Ryan and Suzie minister amongst the 'B people' in South Asia with Baptist Mission Australia.
Excerpt from a recent update.
Christmas is recognized in South Asia. Boro Din (literally 'The Big Day') is this country's name for Christmas, and is remembered with a public holiday. Little else, though, marks this season as being different to any other in South Asia - life goes on as usual. Despite this, we know and celebrate another reality at Christmas: "The true light that gives light to all people was coming into the world." (John 1:9).
The third week in November was quite a week in South Asia. On the Monday 17th we stayed home under lockdown and watched on our TV as this country's former prime-minister was sentenced to death by an International Crimes tribunal for crimes against humanity. Then on the Friday 21st, as we were packing to travel north for some training, and earthquake hit! At 5.7 on the Richter scale, and with the epicentre only about 10km from where we live in the capital, it felt quite strong. Lasting about 20 seconds, there was no visible damage to our apartment. However one of the support pillars downstairs in our building sustained some cracks. Sadly, in other parts of the city and surrounds, 10 people were killed, mostly by falling debris. There were four smaller aftershocks in the weeks following. But as they've faded, so it seems have the voices calling out that this country really isn't prepared for a major earthquake. But it's one problem amongst many in this country. We pray for God to watch over this country.
Recently we converted one of our apartment's bedrooms into a part-time recording studio. Actually that's overstating things a bit - with modern software, not much conversion was needed to get the kind of sound quality we were looking for. This has allowed us to start recording the audio files for our Scripture App audio Bible. Currently we are recording the gospels.
Talking to one of our staff the other day, our conversation reminded me of the importance of this project. Having asked this young man about his faith journey, he told me how he'd been raised in a religious school within the majority religion here. It didn't work out for him, but nonetheless, he said he could see some goodness in the M religion. Later, going to a dance school, he met Hindus and Buddhists and could see goodness in these religions also. More recently, in working with our organization, he started reading our local translation of the Bible. And like before, he said, he could see some goodness in this religion. While I was processing this, he looked at me, smiled widely and said, "But I've become the biggest fan of Jesus! There's just no one else like him!"
Our hope is that, through this project, many more may come to see that real hope is not found in religion, but in finding and following Jesus.
Talking to one of our staff the other day, our conversation reminded me of the importance of this project. Having asked this young man about his faith journey, he told me how he'd been raised in a religious school within the majority religion here. It didn't work out for him, but nonetheless, he said he could see some goodness in the M religion. Later, going to a dance school, he met Hindus and Buddhists and could see goodness in these religions also. More recently, in working with our organization, he started reading our local translation of the Bible. And like before, he said, he could see some goodness in this religion. While I was processing this, he looked at me, smiled widely and said, "But I've become the biggest fan of Jesus! There's just no one else like him!"
Our hope is that, through this project, many more may come to see that real hope is not found in religion, but in finding and following Jesus.