Our communications person shared a link to this story a couple of weeks ago: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/dec/24/i-want-to-tell-of-our-suffering-comms-crackdown-puts-rohingya-on-mute-bangladesh-coxs-bazar.
In our last blog we talked about how kids will be kids (interestingly enough someone mentioned this very line to me in church while in the US), in spite of difficult circumstances. Check out the wonderful picture of two young Rohingya refugees caked in mud in the article above!
The article also gives us the perspective of young people on the ban on internet in the camps - what this means practically for them. Here are some other challenges for us as an organization:
In our last blog we talked about how kids will be kids (interestingly enough someone mentioned this very line to me in church while in the US), in spite of difficult circumstances. Check out the wonderful picture of two young Rohingya refugees caked in mud in the article above!
The article also gives us the perspective of young people on the ban on internet in the camps - what this means practically for them. Here are some other challenges for us as an organization:
- The only way we have to communicate between the office and staff in the camps is telephony. In the past we used WhatsApp and Skype for sending reports and other communication. Connecting even by phone is becoming more difficult.
- Emergency services in the camps are handicapped by not being able to use location services.
Christine & I were in Minneapolis over Christmas. We were blessed to spend Christmas with our kids and Christine's extended family. It was also wonderful to be at our church twice during the short stay.
For those of you who celebrate the advent season, we pray that it was meaningful for you. It was again incredibly meaningful for us to practice the discipline of Advent-keeping by reading the devotionals by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This quote really resonates with us:
We are, no doubt, among the sated and the satisfied. But we also find that we have carried for some time a restlessness in us for the least served, the forgotten and the vulnerable. So we are so gratified and privileged to have been able to walk alongside the Rohingya throughout 2019. We also pray that we can get our visas in May in order to fulfill our contractual agreement to continue to work with the Rohingya through the end of 2020.
Praise:
- Those 45 nutrition recruitments happened - thanks for your prayers! However, a couple of key nutrition staff turned down our offer, so these positions remain unfilled. Please be in prayer about this.
- The 3 old nutrition sites were handed over and we started work in the 4 new sites on Jan 5.
- Just deep gratitude for this opportunity to be with our kids and extended family.
Prayer:
- Onboarding of new nutrition staff and a quick sense of unity and esprit du corps between new and old staff.
- For acceptance by the refugees in these 4 new camps who have lost their former nutrition service provider(s) and are transitioning to our clinics.
- For God's leading as we walk alongside the Rohingya
- For visas for us (in May) and others currently in the process.
