Still here...honest...

We're so sorry there's been such a long delay between postings; we really will try to get on top of this over the upcoming few weeks.

So, our activities over the last couple of weeks:

Church

Ladies Get-together
We had the first of our ladies get together at our house a few weeks ago for the women at church. It was a really good morning as we spent time talking, sharing, studying and eating lovely fruit and cake.

For a lot of the women in this culture, they spend so much of their time working to earn money, looking after the house, cooking and raising their children that their own needs come pretty low on the list of priorities. Some are currently feeling a bit lost and a bit trapped in their lives; particularly those younger women who are of 'marrying age' and whose father's are currently looking for a suitable husband. For them it's an extremely anxious time, not knowing what type of husband they will get, whether he will be respectful of their beliefs and whether he will give them the space and freedom to be the beautiful, creative, ambitious women that God created them to be.

With that in mind we spent some time being encouraged by one of God's beautiful, creative, ambitious, trapped daughters in the bible, namely Esther. The time of prayer and study was wonderful. There's something special about the way women come together to worship God.

We were also entertained by the 3 babies of 3 mothers that came, 1 one of whom found a deep fascination with bird watching over our balcony (a budding David Belamy maybe?!)

Sunday School Picnic
On Friday we went on the annual Sunday School picnic to a place called Savar, about 1.5 hours outside of Dhaka, which is home to the national war memorial commemorating the 1971 Liberation War. The 3 main Sunday Schools all got together for a time of games, singing and bible study in the grounds of the war memorial park, followed by some lunch on a shady bit of grass, which consisted of a cardboard box filled with rice, some chicken and a hard boiled egg.

All the kids had a fantastic time, particularly playing the games and they were still full of enthusiasm during Sunday School on Saturday evening - in fact it was the first thing they all talked to me about. There were about 30 kids in total together with a few of their Sunday School teachers.

The actual was quite interesting in itself. There were a lot of people working there, including young children, who probably lived in the park or the local streets. They worked picking up litter, climbing the trees to get peanuts, which they then cracked open and sold, or sweeping leaves from the ground. Word seemed to get round pretty quickly that we were there, so before we knew it a large group of these kids were surrounding our game of Duck Duck Goose as they took eager delight in watching what we were doing.

Work
For the anti-trafficking work, the majority of Nic's time has been spent in putting together materials for Start Freedom, which is an initiative being run by STOP THE TRAFFIK to engage school children on the issue of trafficking. We are running this project in as many English Medium Schools as possible in Bangladesh.

Nic has also been spending time working on the aftercare for the survivor we mentioned in the last blog. It's so encouraging to see how keen she is to develop and progress her life. She's really focusing on the future and doesn't seem to be too help back by the experiences she's encountered through being trafficked. Actually, she was one of the more fortunate trafficking victims, as she was rescued before being sold to a brothel but that's not to detract from the severity of the trafficking process; it simply means that she hasn't got the added trauma of being sexually exploited. Anyway, she is due to be attending work experience in a local clinic to see whether she would be interested in doing a training course to become a medical assistant and we are also trying to arrange some work experience for her at a beauty parlour, where she can be trained to be a beautician.

Andy's been taking over the project management of our bamboo manufacturing and has been doing some project development work using our 'bamboo frame' concept. He is now also working on some graphics work and maintaining a link with two Oasis academies in the UK.

Personal
Well we still have our 2 lovely house guests staying with us, who are lots of fun to have round, especially when they emerge from their room first thing in the morning - we now remember what it's like being a teenager (ha ha). One of the girls' dad stayed with us for a few day to see what his daughter was up to and to spend time with her seeing the sights, which was really special.

We have arranged for our house helper to have some more cooking training from a lady at church. Last week she cooked roast chicken with Veg and Nan bread - yum! She is a very keen learner and the lady from church is a great teacher. The biggest challenge for our house helper is remembering the recipes when she is completely illiterate but nothing a bit of practice won't sort out.

