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>> 16 Oct 2009
Hi all
It's been an exciting couple of weeks on all fronts (and in no particular order):
1. It was Nic's birthday last weekend, so we had a fantastic party on the roof of our building;
2. We made a big breakthrough with our product - with our first one being sold and used and 2 big orders being made.
3. One of our trafficking survivors returned to Bangladesh.
Time for some elaboration
Birthday
On Saturday was Nic's birthday, so we had a party to celebrate that and also to celebrate the arrival of some new members of our team and as a belated housewarming.It was very exciting - all of the Oasis staff attended and Andy had arranged to use the roof on our apartment block and he had also arranged to have it decorated with lots of lovely fairy lights - very beautiful.
What came as a surprise (to both of us) was when one of our colleagues turned up with 4 of his mates, who then turned out to be a Hindi dance troop. Towards the end of the evening they started performing some Hindi dancing to us all, which obviously we had to join in with!
Product
So a big week for our product. Not only has our first one been sold and used in the UK but we also secured 2 big contracts in Europe and Australia - WAHOO! So, whilst being extremely happy to have these new orders coming through, we're currently wondering about how on earth we're going to meet them. However, looking at the way in which God enabled us to overcome the mountain of our first production run, we have absolute confidence that He will enable us to conquer this mountain. It's amazing to think that 12 months ago we had no idea what product we would be producing, no factory to produce it in, no workforce and no supplier. Now we have 3 suppliers, a factory, a product, customers and most importantly people employed who desperately need the jobs! Clearly, God's hand has been with us and continues to go with us in the work Oasis is doing.
Survivor
On Wednesday Nic took a trip to the south of the country to meet one of the survivors we have helped repatriate from India (for the purpose of this blog we will refer to her as Rahima).
This is quite an amazing story and another one where it couldn't have come about without God's divine intervention.
Rahima was trafficked from her village in June with her friend by a local policeman. she was sold to another trafficker in India, who took her to Mumbai. On his way to taking her to a brothel to be sold she escaped and managed to contact an organisation in Bangladesh that we work with. They contacted us and we alerted our team in Mumbai. They then worked with a partner organisation to rescue Rahima. Thankfully they managed to rescue her and take her to Oasis' half way home in Mumbai.
Rahima was then transferred to Kolkata whilst awaiting the official documentation from the government that allows her to return home. Normally it takes 6 - 12 months for the paperwork to be processed by the 2 governments but in this case it came through in a matter of weeks; totally amazing!
So, on Wednesday 7th October we received a phone call to say that Rahima's travel documentation had come through and she would be returning to Bangladesh the following day.
She travelled by bus from Kolkata to the Bangladesh border. She was met by our partner organisation and after filling in some official documentation at the police station she was taken to a shelter home in the area that she comes from.
On Wednesday Nic and a couple of colleagues met with her and the shelter home team to discuss her aftercare and options for the future.
She is quite a remarkable young lady - very well adjusted, with a good education, a wonderfully caring heart and a real ambition to get a good career that would bring honour to her family as well as to complete her education. She is very motivated to achieve and grow and to live a life of independence. Unfortunately she doesn't seem to have any idea about how talented she is and how much potential she has. In fact all she aspires to at the moment is to be a hospital domestic assistant but from meeting her it seems she is capable of so much more.
Before she was trafficked she was living in a village with her family, who could barely afford to feed the four children. She had been married but her husband left her and is living in the same village with his new wife and children. There is a lot of hurt surrounding the separation from her husband and it was very sad to hear her talking about it.
Our prayer for Rahima is that she would be encouraged to dream big dreams and that she would receive the support she needs to achieve some of those dreams. We also pray that God would heal the hurt she feels at the breakdown of her marriage and that this situation would create an opportunity for a new life filled with blessings and hope.
In terms of our other activities over the past couple of weeks, we've spent time with the young people at church helping them to arrange their youth "camp" (retreat) for the end of November. They're all extremely excited about the prospect of spending time away in the presence of God and loving friends and also for the opportunity to see a part of the country that many of them will not have seen before.
We have also been on a youth group trip to the park today, which was really fun. Andy led a short study and there was the obligatory games that had to be played (what youth group would be complete without a few games?!)
Tomorrow the women from church are coming round to spend the morning together with some worship, some bible study and hopefully a good deal of fellowship. Nic's very much looking forward to it and is hoping that positive relationships will be forged and that there will be enough cake to go round :-)
So, that pretty much sums up the highlights from the last couple of weeks. We still have the two girls from the UK staying with us, who are working with Oasis, which is lovely. They've started to get more settled now and are just about getting to grips with the transport and using their Bangla. In addition, we have started to perfect the art of cramming 5 passengers in a small taxi (parents if you're reading this look away now......................)
Which basically involves the two girls in the back with Andy. Nic then sits on Andy's knee with her head out the window, apparently there are certain similarities to a Labrador! The locals think it's hilarious and just when we thought we couldn't attract any more attention than we already do simply by being foreigners!
Anyhow, I'm pleased to say we don't have to travel in that manner too often.
Just to end the posting, we wanted to share one last thought with you. Today at church we were thinking about how big and amazing our God is and we reflected on Job 38 v 4 - 7 "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundations? Tell me if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone - while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?"
As all the events described above have unfolded we've really had a sense of how awesome and amazing God is - so awesome that He would pick 35 people out of abject poverty and provide lasting jobs for them, so awesome that He would intervene to prevent a beautiful young woman from being sold to a brothel and that's only a drop in the ocean (so to speak).
May we all feel the presence of this awesome God as we go about our lives these coming days.
Andy and Nic x
