A Day in the Life
Bangladesh

You are a young mother who lives with your 9 children in a tarp-covered shack at the edge of a dry riverbed. You have no running water or electricity. Your water is drawn from the same pond that serves as a public toilet and community bath.

Your husband leaves early each day to work as a “puller,” someone who pulls a rickshaw for about 80 cents per day. In this male dominated society, you may be beaten by your husband if something bothers him when he returns home. Even though you are pregnant, you feed what little food you have to your husband and children first, and then eat what’s left. Often, there is nothing.

To walk a mile in these shoes, follow some or all of the suggestions listed below:

• Like the Muslims, you will pray together as a family at 5 specified times today. (Accept that we pray to the one true God!) Pray today at 4:30 AM, 10:00 AM, 1:00 PM, 6:00 PM and 8:30 PM.
• Have flat bread (tortillas or pitas) for breakfast. Today as a treat you will also have tea.
• Go for a walk midday taking turns pulling each other in a wagon or on a cart. (Imagine doing this for 12 hours a day for just 80 cents!)
• Sit in silence for 30 – 60 minutes (in Bangladesh it is illegal to share the Gospel, you can be arrested for even speaking about it.)
• Midday have some rice and lentil soup for a meal.
• Try and read a Bible from another language or turn yours upside down and read it. It is very hard. Many people have no Bible in their own language. Pray that translations will be completed in many new tongues

Consider…
If you are a Bangladeshi and become a Christian, you are most likely going to be kicked out of your family and village and quite possibly beaten or killed. What a great sacrifice to accept the truth of the Gospel and follow Jesus. What sacrifices are we willing to make for your faith in the Lord?