I am so thankful that God has allowed me to come here to Bangladesh

Dear friends and family,
  It is my turn to write a blog entry.  I think Tim mentioned that you will be hearing from each of us.
  First of all, thanks to the many of you who have been uplifting us in prayer.  God hears and answers those prayers and they mean the world to us. The many words of encouragement through email, Facebook, cards and letters are so appreciated also.  Thanks again!!
 Everyone is healthy and well. We have had our battles with colds, flu and allergies and Sarah has had a mild bout of typhoid but is feeling pretty good. We are thankful for the prayers from many of you for her.
  I am so thankful that God has allowed me to come here to Bangladesh. God is teaching me new things about his world and his people every day.  He is showing me ways that I can help and teaching me how to seek out opportunities to minister to people. It is not hard to find needs to meet here in Bangladesh nor is it difficult to see how I, as a mother, can specifically address them.  Choosing to make time for each one and prioritizing is a whole other thing. My first job is to care for the needs of Tim, Sarah and Lexi.
  I am homeschooling Sarah and Alexis. This is a switch for Lexi as she had been going to our excellent public school back home. She loved her school very much and is missing it.  She and I are getting into a pretty good routine that seems to be helping her to adjust well.  Sarah had been home schooled for a year and a half already before coming here so she was fairly used to the structure already.  She is getting into a good groove with her studies also.
 After school, we usually study Bangla. We have postponed our classes for a short season but they will soon resume.  After Bangla, Tim heads back to the office while we often enjoy visiting patients in the hospital and taking them little treats to cheer them up. We also enjoy the ministry of praying for specific needs of the people we come across there as well as those who live nearby or on the hospital campus.  It is difficult to develop deep relationships with these beautiful people without a strong understanding of their language and culture because it so vastly different from our own. We are working on learning those things but in the meantime we are doing what we can to start friendships that will hopefully last into eternity.
 Another ministry is to just fellowship with other missionaries.  It is an encouragement to both parties to just spend time together doing whatever whether it is hanging out or helping them with something. We especially like to meet and welcome new guests and missionaries that come for varying reasons to the Campus.  It's fun to meet new people but even more fun if this is their first time to Bangladesh.
 Well, that is an update from me. I'd love to hear how you all are doing. Please remember us in prayer as we have much language and culture learning to do.  Thank you so much for praying.  We are so blessed to know you and have you in our lives.  Please know that we love you and appreciate you.
Sincerely, Ruth (for the family)

Words form Alexis and some about Sarah.

Our friend Pyung Noom and her mother.

Hi, this is Alexis.  This experience has been very fun so far for me. I love the people. They are so nice and understanding. The food is great!  There are pineapples, mangoes, coconuts in the palm trees, and little baby banana trees. I love the curry and rice. We eat it every day. We like to go and visit patients in the hospital and see and hold the new-born babies. They are adorable. I have one friend in the hospital whose name is Pyung Noom. She was in a bad accident. She broke her neck and is paralyzed from the shoulders down. She is doing much better with her arms and can feed herself but she will probably never walk again. She likes ice cream and mango juice. She is 15 years old. She gets very bored in the hospital so we try to visit her and bring her snacks. I miss going to church at home because here I can't understand what they're saying but our family is taking Bangla class. In Bangla class we're learning language, cultural and other things. We eat with our hand here. We eat with our right hand only. They believe that the left hand is dirty.  Will you please pray for me today that I will learn Bangla?

From time to time, you will hear from Sarah and/or Alexis in our blog. Ruth and I are so proud of our young ladies and how they are growing in the Lord. It is a blessing to hear them pray each day for the people of this country and also for many of you who read this blog.  Recently I reviewed the list of people who we send our blog to and the one constant was that everyone who gets our email blog updates have invested in some way in the lives of our family. Our family thanks you for what you have meant to us.

I need to ask you all to invest in my daughter, Sarah.  Sarah has not been feeling well for the last week.  We took her to see one of the Doctors at the hospital yesterday and after reading the blood work that he ordered, it was determined that Sarah has Typhoid Fever. Sarah had some pain in the area of her liver, so the Doctor ordered some more blood work where he was able to confirm that thankfully she does not have Hepatitis.  God is so good, friends!  We are in a place where the doctors are used to seeing and treating Typhoid. The medical staff put Sarah on the appropriate antibiotic and will monitor her while she recovers. They tell us that full recovery will take about a month and Sarah will need to take it easy in that time. Today, Sarah woke up feeling great and we would not even know she was sick today had we not seen the results of the blood work. We all realize that she will have some rough days while she recovers, so please pray for her. We are in great and capable hands here. The staff at Memorial Christian Hospital is taking great care of our family.  Moreover, we are resting in the arms of the one true God whose love is beyond measure

We are not at home anymore.

