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.

In the Beginning: Stay the Course or Turn Back? A Terror Attack.

A rough start I guess you could say. My very first Experience Eurasia team and I were off for a summer in Southern Asia, first stop Bangladesh.  Most of our circles only knew the name of this nation from the "Made In" tag in the back of their t-shirt, but within minutes of our first flight taking off B'desh had made national news.  

To say our phones were blowing up would be an understatement, the terror attack going on in the nation we were headed to was being covered by every media outlet.  My crew may have all been adults, but adults with mamas and daddies! A decision needed to be made about whether or not we would continue onward and it needed to be made quickly. 

Upon landing in Hong Kong, I spoke with my area director in the US, our connections on the ground in B'desh, and lots of mamas and daddies including my own. We were told the situation had not yet been resolved, but was moving in that direction and we were given the option to continue onward, return home,  or be rerouted to another country in Southern Asia.  While I'd been communicating with these young adults for months, I'd only met them face to face about 10 days ago and I wasn't sure how they were going to process or handle the situation at hand. I prayed for wisdom and sat down with my team.

Laying on the floor of of the Hong Kong airport surrounded by our luggage and our charging cell phones we weighed our options. I wasn't about to make a blanket decision to risk the lives of these young people because of my own zeal, ignorance, or even my own faith. We decided that if any ONE wanted to turn back or reroute that's what we would do as a team.  They agreed unanimously that if we were still able to get into the country that they wanted to stay the course. I tried to search their faces, their body language for any sign of silent of screams of, "I don't mean it! Let's please turn back!" but I found none. I found only resolve.  We'll all admit we felt all the natural feelings one feels when heading into an unknown, risky situation, but we can all also tell you that there was one very unnatural feeling that overshadowed all the other feelings. Peace. A very surreal peace that surpassed all our understanding. 

I called ahead to let the ground know we were headed their way. Their reply?  Don't go outside the airport when you land until we've spoken, the attack took place 500 yards from where you're staying and we don't know if the road will be opened back up yet. Gulp! We forged ahead. 

My Love Language

I'm waay behind on blogging and have several in the que, so I'm not sure why this one has made it to the top of the list, but I figure you're all dying to know so I'll go ahead and tell you, my love language is....

Pssh! I'm not going to tell you in the first 2 sentences or you won't read any further, I'm no dummy!

One of the "privileges" of being on one of my teams is you get the benefit of my counseling expertise and a usually a good laugh at my expense every once in awhile daily. All of my team members have GREATLY appreciated and enjoyed my psychoanalysis skills. (Please read the bold print with dripping sarcasm. )

I'll never forget the look on the guy's face when he asked me to diagnosis him and I said, "ED. Definitely ED."  Bewildered he replied, "Whaat?!" I'm slow so it took me a minute to figure out that thanks to viagra commercials everywhere he thought I was diagnosing him with something other than Emotional Disturbance. My bad!

This most recent team, which I will devote half a dozen blogs to in the near future, provided me quite a number of diagnostic opportunities, but I'll save that for later. Other than finding out if they are an Otter, Beaver, Lion, or Golden Retriever, we also researched our love languages. If you've never read, "The Five Love Languages," you really should.  I'm proof that it won't help you FIND love, but you'll sure know what you're missing out on.   AND BONUS you can update your e-harmony profile with your findings like, "I like to receive gifts and physical touch." These are my two LOWEST scoring categories by the way. I DO like to GIVE gifts just not receive them, but in case you're wondering monthly commitments aren't considered gifts and I LOVE to get those and you can show me some love by clicking the donate button in the tabs section to the right of this blog. :)

While quality time was a close second my highest scoring category was... Acts of Service! I hear "I love you!" when people do stuff for me! And can I just say some of you have been knocking it out of the park lately?

This Team.Thank you for an amazing summer and first term. I LOVE YOU and miss you like  a fat kid loves cake and I for sure would know! ;)

These pastors.

 These guys drove from KC to Springfield to take us to KC to the airport, kept my car and had the brakes fixed and filled it up with gas, and picked us BACK up from the airport in KC and drove us to Osage Beach.

These friends.
When I made a logistical error, they drove our cars from Springfield to Osage Beach and then turned around and went back home all in one day to help me out.

These family members. Mom and dad helped us in B'desh and then brought back our heavy items so our luggage wouldn't be overweight. Matthew and Cara grocery shopped for us and then grilled out and cooked for us and took us out on their lake toys upon our arrival back to the states.













These supporting churches. Answered a last minute financial project need for our team when I emailed and asked for help.

 
And last, but totally not least.... These guys!!

 

 

It takes a village and I have a GREAT one! Thanks for being an AWESOME village ya'll!

Here's to hoping that each of your love languages is Words of Affirmation! :)

The Eurasia Experience: How did it go in Memphis?

I'm going to let the pictures and people of First Assembly Memphis, TN speak for themselves here, but it sure was nice to be in my home state! Rocky Top You'll Always be....

 Hi Mary Beth: the weekend at First Assembly was beyond amazing; I felt like I was on a mission trip in Eurasia (I took your words from your talk you gave in the Sunday School classes we visited )!!.....the presence of the Lord was so evident in the gym as you and the team and the volunteers transformed it into Eurasia; it was quite an adventure for usI to be involved with this effort to further the Kingdom of God and I have added this experience to my Prayer War Room and will always remember and cherish the new friends we made during this time; our prayers are with you as you travel and journey for the cause of Christ. It was fun having a early morning breakfast with you.

