Up at 8:00 to find breakfast and look up contacts that Ripon had made. After many false starts we were able to find a man to take us into a small community that was effected greatly by the much rain and flooding. Many of the homes were made of mud dug from ponds in the area. The walls were 16-18 inches thick but after being soaked by constant rains the foundations started softening, this caused the walls to settle and collapse. Some homes were a wall here and there and some the whole house was destroyed. We made contact with thirty people in that village. We told our contact man to have them all meet us at a certain time. We went to the market and bought rice, lentils, potatoes, and salt to add to our biscuits, vitamins, saline, oil, and tracts. While the supplies were being packaged for us, we went and got a bite to eat. We came back and put the supplies in their separate bags to hand out.
We met at the time appointed and handed out the bags to the people we had made contact with. It was getting on in the afternoon by the time we finished our project. Now what? Head for home or do some searching? With out a contact to point us in the right direction we would need a whole day just to go around and check the different villages in the flood effected areas. Ripon had an area he wanted to go check but no contact. He had been in contact with a Baptist pastor earlier in the day but was not able to meet him. Taking that as an idea, a Baptist church was called in the affected area that Ripon was interested in checking. The pastor answered the phone right away and spoke English very well. He readily agreed to have us come and meet with him at his church.
Another hour and a half of normal Bangladesh travel we found the church. We could see that this was an area that definitely had seen some water!! The road leading into the church had a couple of spots that were nearly not passable. As we got within five minutes of the church we could see people walking out towards us with bags of supplies. We found out that it was the last of fifty people that received supplies provided by the church to which we were going.
We weren’t sure about the road leading in, so we parked and walked the last little way.
We were once again warmly welcomed by the pastor and his accomplices. That’s when we found out about their relief packages. The pastor shared with us about only being able to help fifty families, when the need was so vast. He told us they had been praying about it that morning. We asked him if it was possible to get another seventy-five families together that needed help. He assured us that he could. We told him we would get the supplies around if he would arrange to have the people there by 10:00 the next morning. He agreed. Then we discussed night lodging. We asked him if there was anything in the area. He said no unless we were open to sleeping on the floor in the church where we were having our meeting. We readily accepted, not looking forward to the long drive back to the place we slept the night before.
At that point we headed out to start buying supplies and get some supper. We had the supplies delivered in bulk to the school room near the church.
After supper we made our way back to the church and bedded down on the church floor.
Back in Dhaka that day.. us ladies and children made the brave and independent 20 min drive thru the city to the clinic where Sister Sumita had made us a yummy Bangla lunch.(Josna was not back from her visit to her village home) Then we sat around the table and sang for a half hour or so. On the way home, we stopped by Cinnabon/Carvel for cinn rolls and ice creams.
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