Last Saturday we went to a craft fair at the local mission school, which was great because there were lots of amazing projects there displaying the items that the people they are supporting had made. Most of the stalls were fair trade and there were lots of Christmassy things on display (so two big thumbs up for me). We find it really worthwhile supporting these types of projects because it's a way of keeping people away from begging on the streets and they're actually doing meaningful, sustainable jobs, which give them ongoing training and support and mean they have an opportunity for a fulfilling life. A lot of the projects are working with destitute women, or people formerly on the streets, or the most marginalised in society...so much need but what a great way of addressing it. It's so comforting to know exactly where your money's going and who it's benefiting!

Anyway, think that's about all our news.

Hope you all have (have had) a great bonfire night. We'd love to hear of your bonfire antics if you fancy dropping us an email, as long as you promise not to gloat too much about how many hot dogs and toasted marshmallows you ate.

Lots of love as always

Nic and Andy x

P.S. PHOTOS HAVE BEEN UPDATED - even added comments because we were feeling so guilty!

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Welcome Home

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

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Finishing off.........

Hi everyone,

Its been another busy 2 weeks in Bangladesh and we can't believe we've been here for a month already!

It's two weeks so let me update you all a week at a time:
Week 1)
This was mainly taking up by Bible Camp. We had a great time with lots of study and praise and worship. Most of the church here managed to attend the 5 day event. We were all bussed out of town on the Sunday evening and were taken to conference centre about an hour out of Dhaka.

It was a nice place close to the first city of Bangladesh and, as always, nice to be out of the hustle and bustle of Dhaka city. We had a full five days of study, worship, eating and good fellowship with everyone. The church was joined by a some field workers from Australia including Ron Hicks who originally set up the church when he came here with the world bank 10 years ago. Unfortunately we had to leave a day early because we needed to be back at work on the Thursday.

On Friday Andy led the class at Banani and we said goodbye to Ken, a long term field worker from Canada who has had to leave his wife and 8 month year old baby and return to Canada for work. He'll be coming back in the New year to pick up his family and take them to Canada.

Week 2)
Last week we had a slow start with one day at the office and then a day off for the Hindu Holiday of Durga Pooja. This gave Nicola and I some time to sort a few jobs at the house including getting a cheap dinning table. On Monday night we had some people over from church for a meal (on our new table) and had chance to give some feedback on the products they had given us to take back to the UK. It was good to spend time with them and organise how we can take their ideas for their business further.

After they had left Andy packed his bag and headed up to Nilphamari on the overnight bus with his boss. He was due to stay for one day and catch the train home but due to the end of both the Muslim and Hindu holiday all the tickets were booked. So Andy was stranded up at the factory for another day!

This gave plenty of time to oversee the packaging of products ready to ship in our container and also plan for production over the next few weeks and months. The following day Andy and boss got the last two tickets on a squashed non-ac bus back to Dhaka. The seats were right at the back with no leg room for two big guys and we were bounced around for 7 hours all the way back to Dhaka! We even had to stop at a rest stop for 40 mins whilst they jacked up the bus and hit the wheel with a metal pole whilst we were all sitting on board!!

Meanwhile, back in Dhaka, Nicola was runnign here and there busy organising things for two short term Oasis workers who are staying at our home for the next month. Getting beds, sheets, extra cups and bowls, setting up internet and welcome packs, and schedules.... all bus busy stuff.

So by the time Andy got back on Thursday morning we were both feeling exhausted!! But, no rest for the wicked, we got up early friday morning to meet our new guests at the airport at 4.15am! They're in Bangladesh for 2 months and will be mainly working on Stop the Traffik and in the community school.

So far so good, both girls are lovely and seem to be enjoying life in this crazy town!! Hopefully this we'll manage to get some time in the office to get organised with all the work that's piling up for us both.

So one month in, and we're both loving every minute! We're still happy to have visitors so if anyone wants to come and share some of the experience then please let us know!

God Bless,
Andy and Nic

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