Newsletter #4

Kochi, India

A ministry day - raising awareness for the environment on
"World Environment Day" and planting trees.

Our host then took us on a short tour of the area.
This is the biggest Catholic cathedral in all of Kochi and the surrounding
areas (though not much competition in a Buddhist country).

People would make atonement by performing services such as
cleaning the cathedral and surroundings.

Fishing nets in the river!

Traditional lunch served on banana leaves!

Next to our tree planting spot was a small river - these are
a different kind of fishing net.

In Kochi we were docked on an island - to get to either shore
we took one of these small ferries for 2 ruppees.

A local fruit market

With my friend Lucie (France) on the ferry.

Challenge Team 2

After the first challenge team, everyone went to a training centre where we had the chance to debrief before we were split up into different teams to head out again. 

Passing a fishing village on the way from Madampe to the training venue.

Sri Lankan flag - these were absolutely everywhere; a very
nationalistic country.

On the train ride to Anuradhapura. I love Sri Lankan
trains! They are open compartments where you are
free to hang out the door as the train travels!

Out the bus window - this was one of the 
bigger towns in Anuradhapura that we 
were in for the rest of challenge team.

This time I was to go with 4 others to Anuradhapura, a small town in central north Sri Lanka. We were to stay with the pastor of one family and use that church as our base. Within 1hr of arriving, we received a phone call asking if we’d go to another town for the next 4 days so the 3 boys were packed on a bus while the pastor drove us 2 girls and the luggage in his car. The 40km drive took three hours as the rain started and the roads flooded. At night, no lights except random flashes of lightning, the water started moving up the side of the car almost to the window while more water started coming in under the door. With so much water, the engine flooded and refused to start. We were effectively stranded and at any minute would have to climb out the window to push the car. We also witnessed a motorbike accident in front of us – the people were fine but we don’t know the result for the unborn baby the woman was carrying. Then received a phone call saying the boys’ bus had arrived – without the boys!

I was tempted to panic, but then remembered in Acts 16 where Paul and Silas were in prison, praying and singing to God, so I started singing praise and immediately the engine started running! It was so amazing and brought us so much hope – we have an awesome God! We were able to keep driving and 15 minutes later got a phone call saying that due to the poor weather the buses had been delayed – the actual bus carrying the boys had arrived, late and with tired but safe boys!! We were so relieved to all be together finally at the end.

Our team - Priska (Germany), Jocelyn (France),
Agaman (Nepal), Heverton (Brazil) and me!
At the train station, about to take a 6hr trip to the central north of Sri Lanka.

This was our breakfast on Easter Sunday. It's quite
a normal Sri Lankan meal. Starting from the top: bread,
dahl (made from lentils, not spicy), coconut sambol (coconut
and chilli mixed together, it's extremely flavoursome but
burns your mouth), curd (as in Miss Muffett's curds and
whey - it's a bit like natural yoghurt and you can choose to add
either salt or sugar according to your preferences). Next is the fish
dish - usually extremely spicy and potatoes in coconut curry at the bottom.

This little town even smaller than the previous was called Kahatagasdigiliya and we stayed at a church with Pastor Clement, his wife and three beautiful children. We participated in their church services over the Easter weekend and visited many, many homes for prayer and fellowship meetings. The Sri Lankan hospitality is absolutely amazing – guests are treasured and taking seconds at mealtimes is not optional! We quickly learnt to take extremely small first servings! After returning from our 4 rural days, the other 10 days were filled with daily visits to home churches, prayer groups, and did programs with schools, preschools and orphanages.

The Catholic church in Kahatagasdigiliya.
This is Ps Clement preparing these 4 young ladies
for confirmation on Easter Sunday.

One challenging day we were driven 5 hours away from our base to spend a day with a pastor. Her English was limited to a few phrases but we managed communication. Throughout the day we were led down small paths through the jungle to other houses, each about 15min walk apart; where each house was a shack with a hole out the back... We sang together at each house and food & drinks put in our laps regardless of how much they had for themselves and then they asked us to pray for each person in turn, laying hands followed by ‘clapping for the Lord’ for 5 minutes. After the first few times, I said to God: “yes you are worthy of praise and I do love you, but I’m sick of clapping to you!”

Although we felt completely drained emotionally, I felt we weren’t actually really doing much yet every person seemed so thankful and blessed by our presence with them. It was through this that God reminded me it’s not me that does the work – it’s Him. He can use even my simple presence without me doing anything, so we never know when God is using us even if we’re not trying so be alert and ready at all times, and remember that all good things come from the Lord!

