also trying to navigate the current political situation which is complicated when visas and security clearances are needed urgently. The OT translation work is nearly finished.  We are waiting on a technical team to be able to come from India to help us in the audio recording process.

How can we be praying for you?

Pray for more workers for the harvest field.  The Lord of the Harvest Himself told us to pray for laborers.  Some of our most urgent needs are surgeons, OBGYN doctors, nurses, and a facilities manager to help with the new hospital building upkeep along with supervising the workshop that we have on campus.  (in other words, a jack-of-all-trades!)  Over the past year, we’ve had to say good-bye to a number of families and co-workers who are moving on to different chapters in their lives.  We are like a family out here and saying goodbye is tough.  It can be tricky to keep team morale up when so many head out in a single year!

What is your current support level?

100% of our minimal requirements

Do you have any special projects or needs outside of your monthly support?

The Primary School that Chrissy supervises needs monthly donors.  Because we try to keep the students’ monthly fees low, the school must be highly subsidized by donors.  We have about 400 students this year and each one pays about $2.50 each month.  This amount covers only 3 months of our 12 teachers’ salaries and other expenses at the school.  Any amount given monthly is much appreciated!

Another ministry that we are actively involved with is the Dishari Camp.  This is truly one of the most fruitful ministries of our organization in Bangladesh.  Our local churches send their youth to the 8 different camps that we have throughout the year.  Many bring their seeking friends.  The current camp director, Nipul, came to faith at camp as a young teenager.  Now the Lord is using him to bring other teens to the truth!  These campers’ fees are highly subsidized so that everyone can attend.  They pay about $1 but the actual cost is about $40 per camper in a 5 day camp.

Can you share any interesting facts about you, your family, or your ministry that people may not know?

Many may know this already, but Bob came to Bangladesh with his folks, Jack and Margaret, when he was just 3 years old. We brought our kids over when our son Ben was 3 years old, too.  Pretty cool.

One fact about the Primary School that is noteworthy is that we have 60 kindergarteners in one classroom.   There are usually 2 teachers in the room with them, but still, it is quite a feat to be able to control so many littles at a time!

BLESSINGS FROM The Missions Committee