Part One: Take a Virtual Trip to Southern Bangladesh

One of the best ways to experience a place or people group is to take a short trip and GO THERE.

But it’s not that easy to just get on a plane and get to faraway places and peoples.

So come with me on a VIRTUAL survey trip to SEE for yourself one of the most unseen—and beautiful—places on earth: the southern districts of Bangladesh.

Using the power of a pen and our cameras (and some crazy awesome editing by vloggers called TwinSauce), we painted a picture for YOU of the trip of a lifetime in ten short vlogs.

I invite you to binge watch this series of ten vlogs on a fun date night, a virtual adventure with your family, or a creative “trip” with your small group at church. We posted this fun, excellently-produced series on a YouTube channel for anyone to experience for free.

Here’s the back story about our out-of-the-box survey trip:

Pre-pandemic, two 25-year old millennial vloggers named Luke and Paul, and a retired 60+ year-old businessman named John, flew with me to survey four southern districts in Bangladesh.

We explored the Old City the first day that John, Luke, and Paul had ever been in South Asia.

We hired a car and driver (they come together in that country at a super low price). He spoke Bangla and a smattering of English, and grew into our trusted guide and friend.

We explored the big city of Dhaka the first day, walking through the market, eating with our hands in a local dive, and visiting one of the most famous mosques in the historical area (VLOG #1: A Day in Dhaka).

These coffee roasting business people, media moguls, and women empowerment social entrepreneurs impressed us!

The second day, we toured a few kingdom-minded businesses run by people like you and me. These stellar entrepreneurs BLEW OUR IMAGINATION for how to bless the local people with meaningful jobs, done with excellence and intentionality (VLOG #2: Business in Bangladesh).

Coffee roasting, anyone? Influence in the media, anyone? Creating jobs for 200+ vulnerable women using art, anyone?

Business people, social entreprenuers! Come to Bangladesh on business visas! Create jobs. Do your work with excellence. And start a movement of Jesus-loving disciples.

On day three, we just STARTED DRIVING south, capturing everything we experienced on video so that YOU could come with us.

Oh, the adventure! You with the apostolic, adventurous hearts will feel your hearts brimming with spiritual jealousy when you watch these vlogs.

There weren’t any cross-cultural workers in these districts, so we didn’t have anyone showing us around.

There weren’t any places to book online on the internet in these districts, so we couldn’t book a place to stay ahead of time.

We had a map. We had some great advice from long-term workers in the bigger cities. And we had the Spirit of God living inside of us who said, turn here, go there, talk to this person, stay here.

We literally prayed our way through the districts.

Now, of course, since these vlogs are on YouTube, we didn’t film any of the amazing spiritual conversations out of respect for the privacy of the people we met. You can read between the lines. But know this: Bengalis in southern Bangladesh are OPEN to knowing more about Isa al Masih, Jesus the Messiah.

Right now, NO ONE (as far as we know) is there to live out the Kingdom of God in their everyday lives.

In these vlogs, we wanted to put Bengali’s on the “map of your mind”. We hope you can SEE that it is livable there, the warmth and friendliness of the people, and to fall in love with them enough to PRAY for them and perhaps consider GOING to live there.

Check out this city on the river just four hours south of Dhaka.

On day three, we dropped into Chandpur District (VLOG #3: We Were in a Car Crash in Chandpur, Bangladesh), and drove in the dark to scout out Noakhali District, the place where Gandhi did one of his famous walks and fasts to break the cycle of violence between Hindus and Muslims years ago.

On Google maps, we noticed a place marked ‘Nice Guesthouse’. So we asked the Lord, should we go there?

We discovered the Nice Guesthouse here, and oh, was it NICE!

We sensed that God said, Sure, It’s nice. And it WAS nice! More than nice. The owners lavished hospitality, welcome, and the BEST FOOD EVER on us for our few days in that district (VLOG #4: Bengal Clothing Haul in Noakhali, Bangladesh).

We also met the man we called our Cornelius, a man of peace and of influence, who opened up his family and his networks to us. After some deep, private conversations with his family, in which he invited us into his home, he told us, “If you or any friends who are like you want to come to my city and do business, I will take care of them and make sure they are welcome!”

In Noakhali, in the middle of the palm trees and lush green, we discovered a newly-built mall (what?! The cross-cultural workers told it might be too hard to live there…). We even had tea with the wealthy owner, who again, extended welcome to foreigners in his city.

We stumbled on four-bedroom flats (yes, unfinished, but still…) that foreigners could rent and made some friends who said, come and rent this place if you like! (All of the above in VLOG #5: Dancing on the Rooftop in Noakhali).

Luke and Paul brought some hip hop culture in this super fun place. (And we met our ‘Cornelius’ in this city).

Oh yes, the dancing part? Luke and Paul happen to be accomplished hip-hop dancers, and they put on an impromptu show in the middle of a modern restaurant (which lured all the waiters to dance too). Mr. Mennon laughed a lot with us (or at us?). After VLOG #5 posted on YouTube of this dance in the restaurant, it went viral in Noakhali, capturing 4,000 views in one hour!

This is getting too long, so I’m going to do a PART TWO next week. I want to take you into the agricultural part of Patuakhali and Jalukhati Districts, across the rivers on a memorable ferry boat ride. Right now, southern Bangladesh is under water—victims of the annual floods and hurricanes that ravish the area. It’s not all fun and games, so we’ll hit that in the next blog.

To wrap this up, WHY southern Bangladesh, you might ask?

I read that 8 MILLION Bengali Muslims lived in these five districts. (We discovered this is true).

I researched stats that showed less than 0.1% identified as followers of Jesus in that population. (This is what we experienced too).

I heard that NO cross-cultural workers focused on disciple-making movements lived there. (Unfortunately, yes. Our survey showed this to be true at this time, even though some go in and out, and a few lived there in years past.)

WHY? I wondered. How is it possible that part of the world with 8 million people—the population of the entire state of Arizona where I live—could be MISSED on the missions map?

Why didn’t kingdom-minded people choose to move there?

Maybe it’s just that most people don’t really know much about Bengali’s in southern Bangladesh.

Maybe they—maybe YOU—just haven’t seen it yet.

But now you have. Let me know how you experienced watching these vlogs, and how you use them!

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