Opening of the Dhaka Beth Myriam
25 April 2000 21:19
Carol Chamberlain and Catarina Andritsaki, who were present for the opening of the Beth Myriam in Dhaka, report here on the house and its opening.
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Alleluia! Praise Yahweh, all nations, extol Him, all you peoples! For His love is strong, His faithfulness eternal! (Ps 117)
Sing to the Prince-of-Peace, sing to the Immortal One, to the Mighty God; open your hearts and let them be consumed by His jealous Love; sing to the Lord and King, and exult at His coming! (28.01.1997)
He provides for all living creatures, His love is everlasting! Give thanks to the God of Heaven, His love is everlasting! (Ps 136:25-26)
Patiently all creatures look to You, to feed them throughout the year; Quick to satisfy every need, You feed them all with a generous Hand. (Ps 145: 15-16)
Let everything that breathes praise Yahweh! Alleluia! (Ps 150 : 6)
Yes, let’s praise the Lord of Heaven and Master of the whole universe! For He is always caring, providing and satisfying every need of all people throughout the ages! He never sends anyone away feeling hungry, but He prepares a table for everyone, anoints their head with oil – blessing them and their cup is brimming over.(Ps 23:5) What a generous God! What a loving Father! And He is Our Father!
Happy the people whose God is Yahweh! He is a refuge in all distress and misery. The people call on Him in their trouble and He rescues them from their sufferings, sending His word and curing them. (Ps 107: 19-20)
This time His word came through His mouthpiece, Vassula. She was inspired from the Holy Spirit 2 years ago, to have a house where the less fortunate of this world would be able to have, at least, a hot meal… satisfying the hungry, He fills the starving with good things (Ps 107:9)
Following this inspiration, a year later, during Vassula’s visit in Dhaka, Bangladesh, it was decided that it was necessary to have one of these houses there. A Beth Myriam, a blessed House of Mary.
Seeing the people in the streets of Dhaka, searching for food only to survive, homeless people, who live in slums, having no access to water, sanitation or shelter, was the motivation to do something for them. We, who are so blessed by God, having a roof over our heads and taking for granted our refrigerators being filled with all good things, we must never forget that we were in the same state of being ’hungry and desperately thirsty’, in the spiritual sense, but the Good Lord rescued us from our sufferings, satisfying our needs.
With this in mind, many people from the big family of True Life in God responded from around the world, showing their love for their neighbour, putting into action their faith! After much prayer and seeking as to the availability of an appropriate house – an apartment (on the 4th floor!) – was identified in a new residential area, on the north part of Dhaka, an area called ”Baridhara”, close to the airport, only 3 days before we arrived in Bangladesh! The apartment is in an area which is a defence colony for retired army personnel and therefore very secure as this is one of the factors that needed to be considered in the finding of a house to set up.
We went out to Dhaka to assist with the logistics of setting the house up with members from the local TliG Prayer group in Dhaka and to be present for the opening day. Several members of the local prayer group of TLiG will assist in running the place and take care of all the details, so that everything will be according to the inspiration God gave to Vassula.
”Thanks for help received: It is a great joy to me, in the Lord, that at last you have shown some concern for me again; though of course you were concerned before, and only lacked an opportunity.. Now for the time being I have everything that I need and more: I am fully provided now that I have received from Epaphroditus the offering that you sent, a sweet fragrance – the sacrifice that God accepts and finds pleasing. In return my God will fulfil all your needs, in Christ Jesus, as lavishly as only God can! Glory to God, our Father, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Ph 4 :10-20)
Our Lord Himself wanted to thank all those who responded to this call for financial help. This reading was given after we had prayed the Rosary at the weekly TLiG prayer group meeting, which took place within hours of us having arrived in Dhaka!
>From having known so little prior to us going out to Dhaka in faith and trust in God’s Almighty Providence, we discovered that everything was taken care of: the apartment, brand-new and shining-clean, was ready so we could stay there. It has a big dining room that can accommodate 50-60 people, a smaller one which is used as a breakfast-sitting room but it could also be used as an extra dining room if the number of the ’guests’ increases. The kitchen area is spacious, it has a lot of light coming in from the large windows and it’s pleasant to work in there preparing the meals. There is also an extra small room which has been prepared as a chapel! There are 2 big bedrooms, with shower-rooms, which can be used by anyone who wants to go to Dhaka for a retreat but also ’give a hand’ with our guests. 5 people could stay easily in Beth Myriam and experience God’s goodness, kindness and generosity towards His children! An extra bedroom is used for the newly-married couple, Francis and Carmel, who, together with Martin, a young man and convert Christian from Islam, take care of the house, clean and cook for our guests! In front of the bedrooms, there is a big open space which is going to be used – if not already! – as a sitting room area with book-shelves for anyone to sit and read or watch Video tapes or listen to music of worship.
”Have you not noticed that I have given My orders to the skies above to open the doors of Heaven and rain down Rivers together with Manna? Tell them that the Lord has prepared for them a banquet.” (27.11.96)
Jesus was confirming His desire for this Beth Myriam to take place. This message was read Saturday afternoon while celebrating a thanksgiving Mass at the Beth Myriam. The Mass was celebrated in thanksgiving and following the mass for Christian Unity. Incredibly the three Christian churches were represented, Orthodox, Catholic and Anglican, as David Huxley was out in Bangladesh at the same time on a short consultancy. The God of Surprises had arranged this in a most pleasing way for us all.
