In a country where its people live in poverty, where they just try to survive, work is being done on a spiritual level with the expectation of bringing hope and perhaps change to a nation.

For half a month, Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church’s Pastor David Huskamp went on a mission trip to poverty-stricken Bangladesh with the Christian organization “Jesus Film Harvest Partners,” which sends missions all over the world using the film “Jesus” as a tool of ministry. “I just want people to know about Christ,” Huskamp said after recently returning.

He and others from the states were part of a group who took a portable building, much like a tent, and traveled to various villages that was used for a school setting or church to show the film that portrays the life of Jesus Christ. They visited several child development centers run by the Church of the Nazarene where education, Christianity and health take precedence. They then became an “encouragement” to the pastors and spiritual leaders of the area, providing support and showing the people they are cared for. For Huskamp, it wasn’t just about interacting with those who had not heard of the Gospel message; he’d seen what God had already done in a country where most of the population is Muslim and Hindu. Huskamp knew of one man who saw the film eight years ago, renounced Hinduism, became Christian, and was beaten and shunned because of it. He moved to another village where he started a church. During his trip, many seemed open to the idea of Christianity. “I think the reason they were eager to hear it is Jesus offers hope,” Huskamp said. “You can have your sins forgiven. You can have new life.”

Of course, residing in a third-world country for at least a little while has its moments of stark contrast to home. The lack of modernization, for instance, took Huskamp aback. Everything is still done by hand including constructing buildings, planting grain and working by oxen. And then there’s the lack of “cleanliness” in which villagers don’t have access to basic health care necessities like toothbrushes and toilet paper.

Comparisons can’t help but be made, and one’s situation can be put in perspective easily. “Even the poorest people in America are very wealthy,” Huskamp said. While food banks are available in the United States, nothing is in place there; and while health care is considered a right here, it’s a privilege there. “I saw life there is survival...It’s just day to day living.” Somehow, though, life in those 68,000 villages built around family continues.

After spending nine days in northwest Bangladesh, Huskamp said he was left with a sense of “wanting a greater commitment to missions” within his own church. He told his congregation previously when the church was built without loans that “God has blessed us so we can be a blessing to others, ” and so he’d like to see his congregation more involved in missions and following Jesus’ command of spreading the Gospel. Huskamp said he realized it isn’t a large church, but its people can still make a difference in the world. A portion of the offering each month already goes to places “beyond ourselves.” “The main thing is to make Christ known not only here in Sidney but around the world,” he said. “And with God, nothing is impossible.”

Much of the work done through “Jesus Film Harvest Partners” is known as “planting the seed.” Many times, those like Huskamp may never know the results of their mission trips. Perhaps a child who interacted with him and accepted Christ could become the leader of Bangladesh years from now, changing a nation.

“We could influence a whole nation. We just don’t know,” Huskamp said. “I mean, long after we’re dead, some part of the world is changed because of the work that we’ve done, and that’s kind of cool.”

reporter@sidneyherald.com