All of our team with Ps Clement, his wife and the three kids.

Heverton (Brazil) - our team leader. In Sri Lanka, food is eaten
with your right hand only - spoons are used to serve or for soup,
but no other utensils are used. I had done this for the previous 2 weeks
with my other challenge team, but this was Heverton's first time,
so it was rather amusing to watch!

Priska (Germany) - we grew to be very close during our challenge
team. Fortunately we enjoyed each other's company as in some
places due to space restrictions, we had to share a bed!

This is song lyrics on the screen in church - this is what  written
Singhala looks like (Sri Lankan language)

The 4th member of our team was Jocelyn (France).
As you can see, plenty of fun was had during our team.
I also enjoyed using my French as Jocelyn and I spoke
almost only French between each other.

Where we stayed in Kahatagasdigiliya, for Easter Sunday the pastor
and his wife wanted to do something special for us so lent us
their traditional clothes - the boys wore sarongs and Priska and I
got to dress up in saris!! It was so much fun.
(Team member #5 on the right: Agaman from Nepal)

After church, we joined some of the youth to play 

some volleyball on the lawn. The small church is 

just to the left of screen and the house you can 

see is where we were staying with Ps Clement, 

his wife Simone and their children Nathan, 

Deborah and Tammy. It was rather fun to play 

volleyball while wearing a sari!

While we were playing volleyball, it started to rain - this is
Priska and I doing a little rain dance!

One of the local markets - yep, that's fish.
Yep, we tried to avoid fish for the rest of our time there!

Lots of herbs, spices and lentils! This makes up the basis
of much Sri Lankan food. During our 5 days with Ps Clement
and Simone, I learnt how to cook Sri Lankan style - including
getting the guys to get the coconuts and crack them open for us
before we then emptied it, scraped the shell and made coconut milk!

Rice fields - a common sight all over Sri Lanka.

A beautiful shot of little Debbie (5 yrs old) in the rain.

Jocelyn attempting to learn how to climb the coconut
tree to get us coconuts - luckily he was attempting to get
the next day's coconuts otherwise we would have been
waiting a looooooooooong time - not as easy as it seemed!

Around breakfast time we would often see monkeys in the trees watching us.

This is making the fish curry.

The guys got to sleep on the floor (Heverton is on the couch out of shot),
I went to wake the boys up and found them sleeping like this - the wake-up
was quite amusing!

Our main host was the manager of World Vision for Sri Lanka,
so one day he took us out on a long drive to see some of the
work World Vision has done in that area. This is a rice factory.
Originally set up by WV, the local people now run it and get
the profits independently.

Tuk tuks were the general mode of transport in Sri Lanka. In the rural
areas, every couple of families had one and it was used for transporting
friends and family, not only for work.

The other common mode of transport was motorcycles. It was not
uncommon to see entire families on motorbikes - mum, dad and 3 children.

This was taking all of us and a few families to the lake for an afternoon
swim. Sitting in the back of a truck was quite normal and we had alot of fun!

Jumping off the pier

Washing clothes happens in the lakes and rivers - I went swimming
and played with the kids among some local ladies who were
doing their washing.

On the way back, the truck stopped quite a few times so we
had fun trying to push then run and catch up and jump in the back
while the truck started off.

One day we were driven 5 hours to a tiny church 
of just one room inside a house. The lady pastor 
spoke no English and our Singhala was limited.
After singing together in our own languages (and 
the one song we all knew in Singhalese), the lady 
took us for a 2km walk to her neighbour as she 
wanted us to sing and pray for them. This was 
what we did all day - it was about 2km between 
each house on a barely discernible path through 
the jungle. We kept going further and further and 
were told "just one more house" about 5 times...

We spent the next 5 days bonding with this family, learning about Sri Lankan culture, helping in their church, and every day we had dinner with a different family - the expectation was that we had a time of fellowship and sharing, where we would give testimonies, share a short message, sing some worship, pray together and for the family we were with then have a meal together. 

After returning to Anuradhapura, many of the same happened with the dinners and lunches. Also, every other day we were driven to different schools and orphanages to do programs. These were all Buddhist schools so we couldn't openly share, but alot of what we were doing, as well as educating them about the world and showing them different possibilities was talking about the good of team work, supporting each other and basically teaching them good morals and values.

It was an amazing time where I really fell in love with the people and culture of Sri Lanka.

We spent an afternoon at a girls orphanage - we had so much fun
and by the end of the afternoon, I didn't want to leave them.