The days went by pretty fast. We had set the date for the first meal and there where ’little’ details to be taken care of, for example, the daily menu to be served – according to our budget and with detail to be able to provide a balanced meal with adequte calorific content – and furthermore the provision of a long table for the dining-room with benches so as to accommodate more people. As ever, Jesus provided them in His own way, despite all sorts of plans that we had made – Micky Diaz from the group gave the measurements to a carpenter and the table arrived just in time on the opening day. Our trust in God was really tested with that incident as we thought that it would never arrive in time for our departure from Dhaka, let alone the actual day, despite the fact that we were assured that it would.
As for the menu, Carol’s experience took care of that! Each day a different menu and all within the budget…
All through that week, the presence of Jesus was evident. He was encouraging us to persevere in justice and virtue and pursue the path of righteousness and goodness, because only through them we could overcome all the obstacles that Satan was placing in front of us to destroy the plan God had for the poor people. That way, following Jesus’ words, He was triumphantly taking away the layer of crust from His people’s hearts, leaving them shining with His glory… All kinds of problems, because of the impatience to open the house, were solved, as our only desire was to glorify God by serving His people…
”I, the King of Glory and your Bridegroom as well, will satisfy the poor…” (25.9.97) Who, among the thousands of hungry people of Dhaka, were the ones that God wanted us to serve?
Having placed everything into His Hands, we were not surprised at all when two graceful religious sisters from the Charles de Foucauld order known as the Blue Nuns, suggested that they could be bringing a group of ten people whom they knew that were really in need as they worked with these people in the ’bastis’, or slum dwellings… And that’s how it was agreed. The first day the nuns would accompany our guests to the Beth Myriam, for them to get to know the house, and from there on they would be coming on their own. Duleep had even prepared identity badges for them to wear so as to allow them safe entrance to the security area and pass the check post of the area where the house is located.
The big day had arrived. Saturday 18th, 13.30pm.! Everyone was excited and nervous.. We didn’t know how it would all go… The food was cooked and ready to be served… We were all impatient, but our guests probably were more than us, as they arrived half an hour earlier from the arranged time!!! And it would had been a disaster (as the table had not yet been delivered), if the carpenter hadn’t brought it 5 minutes after our guests’s arrival!
Have we really understood how much our God loves us? Seeing these people enjoying the generosity of the Creator, one cannot stop thinking that we haven’t yet started to understand Who is our Father and what are we for Him…
The meal was over… They would come back the next day. Martin accompanied them down the stairs to bid farewell. When he came back to the house, he was not alone! There was a 12 year-old boy with him! He had found him down the stairs, wandering around… Martin asked him if he was hungry… The little boy was starving! He was all alone. He had come to Dhaka with his father from a town in the north after his mother’s death, but on arrival in Dhaka a city of over 10 million people, he was separated from his father, and lost contact with him and also his little brother, and now this child, Mahmud was forced to take refuge in the city’s rail-way station with so many thousands of other homeless children… street children. Carmel, Francis and Martin made him feel like home. They served him a hot meal of rice, chicken and dahl and kept him company to eat. He took a shower and wore clean warm cloths. He left with a smile on his face, a completely different boy compared to the one he came, thanking us for the food and he promised that he would not sell the clothes we gave him. For all of us, that boy was sent by God. The next day he came back, bringing along with him his 3 younger friends, homeless children of the big city of Dhaka… Mahmud didn’t sell the pullover Carol gave him, in fact he had it on his shoulders as he had seen Fr. James having his!
That night we had a gathering in the house with many of the members of the local prayer group. We sang songs of praise and thanksgiving and were truly one in The Lord’s Spirit. Several members of the group, as we were talking about the whole beauty of the day and the way that the whole house had taken shape, were blessed to detect the strong scent of roses.. momentarily, but enough to feel that truly, this is Mary’s House.
”…man does not live on bread alone but on everything that comes from the Mouth of Yahweh.”(Dt.8 :3)
As soon as the bread had been given to these people, a question rose from their heart: ”Who is giving this food?”. ”Jesus and Mary, His Mother, are giving you this food!” is the reply that Vassula, inspired, told everyone to say.
For these people, it’s natural for God to provide for them, they depend completely on Him! In their heart they understand better the words of the prophet Isaiah: ”For now your Creator will be your husband, His name, Yahweh Sabaoth”(54:5) As everyone’s Spouse, wedded to His creation, Yahweh is taking care of His bride! This is something absolutely normal for our loving God. He takes care of our bread and then satisfies our spiritual hunger, with His word, reaching out for us all the way to our door-step!
Our guests are given a chance to hear from our True Life in God people in Dhaka, how much God loves them and all He asks of them is a return of love, not sacrifice… Knowledge of His Heart, not holocausts nor solemn festivals; (25.9.97)
These people continue to come on a daily basis to The Blessed House of Mary, Beth Myriam, not a feeding centre, but a house full of The Love of Jesus and Mary. These souls are being fed on this Love and it is a great privilege to serve Our Lord in this way, with each one of us being called to the responsibility of seeing that this Love of our brothers and sisters in Bangladesh is sustained.
Catarina and Carol