Mary Beth, off-the-charts mission experience. God bless!  Pastor Lindberg 

Good Afternoon,

"I've been coming to mission events and meetings at First Assembly for over 20 years. The Eurasia Experience moved me like nothing I've ever attended." 

I am still so moved by the purpose and thought behind the Eurasia Experience - and I so appreciate being a part of something that God used to further His kingdom.

I cannot speak for everyone, but my eyes were certainly opened to some of the realities our own missionaries face and the desperate need that exists for millions of people. By faith, I believe they can be saved by our Amazing God! 

Hi Mary Beth; I have thought about last weekend so much and how the Lord blessed me through this experience was a life changing event in my thinking and praying for missions everywhere!!.

 
 

 

 

                                    Thanks so much First Assembly Memphis! Appreciate ya'll!

 

The Eurasia Experience: Life 360 Park Crest Campus

Well stewarded. When we go into a place to do an Experience it's quite the ordeal, or "experience" if you will.  We get up close and personal with their building pretty quickly.

Every building is different. Life 360 has a beautiful Park Crest campus, but to be honest EE doesn't really need beauty. It DOES need space and this campus has lots of that too. Space that is very, very utilized.

  What's going on at a church mid-week, mid-morning, on a summer day? We know because
 we arrive on campus 3-4 days before each event to begin set up and such. We walked into an office whirring with activity to find the associate pastor, who had been tasked with our care and coordination.

      He walked us thru the building zipping by the janitorial staff and lines of pre-schoolers toddling after their teachers.  He pointed at a room we would be using over the weekend, but couldn't go into quite yet because there was a volunteer appreciation banquet that night followed by a men's breakfast the following morning. The gym was being emptied out so we could begin set up after the Royal Rangers loaded up all their camping equipment for an upcoming outing. Soon we were dodging flying objects as the youth department made their way into the building where their youth pastor quickly channeled their energies from throwing things to setting up things.

   Over 400 people went thru the experience and many committed to pray and give and a couple even felt called to GO and all that is great and why we do what we do, but my take away was this:

1. They are excellent stewards of their facility and ministries to their people and community. It may have been crazy to to navigate around for our weekend event, but stepping over people young and old who are in and out of the church for school, fellowship, discipleship, and service is a good problem to have. To say the "church" (the people not the building :) are alive and well would be an understatement.

2.  My second take a way was this:  Look closely at these next three photos.

Not only do they have this wall of suggesting you pray for area churches and have invested in printing these prayer cards, they've made an even bigger investment; they allot time in their Sunday morning services to lift up one of these congregations each week.  In case you didn't know, service time on a Sunday morning is a BIG deal!!  AND if you'll look closely, these are churches of all different denominations and I LOVE that!!! Life 360 is truly a missional church and I'm not just saying that because they brought me back a few weeks later and gave me a GoPro and very nice promotional banner and let me teach Sunday School :) , but you can drive by their church any day of the week and see life and ministry taking place. It's not just a Sunday thing for them, actually nothing they do is just for "THEM," and that's kind of Jesus thing. Thanks Life 360 for having us! 

The Eurasia Experience: How did it go in Monroeville?

 
First of all 11 people felt called to missions and over 125 committed to prayer for Eurasia!!! If all you're into is the numbers, then read no further. While some people say God isn't concerned with numbers, I beg to differ, He put a whole book in the Bible about them, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, NUMBERS! You can thank my Central Bible College education for that joke. But most of all He's concerned with individuals, you, me, and the little Russian boy, and Asian girl, and Middle Eastern couple, and your neighbor.

 Where is Monroeville?  It's in Pennsylvania right outside of Pittsburgh. Do you know that there are really people who exist that talk JUST LIKE ROCKY?! Forrealtho, the pastors took us to a Primanti Bros. restaurant downtown and I'm pretty sure Rocky's little brother waited on us. When the pastor tried to get his burger without their signature slaw topping, (the fries are also INSIDE your sandwich BTW) Rocky Jr. said, "Um, there's a McDonalds right down the road!" I was scared to order.

  Pittsburgh was really cool though except for that cult they have there with all the yellow and black and terrible towels. I'm going to guess they didn't allow a showing of "Concussion" in this city.

  Oh, this post was to be about the Eurasia Experience? My bad.  It went great. Each church is different, each pastor is different. What stuck out to me here?  The heart of the pastors and how it shines thru in the culture of the church. First of all, these pastors have been on staff at this church for almost 2 decades, longevity and faithfulness are obviously part of their character. However, they don't SEEM like they've been there 2 decades. Their heart for their congregation, their community, and the ends of the earth is vibrant and fresh. They are still having visions and dreaming dreams. Refreshing. They worked tirelessly, had us into their home for dinner, and poured into us as a team. Hospitable. Pastoral. They invited the local area churches and community and they CAME.  We needed an interpreter for the Spanish church they invited and a section roped off for the deaf community they minister to, these are good problems to have. They are inclusive. Entire families volunteered together. There was no shortage of senior saints or young people volunteering either. So I guess what stuck out was outstanding, godly, faithful, and servant leaders. Here's a few pics from our time with Monroeville:


  Exceedingly thankful for experiences like this one. Thanks for having us!