{"id":884,"date":"2016-07-14T14:03:17","date_gmt":"2016-07-14T13:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/combonimission.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=884"},"modified":"2016-07-14T14:03:17","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T13:03:17","slug":"bangladesh-pedalling-for-the-poor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/2016\/07\/14\/bangladesh-pedalling-for-the-poor\/","title":{"rendered":"Bangladesh: Pedalling for the Poor"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the age of 78, Father Bob McCahillan, an American Maryknoll missionary, still rides his bicycle on the countryside roads of Bangladesh to meet and help sick people \u2013\u00a0especially children. He is a sign of Christian love among Muslims and Hindus.<\/em><\/p>\n

Along the\u00a0roads of Bangladesh he is greeted as Bob Bhai<\/em> (‘Brother Bob’ \u2013\u00a0bhai<\/em> is Bengali for brother). Father Bob has been serving the Bangladeshi poor for 38 years. He is an intrepid cyclist.\u00a0He rides tens of kilometres every day \u2013\u00a0sometimes up to 70 \u2013\u00a0to visit the villages and meet the children most in need of medical assistance. Since he arrived in 1975 he has resided in 10 towns. Usually he stays in a town for only three years. He defines the first year as “one of suspicion, the second one of trust, and the third one of affection \u2013 when it is time to move on to another town and continue my ministry of friendship and healing among Muslims and others\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

When he arrives in a town, he rents a room until he manages to set up\u00a0a makeshift hut on the outskirts. The hut is made of jute sticks over a foundation of clay soil. The roof is reinforced with a polythene sheet to protect it from the rain.<\/p>\n

The small hut easily accommodates\u00a0the few things needed by the\u00a0missionary: a wooden bunk bed and a low stool, on which Father Bob sits to pray, read, or write. There is also a little shelf to keep a few essential books, a one-burner kerosene stove, and a pail for water. The leftover\u00a0food supplies (rice or bread) are hung from the roof in plastic bags, to keep them away from the mice. The hut also shelters\u00a0Father Bob’s\u00a0bicycle during the night.<\/p>\n

Father Bob\u2019s day starts very early. He gets out of bed at 3.30am for a full hour of meditation, followed by daily Mass. While it is still pitch dark, he get ready\u00a0and takes some breakfast, performs some chores, and sets the programme for the day. Around 6.30am, he is ready to hit the road towards the villages \u2013\u00a0to meet and help the sick, especially children, to overcome infirmities and deformities.<\/p>\n

Wherever he goes, people are very curious, and ask him many questions. In turn, Father Bob loves challenging them. \u201cI always ask people: \u2018What is the purpose of life?\u2019 They just look at me. Then I say: \u2018Christians believe that the purpose of life is love\u2019. This is striking to Muslims, because they also believe in love but they never really thought that the purpose of life is love.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Many Bengali Muslims think\u00a0various Christian missionary programmes exist to convert them. Therefore, Father Bob notes: \u201cI am not a proselytiser; I am an evangeliser. The act of love is itself evangelisation, especially among people whose very strong suspicion is that a missionary comes to convert them and uses healthcare, education and social development for that purpose. We must show them complete unselfishness. We are here to show these people love and respect, and leave them in a way that will allow them to do the same while remaining Muslims. Their beliefs resonate very powerfully with what we are doing \u2013\u00a0loving\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

On Friday evening, Father Bob moves to Dhaka in the company of the sick who are due for treatment in the various hospitals, along with their relatives. The trip takes the whole night as they need to leave the bus more than once and board the ferryboats to cross the rivers. Arriving in Dhaka, almost sleepless, Father Bob has to find his way in the very noisy \u2013\u00a0even deafening \u2013\u00a0traffic confusion of bicycles (single, pulling carts and rickshaws), tricycles, cabs and baby-cabs, cars, and bigger and smaller buses that cram the densely populated city. Aggressive and reckless driving is seen everywhere.<\/p>\n

After ensuring that the people he has brought have been admitted to hospitals for surgery as intended, he checks on the sick brought there in previous weeks or even months and still undergoing treatment. He spends part of his weekend running from hospital to hospital; meeting patients, nurses and doctors.<\/p>\n

Life is mission and mission is life for Father Bob. Not only does he live for the poor, he lives like the poor he serves. The way he lives and what he does\u00a0gives him inner peace. He doesn\u2019t do it to be appreciated. He was called to do it\u00a0\u2013\u00a0a call that matured through prayer and commitment. He is a living Gospel for those he serves. His life is a sign of God\u2019s loving care, especially for those who are sick.<\/p>\n

He started off his missionary life in the Philippines. After eleven years, he was classified as ‘stimulating and happy’, and he subsequently offered to work in Bangladesh. \u201cThe idea behind coming to Bangladesh was being a priest-servant\u201d,<\/em> he says. In a country prone to natural disasters \u2013\u00a0tidal waves, famines, floods, war\u00a0\u2013\u00a0he wanted to make\u00a0his little contribution to alleviate people\u2019s sufferings.<\/p>\n

The fact that Bangladesh is a Muslim country was secondary in his decision. But, soon, he did see the advantage, and he deliberately stresses it: \u201cThe fact that Bangladesh is an Islamic country is a big bonus, because in doing the one,\u00a0serving the poor,\u00a0we are also doing the other, serving the Muslims; and it has great meaning for them, because they have the saying that \u2018by serving the poor, we serve Allah\u2019\u201d.<\/em> Soon Father Bob will move on to\u00a0a new town, and he will continue his ministry of friendship and healing among Muslims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the age of 78, Father Bob McCahillan, an American Maryknoll missionary, still rides his bicycle on the countryside roads of Bangladesh to meet and help sick people \u2013\u00a0especially children. He is a sign of Christian love among Muslims and Hindus. Along the\u00a0roads of Bangladesh he is greeted as Bob Bhai (‘Brother Bob’ \u2013\u00a0bhai is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":885,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}