Four South Carolina women listened intently as Southern Baptist representative Cole Elbridge* explained that their reason for coming to Bangladesh was to do what he cannot do – to disciple women.
South Carolina volunteers act out a Bible story for Bangladeshi women, most of whom are former Muslims, to help the women remember the story so they can tell it to others.“Fifty percent of South Asia is still women, and men can’t disciple women,” he said. “If we lose the women, we’re in trouble.”
Elbridge knows this in a deeply personal way. He and his Bangladeshi partner, Kamran,* have been praying for the salvation of Kamran’s wife for many years. She tolerates Kamran’s ministry, but Kamran is acutely aware of the blessings he misses by not having his wife serving alongside him. Even more importantly, he knows his Muslim wife is lost and he aches for her to choose Jesus.
That is why Elbridge and Kamran asked the four women from South Carolina to teach Bengali-speaking women – former Muslims who now follow Jesus – more about the Bible and how to walk with Jesus and share his love with others.
“You’re in the experimental zone. It’s never been done before,” Elbridge said. “The only thing that will ever reach the world is discipleship, but what do we do? We make converts. Does the Bible ever say to make converts? It says to make disciples. God’s brought you here to pour yourselves into their lives.”
And pour is what the South Carolina volunteers did, teaching Bangladeshi women in two different cities Bible stories in chronological order.
“God sent them a son in their old age – something that they didn’t think could happen, but with God anything can happen,” Makenna Von Hauser* explained to the women, most of whom were familiar with Ishmael but did not know Isaac as the son of God’s promise.
A couple of the Bangladeshi women had accepted Jesus as their Savior 15 years earlier, one 12 years earlier and one 10, but a third of the women had been Christians less than three months. Two of the women were formerly Hindus; most of the others had been Muslims. Some had seen the “JESUS” film, but many were hearing the stories of the Bible for the first time.
“I was so blessed because the ladies were so eager. They were like, ‘We’re getting these stories down so we can go and tell other people.’ It was beautiful,” said Von Hauser, a respiratory therapist.
The South Carolinians acted out some of the stories to help the Bangladeshi women remember the accounts of God’s power and his redeeming love.
“This is the first time I’ve ever been able to be on a team where we have gone from Genesis to Revelation and while we were doing it, it connected the dots for me about how God’s redemption goes from the Old Testament through to Revelation,” said Lydia Kayden,* a registered nurse who led the team of four. “This was the perfect fit. I love to teach, and there’s nothing I would rather teach than God’s word.”
Katie Lamkin,* a student at Erskine College in Due West, demonstrated how Jesus washed the feet of his disciples by taking a bucket of water and a towel and washing the feet of a reluctant Bengali woman. As Lamkin did so, Kamran’s wife’s eyes grew wide as she witnessed the amazing act of a Western woman washing the feet of a Bangladeshi woman.
“We are to make disciples. Most of these women can’t even read, so they have to be taught orally,” Lamkin said. “I think now they are better equipped to tell others about Christ. They just have a better grasp on the word of God and what Christ has done for them.”
Like Kamran’s wife, some of the Bangladeshi women who attended the trainings were not followers of Christ. They came only because a father-in-law, a husband or a neighbor insisted. During the week, they practiced retelling the stories right along with the other women, and by the end of the week, seven of the Muslim women – though not Kamran’s wife – had surrendered to follow Jesus as Savior.
“We are telling the story of Jesus, and to see someone receive the story, that has been the highlight – to see them say, ‘Yes, I want to follow this Jesus you have been telling me about,'” Von Hauser said.
Volunteer Elizabeth Winston,* Von Hauser’s mother, agreed.
“To see that many of the Bengali women coming together for a conference and to see that many women being taught, that was really impressive. That doesn’t normally happen here, and just that little bit there showed me how God is breaking up the tradition line here,” Winston said. “But to see those souls come to Christ, that was really something.”
*Names changed for security reasons. Frances serves among South Asian peoples as an International Mission Board writer.