Masks and the Gospel

Pastor Paul and his wife have been visiting various churches to distribute mask among the believers in Bangladesh’s Northwest. Near one town the missionaries noticed a few tribal people without masks on the street. They stopped and asked them, “Why are you on the street without a mask?” They replied, “We have no work because of the coronavirus and we cannot even buy food. Why then would we buy a mask?”

Pastor Paul and his wife then gave them masks and shared with them that they were distributing masks because of the love of Jesus Christ. In the meantime a few local Muslim priests came there and asked, “What is happening here?” When they heard that the missionaries were Christian they said to the tribal people, “are they trying to make you Christian?” The people replied “no, but they are helping us and giving good teaching.” The tribal people also said to the Muslims, “why are you angry with them? Christian people are good. Look, they gave us masks but you are living beside us and you have not given us anything but these Christians gave us masks when they saw that we had none. Please leave us alone. We want to hear what the Christians have to say.”

When the Muslims had departed, the tribal people asked Pastor Paul, “Christian people always help us and poor people, why?” Pastor Paul said, “Look, the God we worship, He is Love Himself and He commanded us to love our neighbours. Our God loved us so much He sent His Son to die on the cross for our sins, and not only for us but all the people in this world – even you and me, rich and poor, and for all the nations in this world.”

The tribal people then requested that Pastor Paul please come back one day and tell them more about that God. “We want to hear more about Him.”

Believers are witnessing a tremendous openness among the unreached during this pandemic. Pray that relief efforts continue to bear much fruit.

Pastor Paul is one of the missionaries serving under the leadership of Engage’s partner, Louis.