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Louise and Peter Lynch
July 2026
A long, beautiful and emotional goodbye
To all our friends ...
Thank you to everyone who prayed for us as we left Bangladesh. The good news is that we left safely and we arrived safely. We were waved off at the airport by all our friends and colleagues and our sons had planned a surprise reunion in Newcastle, so the day that started in tears, ended in joy and a huge sense of relief. We would like to pay tribute to our friends and colleagues, who, as well as telling us every day, that we had made a mistake and should stay, planned the most beautiful goodbye. They kept us company every day, made sure we had meals and on our last Friday gave us a Bengali wedding style send off, clothes, decorations and food. So now we are the proud owners of exquisite wedding clothes and more memories than we can hold in our minds.
Finished but not finished
At the moment, as many of you know, we are visiting churches and enjoying more amazing food and hospitality. Bringing a coherent message from eight years of experiences, work and thinking, is quite a challenge, and at the time of writing it is still a work in progress.
We are acutely aware that the work in Bangladesh continues, and our colleagues carry a heavy burden. But technology is allowing us to meet and pray with them, and answer any questions, from work not quite completed. We will continue to do this for some time to support Barnabas and Sagor as they take over all the teaching of the Diploma in Applied Mision. We praise God for the young men and women, who have committed themselves to taking the gospel to new parts of Bangladesh.
BMS have supported us and the Bangladesh church so well – we are really grateful – and thanks to your support they are providing generous grants to continue some of the areas of ministry we were part of: helping BBCS to take the gospel to new places; equipping and training new leaders; and inspiring young people in mission and renewing smaller churches. God's work in Bangladesh is by no means finished and we hope you will continue to pray for BBCS and for the country.
Our reflections
We know that we have been profoundly changed by our time in Bangladesh, we have been privileged to learn to depend more on God and to see the world differently. We talk often of work and training, but we know that our biggest contribution was just to turn up, be there, laugh and cry together - and to stay during the difficult times of Covid and the political uprising. We were in an extraordinary relationship with the people we worked alongside and it has been mutual. We have not been in partnership, but we have been in relationship and we had friendships. We have experienced the kingdom of heaven through the love and care of our colleagues. And we have had a glimpse of how the global church can be effective - everyone needing each other and supporting one another with the gifts that God has given to us.
And finally
We know that your prayers and support have kept us going, through some quite tricky and very stretching experiences. Thank you for praying for us – thank you to BMS - and thank you for being part of the Global Church, caring about our brothers and sisters in Bangladesh.
We don't have an answer yet to the 'what's next question', but we are content to wait and see. We know that we need time to regather ourselves and time to be able to listen to God and to depend on His help and grace for everyday as we transition and adjust.
Please, please keep praying for Bangladesh.
We look forward to seeing many of you over the next few weeks and will always be grateful for your love and prayers.
Pete and Louise