I have come to realize that while sitting behind my desk in my lovely hometown of Wakarusa, Indiana it was impossible for me to wrap my brain around the whirlwind of change that would greet my family in moving to Bangladesh.

In this, our families first blog entry, I would like to tell you a few short stories that have occurred since we have been in Bangladesh.

1.  After being in and out of airports and in and out of airplanes for 2 straight days, we arrived in the capital city of Dhaka, Bangladesh on January 13, 2012.  We were immediately faced with the fact that we were not at home anymore.  Little did we know when we booked our tickets that we would be arriving in Bangladesh at the beginning of Bishwa Ijtema which is the second largest congregation of Muslim men in the world after the Hajj to Mecca.  It has been estimated that Bishwa Ijtema drew close to 6 million Muslim people this year after drawing over 5 million people in 2011.  So there we were, exhausted and standing in the customs line at the airport in Dhaka, waiting hours and hours in a sea of thousands and thousands of people.  We were quickly aware that we were no longer at home.

2.  Soon after moving down to our home in rural Bangladesh (if you can call a place rural that has a town with over a million people seven kilometers away) I discovered that I could not find my razor in my luggage.  My razor is an essential part of life for me as I shave my head every day.  I was told that not having a razor is not a big deal because I could go to the barber shop across the street and get my head shaved.  So, the night that I arrived at my new home, I ventured over to the barber shop expecting a refreshing and relaxing shave.  Never did I anticipate the stir that would be caused by me getting my head shaved in the Dokon (dokon is the word for shop.)  People in Bangladesh do not shave their heads by and large.  Men in Bangladesh who are bald like my father and have hair on the sides but not on top are referred to as having "stadium cuts" but I have never seen a Bengali who shaved their head bald.  My head has caused quite a stir since I have been here.  Everywhere we go, people want to touch my bald head.  I mentioned this to a friend back home and he wondered if it was annoying to have this happen?  Simply put, no it is not.  Crazy as it seems, my bald head has become an ice breaker of sorts.  It has been a real blessing to me to have people approach me just to see what my head feels like that I never would have had the opportunity to meet otherwise.

3.  One thing that is integral to life in Bangladesh in tea time.  Twice each day, Bengali's break for tea, once around 10:00 a.m. and once in the afternoon around 3:30.  Sitting around the table talking and drinking Bangla cha with friends and strangers have been some of the sweetest and richest experiences we have had in Bangladesh.  By and large, Bengali's are poverty stricken people, but all Bengali's are incredibly hospitable.  Any time you visit a Bengali they  serve you cha and some kind of snack.  The story of Elijah and the Widow of Zaraphath in 1 Kings 17 comes to life every time we are invited in to have tea in people's homes.  Our family has become so accustomed to all of the conveniences that are offered in our home in the USA that I am afraid that we have forgotten about the treasure that comes with sitting and enjoying the company of the people around us, even when we don't feel we have anything to offer.

4.  There is nothing that could have prepared me for learning a new language and a new culture.  Our family took a week once we got here to get our legs back under us (it took us at least a full week to get over jet lag.)  The second week we were here we jumped in to language study.  I am a proud husband and father and I am thrilled to tell you that my daughters and my wife have really done well with language study.  Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for myself.  Language study is and will continue to be a labor of love for my family and me.  The people of Bangladesh love their language, they fought against Pakistan for their independence on the basis that they wanted to be able to speak their own language.  We love the people of Bangladesh.  We want to be able to tell the people of Bangladesh about the love of God in their mother tongue, so we will push on no matter how agonizing. 

Please pray for us.  Pray that God would help us with language studies.  Pray that Ruth, Sarah, Lexi and I would be able to develop meaningful and lasting friendships with people in Bangladesh.  Most importantly, please pray that God would continue to draw each of us nearer to Him.

New Blog

This blog will be a journal of our families lives in Bangladesh. You will notice through time that Alexis, Sarah, Ruth and Tim Weldy will all post to this blog. If you have any questions you would like us to answer please e-mail Sarah at any time at miss.weldy@yahoo.com