Fruitfulness

Group baptisms in Bangladesh are so beautiful to witness. The week before Easter we were speaking at a regional meeting in the west of Bangladesh and it was a delight to see 40 people being baptised. Nearly half of them were from non-Christian background and having seen the quality of the lives of their believing neighbours had decided to follow Jesus.

On the other side of the country, James and Bina (you may have seen them in the Harvest video last year) sent us pictures of an Easter Sunday baptism and the congregation all standing together in the frame of the new church building in one of the villages where they work. This will be a house for worship and a place for the community.

Easter Sunday was great in our street where thousands of us joined together for a sunrise service organised by the local churches. It is good that this tradition of public worship continues and that Christians can openly celebrate the resurrection and pray for Bangladesh.

The big family news is the upcoming big birthday for Louise and our planned meet up at a mid-point destination (between the UK and Bangladesh). We will leave you to guess where. Since we were last together, Calum has secured a new job in Newcastle and Jonah has flown to even more exotic places than Bangladesh for his work – so we are thankful to God for his care and are excited about meeting up at the end of May.

Louise has been teaching at some family workshops on nurturing children's spiritual development. She met a grandmother who began the day in tears as she explained that she was there with her grandson because her daughter had recently died. By the end of the day she was smiling peacefully with coloured pencils, a picture, and a grandson in hand and said, “I have never held a coloured pencil before”.

Yesterday was a great day at the Baptist Mission Training Centre. For the last year we have been training and supporting workers who are planting churches in new outreach fields. We are now seeing some fruit from this..

One couple reported, “11th April was the best day of our life. On this day the film of Jesus' life and stories were publicly displayed in my new gospel area. Their were children and guardians present. The purpose was to show Jesus is still alive – and it was so successful. May all pray for us that we can publicly share the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Another was sharing about how he is travelling for 3-4 hours each week to a neighbouring Buddhist village to share the gospel. He travels secretly without a Bible because of political tensions, but the village welcome him and invite him to teach them.

Another couple described with smiles on their faces how they now have 2 Bible study groups running every week with 7 men in one and 11 in the other. They run 2 Sunday Schools full of children and they are building community relationships by providing water, sanitation and hygiene training for families. This has led to government support being given to members of the community.

Please keep praying for peace and stability in Bangladesh.

Please pray for the safety, encouragement and increasing fruitfulness for the BBCS mission workers.

Pray for the ongoing project of writing/publication of the training resources

Thank you for your prayers for us. We are both travelling a lot at the moment for different speaking and training events so please pray that God will bring about fruit that will last in all that we do.

With our love

Pete and Lou