Phil & Christine in Minnesota, USA

Christine & I just wanted to update you on what we are facing in this time of COVID-19. Our teams continue to work in Bangladesh. But shortly before the really serious lockdown began in Bangladesh, the international staff team asked Christine & I to take some R&R in Dhaka (the capital). So we ended up leaving Cox's Bazar on (what we didn't know at the time was) the last flight out of dodge (or out of Cox's). So we ended up getting stuck in Dhaka, and working remotely from there.

After the huge distribution, NUT work is scaled back

After having been there for 3 weeks, and having no hope that we would be able to get back to Cox's anytime soon (given the fact that all commercial flights are grounded into the month of May), we again consulted with our country director and international colleagues. From that discussion we decided to take a repatriation flight arranged by the US embassy in Dhaka to Washington DC on the 13th of this month. We arrived in Dulles on the 14th and drove to Minnesota from Dulles. So we have been quarantining in the basement airbnb of a young couple that live next to our son, Nathan, and his wife Anna.

The plan is that we will continue to work remotely (late in the evening and early in the morning when we can have contact) with our teams from here until we can return to BGD. After quarantine Christine will work at renewing her passport, and we will apply to renew our visas (which you remember were expiring on May 1) while we wait for international flights between BGD and the US to resume.

In a wonderful twist (that only God could orchestrate), our country director feels that it should be easier, because of the corona virus, for Christine and I to get visas for BGD because we both have our Master's in Public Heath (shout out to Tulane University!) and the government of BGD is more open to people with such degrees given the crisis.

I want to give you some resources that I have been collecting over the last month or so that you can look at if you want to find out more about how the refugees are facing the crisis (the first is a link to an interview that our country director gave to Tearfund New Zealand):

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=220079196103162 - you can follow this Medair FB page if you want to keep up with what Medair is doing around the world.

https://www.msf.org/rohingya-refugees-left-starve-sea

https://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/news/virus-can-cause-havoc-rohingya-camps-1882162

Thank you so much for your support!

Praise:

1. Safe travel to Minneapolis
2. The understanding of our Bangladeshi colleagues as we took the decision to leave BGD for the time being. 

Prayer:

1. For the peace of mind of our colleagues, a few of whom have expressed dismay that we have left a country with a few hundred reported cases of the virus, to rejoin a country that has 3x more than any other country of the world.
2. For our visa application process.
3. For our world in the time of this crisis (this probably goes without saying).
4. For resolution of some existing health issues that Christine has been dealing with. 
5. For the Rohingya refugees who face a multitude of crises, including the corona virus. And that God would continue to operate this miracle of no confirmed cases in the camps. Divine intervention is the only hope of this remaining the case.