Chet's Trip #5 and Justus Drew

I'm getting all kinds of fun phone calls these days! Justus Drew Burger, our precious little nephew, is here! Amber went into labor at about 10:30 last night, and Justus made his entrance to the big world outside at 4:41am, just three hours after she went to the hospital. It was a quick labor just like she had with Titus. Justus weighed 7 lbs. 3 oz and measured 20 inches long. He ate well right away, so lets pray that continues. Amber had all kinds of issues when she was nursing Titus, so we've been praying hard that things will go lots better this time.

I went back to sleep for a while after that good news, and about an hour after I woke up, Chet called. We got some business out of the way (updates on family news, final decision making regarding our will which I have an appointment to revise next week... you know, simple decisions (obviously kidding)). Then I got to hear lots more about how things have been going. Chet is having a REALLY great time! Here are some of the things he talked about:

• He talked to Ladan about the monkeys that are everywhere in town, explaining all the tricks they do. It sounds like Chet has had some really fun conversations with the monkey peddlers.
• So far everyone is healthy. Chet's not sick of the food yet and is enjoying trying all kinds of new things.
• The teaching times went extremely well yesterday and today. Ryan and Chet each taught 4 sessions of about 60-90 minutes on their respective teaching days. The discussion groups went really well yesterday after Ryan's teaching. Today they didn't end up discussing as much of the teaching content, partly because they had a different translator today who didn't translate back into English as well as he could traslate English into Bengali. So there was a lot of conversation about the teaching topic going on, but it was in Bengali and very little was translated back to the guys in English. The discussion times were still very fruitful though because the men they were teaching had lots of questions about the Bible that weren't necessarily related to the teaching topic, so it ended up being more of a Q&A time today. Chet's overall assessment is that both days went extremely well. That means it must have been really good, because Chet doesn't use superlatives loosely.
• Tomorrow, Chet and Tom will head out to a smaller town/village area with a couple of the Bengali men. They'll stay there until Sunday. They will go to evangelize with an interesting strategy. Apparently, Tom and Chet will kind of be the spectacles that draw the crowd. They'll act like tourists (which they kind of are) and start asking the people all about things that they see in the area. They'll move into questions about the faith of the local people. This is when their Bengali partners will jump in and begin moving the conversation to the Gospel and Christianity. They call this strategy "camel jumping" there, and apparently it's very effective at getting conversations started. It also allows them to get a good picture of where the people are and how they can explain the differences between their faith and Christianity.
• The people are VERY friendly no matter what their income level or station in life. Chet said they are very open to conversation and have very likable personalities. They laugh a lot and talk openly. Chet said it's like a breath of fresh air because people don't hesitate to be kind.
• Brian and Matt seem to be doing well in the remote area they're visiting. They've been calling the guys in Calcutta daily to touch base. Apparently, though, a series of events and circumstances caused the local authorities to suspect that Matt and Brian were terrorists, so they had to be taken in for questioning. All is well, and they're having good conversations with the people. They're still planning to come back to Calcutta on Saturday. As a result of this event, Brian has been nicknamed "Osama V."
• Apparently, the hotel staff is really great. The guys have the same waiter at the restaurant all the time, and they were able to meet his family this morning. There is also a security guard outside the hotel that they've had some really good conversations with. Now I'm second-guessing myself. I can't remember if it was the waiter's family or the security guard's family they met. Either way, the people there are great, and they met someone's family.
• He told me that I would HATE riding around in the car there. I'm sure he's right. He said the drivers get so close to other cars, cyclists, and pedestrians that he's not sure how it doesn't result in a pile of casualties every day. The people walk and cycle right in the middle of the road with the cars all zooming in and out. These people have to have nerves of steel!
• Today was super-hot, and it was the first day that the heat bothered Chet at all. We got him some quick-drying polos for the trip, and he said they're awesome! I'm so glad! He said he pretty much is drenched all the time, but the shirts don't even show it, and they dry very quickly as soon as he comes out of the heat.
• As far as the men they're teaching go, he said they are so faithful! They know the Quran, so they can effectively witness to the Muslims around them. And he said they don't even flinch when they share the Gospel, they know it so thoroughly and so deeply in their own hearts. He has found these men to be very endearing. They don't necessarily have the most sophisticated understanding of all the subtleties of the Bible, but they know the Truth and they share it freely.

In the end, he didn't have anything negative to say at all. I can tell that he's pretty much having the time of his life! I'm so thankful! Please pray for safety for all the guys, continued health, that the Lord would open the hearts of unbelievers to hear the Gospel, and that the believers (including our guys) will all be strengthened by this experience.