World Reach

Picture a country devastated by war. Cities and towns are in ruins. Many have fled as refugees. Others had been forcibly taken by the victorious army for torture, interrogation and servitude. The infrastructure of the country is badly damaged or gone. Agriculture disrupted, crops destroyed, central and local government functions crippled and unable to operate in any cohesive way. Famine, despair and death on all sides.

Read more: Working with people

I’m often asked questions relating to mission performance and find myself a little caught out. There are good answers but can’t be related in five minutes, so I often leave such conversations feeling dissatisfied.

Given time to reflect, I’d like to respond to this: “What are the measureable results of the work of the New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society (NZBMS)?”

Read more: Mission’s results

Beulah Wood left Pokhara, Nepal, 31 years ago after her husband Brian died in the mountains. Last December, Beulah, with her daughter Kaaren and Kaaren’s family, revisited Pokhara. Beulah works with both tranzsend and Interserve in South Asia. Her home church is Balmoral Baptist in Auckland.

Our walk along memory lane held some surprises. Replacing many of the traditional mud and stone houses were handsome homes with glass windows. Tractors carried loads previously pulled by oxen. Computers replaced typewriters at the boarding school where my husband had been the principal. 

Read more: A good boy and a bad boy

The project

One of the objectives of the Chandpur Total Community Development Centres (TCDC) project is care for the environment – more specifically, to preserve and use a better quality and more sustainable natural environment. 

In short, this will help villages be more clean, safe and appealing. That means the provision of a better life than so many experience when they join the mass migration into the slums of Dhaka city. 

Read more: Kitchen upgrades