Spoiler Alert: We Went Anyway & This Is What Happened

So THIS happened, but we went anyway and we're so glad we did!

 

  

We landed with a whole crew of news people from all over the world.  The situation had been resolved and the road to our lodging was now open.  It was the middle of the night, but in a city that's home to over 6 million people, the streets were eerily clear and quiet.  Luckily, that surreal peace that we had when decided to continue onward had landed with us and was traveling with us down the dark streets of Dhaka.

I won't pretend we weren't all a little jumpy and definitely a little travel weary, but at peace we were with our decision to move forward and excited at what God had in store for us in Bangladesh. As only God could orchestrate we were all staying together in one apartment with several bedrooms, so each mouse was tucked into their own little house and I began to unpack and pray for what was ahead. While it shouldn't be as funny to me as it was, what happened next is still one of my favorite memories from the trip.

Bangladesh is a very devout Muslim nation. You know what happens in very devout Muslim nations several times a day starting in the wee hours of morning (which it now was)?  A little thing called, "The Call to Prayer."  So imagine you've just landed in a foreign land under some less than stellar conditions, it's dark, you lay down in your strange bed in the strange land and you hear THIS, a completely foreign language and unknown practice to you over loud speakers coming from all different directions.  The head of young man pops out of the boy's room, I can still picture his face, eyes as wide as they could get, trying to keep his composure, he says, "Do you hear that?! What is that?!" His cultural collision was almost as good as THIS HAITIAN GOAT INCIDENT from several years ago, but not quite.

His peace followed us to the children's home, to the Bible school, to the slums, and everywhere else we went in Dhaka. The Bangladeshi's were so gracious, they constantly apologized to us for the tragedy that took place in their country, although it most certainly happened to them not to us. Police and military presence was beefed up and our time in Bangladesh was without any negative incident. In a terrible twist of irony we sat peacefully in our flat in B'desh watching the CNN coverage of the multiple mass shootings that took place on our own American soil throughout the month of July. Turns out the whole world needs that surreal peace that surpasses all understanding, but they must be shown it only comes from Him.