October 5th, 2009
Professional manager types say you are supposed to live 70-80% of your time in your "sweet spot." The rest of your time is what you do to stay in that spot, using your gifts, living out the joy of your salvation.
Today we enjoyed so much our time with the staff and faculty of the College of Christian Theology Bangladesh (CCTB) about 1.5 hrs north of Dhaka. The ride to and fro helped to balance out that enjoyment with dollops of traffic, noise, and pollution stress --along with a dead man laid out by the roadside on a scrap of cloth. Traffic slowed slightly to get a good look while a cop collared a suspect up against a nearby wall--some spice and sizzle to the local color.
CCTB is a struggling seminary with a small residential studentry of 150 national Bengalis and a large far-flung studentry of over 4000 distance learning nationals who come periodically for short term residential work on various degrees. Faculty is multi-national, primarily US, European, and South Asian. The campus is in a suburb of Dhaka in a deferred maintenance set of buildings within a bricked compound, located there as a cost saver. Some faculty commute from town; others live there.
Bethyl and I spoke with the core faculty that were present about the same topic we presented the prior night to a community group: Burn-out, Stress, and Depression. We gave a “soul inventory” for people’s own private usage. We wove our contributions back and forth; had fun, were useful. Good sharing, vulnerable, open, inquiring.
That night we ate at a Dutch family’s home after a 1.5 hr ride back into town. Siebe and Jelly’s flat is in a working class neighborhood of Dhaka where they live with their three children, all younger than 8. This family has been in-country 7 years, five out in the CCTB village and 2 in Dhaka where the oldest child could be close to a better school. They are humble, hard working, giving, tough, flexible, resilient. Totally admire them. Got home late.
Woke up early next morning. Boarded the 8:15 AM train at 10 AM, commencing our 8 hr ride to the north of the country with Anna, her sister, and her best friend to visit Lutheran Assistance Medical—Bangladesh (LAMB). The crowded environment of the mass of humanity, beggars, insistent honking to burrow one’s vehicle into a one-ups-manship position amidst rickshaws, motor bikes, bikes, cars, buses, trucks slowly weaned itself out as we railed our way through village after village. Rain poured onto an already soaked land and people simply moved ahead in their daily routines. Way out in the sticks, we arrived after dark at LAMB, a hospital of 150 beds. 25 ex-pats and a bunch of nationals servicing a wide catchment of people, residentially and with a community based service program of 26 clinics in 22 districts. We understand that in the month of November, on a clear day, one might catch a glance of the Himalayas from there.
October 8, 2009
We had an great time at LAMB! We explored. We toured the hospital. We were properly meeted and greeted. While Bethyl worked in a therapy session I walked around the village with a couple of young Brit docs. We got caught in a monsoon deluge and dodged under a tin roofed lean-to next to the railroad tracks, hanging out with some locals and their chickens, cows, and goats till there was a break in the rain. The mother went out in the pouring rain, picked, and skinned some not quite ripe mangos, washed them in salt water, and presented them in little slices to us. At the request of these folk Muslims I stood up, prayed for them, and offered a blessing from Prophet Isa. They smiled, beamed, bowed, scraped and seemed very grateful. They refused even 20 taka (about 15 cents) as a sign of gratitude for their hospitality, even though they were desperately poor. It was a good contact that Sarah and Emily can go back to, develop, and perhaps see some of God’s children claiming Him as Lord. The picture above is of this time!
A workshop on “The Healthy Marriage” to a group of chaplains went well, while Anna interpreted each power point. We consulted with a few folks, providing some needed services to this talented batch of folks. I donated 450 cc of blood while curious nationals milled by, gawking at the American laying on a litter with blood draining out of him into a bag on the floor. At the end of a longish day Anna threw a party for us in her cottage and 20 or so ex-pats came over for coffee, tea, and cookies to meet us and chat.
We left around midnight for the train ride back home. We got a sleeper car with a resident surgeon and his wife from LAMB. It was a great snooze on the rails, arriving 8 hours later back in Dhaka in time to clean up and see another couple on a consult for Interserve. Immediately after that we visited Mark Pietroni at ICDDR-B Hospital (the “diahrrea hospital”), that employs about 2,000 people and treats massive numbers of folks suffering from pneumonia, cholera, dysentery, and other tropical diseases. We talked about possible employment, visa scenarios for entering the country, and what collaboration might look like amongst us. Mark was very open with us about his family, background, and hopes for the future. Great conversation and tour. Tonight we leave at midnight for Malaysia.
October 11, 2009
When we arrived here in Kuala Lumpur we were expecting someone from Interserve or the local church to meet us. No one came. Wires had gotten crossed. I looked out the window of the airport lobby. Traffic looked more reasonable than in India, Nepal, or Bangladesh. I rented a car. We drove off in search of our time share, about 2 hrs away. Our handy GPS helped. We arrived, settled in, made contact with a church elder. All was good. Ordained. Felt an attitude of gratitude.
Friday, our arrival day, we rested. Saturday we left here around noon, drove an hour or so into town, and got lost along the way. It was a good time to practice the skills we were about to teach in the seminar on marital wellness. Stuff like forgiveness when I lost my temper at the traffic, and Bethyl happened to be caught in my “friendly fire.” I learned to practice my breathing deep, slow, and long breathes to hold my tongue in check. On this drive in, on this day, all those good plans didn’t work. Asking forgiveness did. And Bethyl put on her big girl panties and forgave her irascible husband. The seminar was all the better for this, when we shared our experience with the folks that showed up as part of the workshop.
Today we preached in the primary church service and conducted a seminar for the teens in the afternoon after lunch with a church family. Busy, fulfilling, living in our sweet spot, knowing we were being used by God. Don’t get no better than this !
