A Hawker of the Gospel Chapter : 11. ============= In 1987 we, five of our bicycle team friends went in the district town of Feni. This town was known to every of us. We have heard, many of our friends have been oppressed in this town while they came to sell their books. I do not remember now, because of some reason, I was sent at Feni selecting me as the team leader. As far as I remember, Jakir Hossain of Jamalpur, was with me. Mr. David Loveett was the director of Dhaka team at that time. He was an very gentle person. He handed over me some extra money in secret, for the time of need. I understood then, there may be some kind of problems at Feni. Because, it was not a common provision or practice to provide an emergency fund anywhere. We reached at the Baptist church of Feni from Dhaka. In the evening we set our materials in order. Arrangement of cooking was already completed. We also had taken our night meals. Now everyone sat for the prayer meeting. The pastor of that local church attended the prayer meeting with us. At the end of the prayer meeting, the pastor advised us, “Whenever you go out, do not give the address of your location to anyone.” At the same time, he gave us a little information about the situation of Feni town. He shared us about the persecution of boys who came here earlier. Getting reports from the pastor, we all became frustrated. One kind of fear rested on us. I said the pastor good bye, after thanking him for his good advices. Now I tried to encourage each of our team members from the life of apostle Paul. I also prepared some kind of work plans. It was decided that every day along with them I shall go to sell our books. I encouraged them saying : “I am a boy from Chittagong; I have some kind of ideas about the town of Feni.” It was decided that, “We shall not lie, always we shall try to avoid arguments. Our main identity shall be – ‘we are hawkers’, and have come to sell our books. If someone likes a book, he will buy it or shall not buy it.” Everyday, riding on our bicycles, we started to sell our books at Noakhali, Maizdi, Sonaimuri, Chowmuhini etc. places. We were passing our days very nicely. We all were very joyous. In every evening, we would spend our long time in singing songs and in our prayers. We would praise our Lord everyday. We heard that at Chowmuhuni our team members were persecuted before. Now we went there to sell our books. Our selling was going very nice. At this time a mob gathered around us and tried to argue with us. This time I didn’t go out of our previous decision; moreover we had the fear to be beaten. Moreover, in all situations, we could not abuse others. Therefore, very politely I said, “Look, we are simply hawkers. we sell our books. We do not sell any vulgar books even. These books are words of God. We respect your beliefs. If you prohibit to sell us books, we just shall go straight away.” Some of them were being exited, some of them came near to us and with a threatening ordered us to leave the place. We also like very gentle boys, came back without any danger. Anyway, our activities of selling books were running good. So, the money that was given to me for emergency purposes, I sent that money back at Dhaka along with some more book selling excess money. We would travel long distances riding on our bicycles. On our return way, if someone would feel tired, I would arrange to send him by bus, and I would come back with two bicycles holding in my two hands. Sometimes, we would enjoy all these travels as adventurous. When we would cross a market together, peoples would think that we were in a bicycle race. Many spectators would encourage me with their hand claps. This life was very enjoyable to me. But a month or a half, because of excess bicycle riding, I became sick. I could not ride bicycle any more. I was feeling a severe pain at my groin. Many of my friends said, it was hernia. Because of a big boil, at my groin, neither I was able to sit, walk, nor sleep. What a terrible situation! At last, my fellow brothers boarded me in a bus to Dhaka for better medical treatments. I left my team brothers at Feni, but for that I didn’t feel any tension. Because, within last few months, my friends had became more courageous and tricky in selling of books even more than me. At Dhaka, the team authority took me in a hospital. With a small surgical operation, the doctor had cut the boil and had cleaned all dirty materials. they had given a bandage on and around the boil; but what a great pain I felt! At last I even abused the doctor and the director of the Team, because of my severe pain. I asked my director that why he not suggested for anaesthetize? How much extra will charge for that? The director of the team said, he suggested the doctor to anaesthetize the part before the surgery. But the doctor opined, “This is a Bengali man, he will be able to bear the pain.” Anyway, within a week or two, I became fully cured. There was another good news, my Feni team members also had come back successfully after completion of their works there.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 21:34:51 +0000
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