Louise and Peter Lynch
September 2024
Stand in the Gap
Last time we wrote to you, Bangladesh was in political turmoil. After a period of violence and bloodshed in which many hundreds of people were killed, a people's revolution took place on 5th August. The Government was overthrown, the prime minister left the country and within days an interim Government was established with the remit of bringing about necessary reforms and creating an environment in which free and fair elections could take place.
During the weeks after the revolution, there were no Police and so spontaneously young people took over running essential services. They organised night patrols to keep vulnerable people and places safe (including churches and the theology college), they directed traffic, they made sure that essential supplies got to those who needed them. Having instigated the political change by protesting for a fairer and more hopeful future they then stood in the gap. It was inspiring and is also sobering as that future now begins to unfold.
Among the minority ethnic and religious populations in Bangladesh, including the Christians, there is significant apprehension. In familiar circumstances minorities learn to navigate the known system. However, an uncertain future is precarious and the political, social and religious harmony feels fragile. Please join us in praying for a just, peaceful and free Bangladesh.
Ezekiel 22:30
“I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap for me on behalf of the land”
Funding Gaps
One of our biggest challenges at the moment is how to respond when funding stops for essential work. In our letters we often describe how working holistically in places of poverty means that people experience spiritual, material, educational and health service gaps. On mission trips we talk with people about the transformation of lives and communities and for good reason it is impossible to separate out the different strands of life. We see that when people are poor there is the need to send a worker, give them some resources and to develop local capacity.
BMS funding for preschools is coming to an end and we need to find a way of continuing the essential work in the places where these schools are the gateway to education, a demonstration of community transformation and the best prevention of a repeated cycle of gender inequality and early marriage.
Please stand in the gap with us.
Personal Gaps
On the theme of “gaps” - we are still waiting for our visa to be printed in the gap in our passports. We are on the final step having received the required security clearances and approval letters from the home ministry and religious ministry. We are due to travel to Thailand on 11th October to fulfil some of our wider BMS responsibilities – so to have a swift solution is now quite urgent.
Responding to the Gaps
At the last mission training week, Shadhon and Purnima were sharing about their work in the north of Bangladesh. They have been placed in a new outreach field from the mission training centre. Having been trained on how to work with children, almost immediately (with the approval of local community leaders), they decided to gather the children every Monday and are sharing stories, songs and prayers about Jesus with them. They noticed that many of the children were very poor and were not in school, so they decided that they would start to home-tutor without cost in order to make up the education gap and to encourage them to enrol. It was a lovely example of a practical response to an obvious need. It was one story among several where trainees are putting into practice what they are learning.
[All pictures are examples of street art and graffiti that has appeared all over the cities of Bangladesh where young people express their feelings about their recent experience]
Prayer Points
So, please pray, build up the wall, stand in the gap:
That our visa will arrive during these next few days.
Pray for a peaceful, just and free Bangladesh and for the interim Government.
Pray for the pre-schools across Bangladesh that a way of securing the future of this work will be found.
Pray for the mission trainees, that they will be creative and courageous in their work.
Pray for the Christian and minority people groups in Bangladesh that the future for them would be a hopeful one.
We are looking forward to being on home assignment between December and February and hope to see many of you face to face. Thank you as always for your faithful prayers for the church in Bangladesh and for us.
With our love
Pete and Louise