Jessica and I have been in Bangladesh for over a month and what a month-and-a-half it has been!

The most frequent question we’re asked is, “how’s it going?”, and though innocent in proposition, it is perhaps the hardest question to answer. So with this first letter I want to explore it with you.

At any particular moment you could get a different answer. One day we might tell you that this has been one of the best experiences of our lives. We have met, and get to work alongside, so many (Salvation Army) soldiers, officers, and project and office staff who are on fire for mission. People who have brought the Good News and met human needs in places that are dire. I have connected with past friends, teachers, and others who knew me as a child. The shipment of our belongings arrived safely and brought with it many comforts from home. We have begun to make a few friends, and attended a few different church services in both Bengali and English. We have just started a trial with a house helper who will support us with cleaning and cooking. And after the Eid holiday in June, we hope to start language learning three times a week. We are busy …but with amazing opportunities. Jessica spent three days in Nepal at a knowledge management workshop with one of our donors, and has run multiple events for project staff in Dhaka and Savar. I helped host a national youth gathering and a training session for pastors and corps (church) leaders in men’s ministry. As opportunities abound we can’t help but step back and say, “Wow God.”

And yet, just a moment later we might brood over the first few days when we felt stuck inside because we did not know how to get around or where to go. In this time we became acquainted with our many cockroach roommates. We have felt frustration over not being able to find foods we are familiar with and having lost the ability to cook meals we enjoy in a kitchen that is far from what we’re used to. 

How’s it going?

Sometimes the answer is a simple “not well” as I lie awake at 2am in a guest room over 30°C and 91% humidity, 20 fresh mosquito bites, and paranoia of more despite the net covering my bed. We have gotten lost in neighbourhoods and while we very much appreciate the help of kind locals, we haven’t yet the language skills to use their help, and haven’t the time to start learning. Among all the grand and beauty this ministry brings, there is great discomfort, loneliness, and frustrations that abound.

At MTI, we were taught that there are two ducks to cross-cultural ministry: The yay-duck who makes cross-cultural ministry so life giving and a dream come true, and a yuck-duck that makes it feel like this life is not worth the tolls we bear. 

We don’t look to pray away all the yuck-ducks — they are simply inevitable — but we do seek God’s presence in them. And that is our primary prayer request for our faithful prayer partners out there. Pray we will continue to see the face and feel the hand of God in all the places that seem so dark and uncertain. That in moments of yay we stop to recognize the Lord’s work, and in the moments of yuck we pause to recognize His hand there, too.

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