Harvest Bridge 2023 Impact Report

Bangladesh: A Living Sacrifice

By Pastor Darpan* and Rina*, Country Directors

Very personally, we tried to follow His Word as He said in Romans 12:12. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. I try to prepare our missionaries to live a sacrificing life for the Lord. They are growing little by little, becoming meaningful leaders, and now they are prepared and becoming strong in faith by the blessing of the Lord. Sister Raba* is one of these leaders:

“I was thrilled to write this, as these months have been full of blessings. In the recent months, I have preached the Gospel in various places. One of these areas was [a] slum area where I visited multiple times and preached to a group of 83 people. Me and six co-workers went to [nearby] areas to distribute blankets among needy people. We regularly visited different places and showed Jesus Film and other videos among people and many watched them with positive interest. I, with my coworkers, have distributed Holy Bibles among people in the slum. I continued serving my local church regularly, and also conducted Bible studies with the new believers. I visited some slum children and shared stories from scripture and talked with them about my loving God. In recent months, we formed a church where we usually sit for worship. We were able to form four house churches around this slum area for the glory of the Lord. Beside this, I preached among the elderly people, and provided them with adult education.

I want to thank God that He chose a person like me to serve His Kingdom. Before, I never thought in my life that I will be doing His ministry works. Working for Christ brings new challenges and experiences, and blessings for me. I had to face lots of insults and persecution many times for doing God’s work. Local community people brought charges against me as I preached among many people in the name of Jesus. I had to face the judges. People call me ‘religion traitor’ and hate me. Sometimes, the challenges are too hard to face but I always try to look up to my savior Lord Jesus as He said in Matthew 5:11-12, ‘[11] Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me...’ Every single day brings a new example for His faithfulness.”

SERVING DURING CRISES

We overcame the whole year with struggle; in the year of 2023 the inflation hit our general daily life. It made an unpleasant situation to every life, more than the previous years. In the same way, natural disasters are also coming up. Because Bangladesh is a coastal country and the world environmental weather issues have led to unseasonal or unexpected disasters, Bangladesh is the sufferer. Also, there was an alarm to the nation about obtaining the national election and it made us frightened.

But, praise God, our church planting ministry is blessed by the love of HB and its tremendous support to us. Harvest Bridge makes our dream possible – to implement His vision. The love, including the financial support, was the most important, encouraging and exciting matter to our ministry in Bangladesh. The whole year was so blessed, although we passed a hard time.

HB supported in disasters like cold weather, and storms and cyclone devastation, standing beside us as we provided the commodities and provided the relief several times, several ways. It was a very good and helpful matter that HB supported many people getting medical help; sometimes little, sometimes big. We were excited a lot of times as HB did what the Holy Bible says in Matthew 25:35-40: “[35] For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in…. [40] The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”

TEACHING ACROSS GENERATIONS

“I had the opportunity to mentor children in our fellowship, where we shared Bible stories and had lovely moments together. It was heartwarming to see the children’s excitement and innocence as they learned about the Bible. We also had the chance to meet their parents during our fellowship, most of whom were women. When their parents invited us over, we had the privilege of meeting their grandparents. We shared the Gospel with them as well.”

~ Sister Kabya*

Because they are the new believers and hungry to know and learn more about Jesus and His Salvation, and this children’s Bible with pictures is working among the hearts of those who cannot read.

We are thankful to run the evangelism with many tools, like distributing 1870 Bibles, including 650 children’s Bibles. These have been impacting a lot of people, not only children, but also the elderly. Because they are the new believers and hungry to know and learn more about Jesus and His Salvation, and this children’s Bible with pictures is working among the hearts of those who cannot read.

PERSECUTION AND ANSWERED PRAYER

In 2023 HB supported four leaders who rescued 288 children and women from the traffickers. Chara* is one of the leaders:

“I am experiencing lots of threatening. Because I am serving as rescuer at the different slums and stations of transportation, I have become the enemy to traffickers and extremists. They are frightening to me because I have two daughters. At any time, they might come to destroy or do a bad work. Being their enemy is life risking here in Bangladesh.”

The most difficult parts of the year were due to persecution. There were three times when we had a baptism date fixed up, but had to be canceled because of threatening. Missionary Rahul’s* fishponds were poisoned again and he suffered big money losing. One church had false cases brought against it by local leaders, and people broke the windows, doors, roof, tines and everything. After being beaten, a missionary was helped financially for her source of income, and with medical treatment, by the leadership of HB. Through HB supporting, we could also take lawful action during false cases against us. So, a lot of difficulties we faced, but Lord is our living Lord, and kept us to stand on His Word very strengthened.

“We have some new believers who come from a Hindu background. After they accepted Jesus and received baptism, a few people from their area started tormenting them by mocking their faith and claiming they only converted for money. They even threatened to throw them out of the community and came to beat them once. However, these new believers remained steadfast in their faith and did not give in. We started praying for them. Our church and its members provided support and helped them maintain their peace.” ~Pastor Bihan*

“Last month a co-worker of mine was called by the village chairman and the police after preaching the Gospel and baptizing people. They called him a religious traitor and worse. He was taken away by the police and the village chairman. We decided to rescue him and prayed for God to touch their hearts. Although he was detained for a long time, we continued to pray for him. By the grace of God, we were able to rescue him that day. I believe it was because of our prayers that God spoke to the mind of the chairman and the police, and they were forced to release him. Glory be to God.” ~ Pastor Raad*

Very personally I would like to share as David says in Psalm 121: “I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”

So, above mentioned are a lot of works that have been impacting our church planting ministry and the Lord has been glorified through His people. Pray for the new souls and all the church members of Bangladesh and our missionaries preaching and sharing through His Word. We hope His Kingdom work will be continued by your loving prayers and cares.