Bangladesh (MNN) – Recently Executive Director of Forgotten Missionaries International Bruce Allen traveled to Bangladesh to meet with church planters in the country. But that’s not all. During his latest visit to the country, Allen also met with the spouses of church leaders.
“The women, especially Christian women, in these Muslim dominant countries, they are so invisible in their culture. Number one because they’re women. They just have a lower social status. But number two, if you’re a woman who happens to be a Christian. You’re incredibly invisible,” Allen explains.
Christian worshipers sing as they begin to gather in the courtyard of one church member’s home. This congregation of more than 50 members currently has a five-to-one ratio of adult women-to-men. FMI’s new Women’s Discipleship Initiative aims to help the whole church mature together by identifying and empowering qualified women to train other women.
(Photo, caption courtesy of FMI)
In Bangladesh, the Christian population hangs around a half-percent. Combine being a Christian with being a woman and as Allen says, “you are a sliver of a minority.”
But on this trip, Allen and other team members took time to encourage these women, bringing with them notes from Mission Network News listeners, primarily from women, lifting up their sisters in Christ.
While there, Allen also had a chance to get updated on the happenings in the Church of Bangladesh. As it turns out, churches have been connecting with the majority Muslim population and the minority populations, including Hindu and Buddhist tribes. “I was really glad to hear how we are impacting all the demographics in Bangladesh,” Allen says.
In 2015, FMI was helping to support 21 different ministry sights, seven of these were new churches. Currently, FMI is looking at another five churches to support too. And you can help! Just imagine the difference it will make for people like one Bangladeshi woman.
I am a sinner
In a rural village, a couple hours walk from it’s closest neighboring village, is a woman who lived as a prostitute. But one day, as the Bangladesh world came to her town for a national event, she met Jesus. During the event, she zeroed in on a man she deemed to be her next customer. She tried to seduce him despite the large crowd gathering around him. Yet, to her surprise, he shook her off.
The man, who acted so differently from the others she usually encountered, was a pastor. He hadn’t come to the village like a regular tourist, only there to celebrate. No. He was there to evangelize. When the woman, who listened with the crowd to the pastor preach, recognized that she was a sinner and openly confessed it, the pastor shared with her the hope of Christ.
(Photo courtesy of Forgotten Missionaries International)
“He just turned his gaze away from the crowd, and just began to have a personal conversation with her. And he said, ‘Jesus Christ is God who came in the flesh. He loves you and he has taken the penalty for your sin upon himself and you can be free of your guilt and your shame,’” Allen explains. After this, the woman thirsted to know more about Jesus and to share His word with others.
“This woman who woke up in the morning as a prostitute, that afternoon became an Evangelist herself,” Allen says. “And she helped [the pastor] and members of his church distribute three-thousand evangelistic tracks.”
This is the very kind of impact God is causing through FMI and its partner churches in Bangladesh. So when people support church planters, through ministries like FMI, their support extends far beyond the church itself. “God is really at work in Bangladesh,” Allen expresses. And you can be a part of it!
There are still five churches in need of support through FMI. If you’re willing, would you consider being a donor and partner with FMI to help these churches spread the Gospel?
If so, to learn about partnering and donating, click here!
To contact FMI directly, click here!
