The Mountains

Hey there Luke, parents, and other followers!

We're back in Colombo! The church is our hot spot for internet, which is why all our updates come when we are here. After our last post we went to church here on Sunday and got to experience their Sunday service. Pastor Adrian spoke in English because there were several other visitors besides our team who spoke English, and then it was translated into the other two native languages here, Sinhalese and Tamil. Needless to say, his sermon took a while, but it was cool to see how they accommodated to all the different backgrounds and languages. That afternoon we had lunch with a very large group from church, then spent the evening at Thilini's house where we got to watch a Bollywood hit called Three Idiots. It's a must see!

This week we had the great privilege of going to the mountains to experience the beauty of tea country. We left Monday morning and spent our whole day traveling, and on our way up we had another awesome privilege of visiting an elephant orphanage. After watching all the elephants bathe in the river, all of us got to actually ride an elephant! It was a dream come true for most of us, and it really kicked off our July 4th celebration with a bang. That night after getting to where we were staying in the mountains we had a time of prayer for our nation and capped it off with some classy backyard fireworks. We'll leave all the details of that out for our parents' sake, but it was a jolly ol' time.

On Tuesday we went to a tea factory where we got a special tour of the factory and learned all about the process it takes to make tea. Sri Lanka's number one export is tea, and they are number one in the world for the best quality of tea and second in the world for quantity of tea exported. Driving through the mountains we saw a completely different side of the country. The mountains are covered with tea estates where we saw workers, mostly women, who walk through with bags on their backs and pluck tea leaves all day. These workers will work for an entire day just to make five dollars. It was crazy seeing the amazing beauty of the mountains amongst the poverty of the people who live there. Despite learning about all the poverty in the country, our team has felt more and more hope for these people and what God is doing in this country. Probably the biggest problem for all those in poverty is a lack of hope, but much of that is beginning to change, which is in large part due to the work of Christ through Pastor Adrian's family and their ministry in this country.

Later that day, when we were heading back to where we stayed, we stopped at a park next to a lake to enjoy the beauty, and there was a group of teenage boys crowded around each other dancing and singing. They were all circled up around a few guys banging on some drums, so our team decided to go and join them. It was such a blast dancing with them, and we quickly attracted a large crowd as everyone else in the park came over to watch us all dance. We had so much fun. There might even be a video up later for you all to see.

Wednesday we traveled back down the mountain, and stopped several times for tea, which was the best tea we had the whole trip. They make it right in tea country. We also saw several waterfalls and stopped to enjoy the incredible scenery. For many of us it was some of the most beautiful sights we've ever seen. We got back into Colombo late that night, and had a quick turnaround before leaving at 5 am on Thursday morning to go with Pastor Adrian to the south. He was speaking on a ship called the Logos Hope which is connected with the ministry Operation Mobilization. The ship travels all over the world taking books and resources to different countries, and while Pastor Adrian was speaking our team got a tour of the ship and learned about their ministry. They usually spend two weeks docked in each country and they partner with pastors and churches in the area to encourage, evangelize, and equip the people there with books for very cheap. We found out after leaving that many of the pastors who came that day still couldn't afford many of the books, most of which weren't more than 5 or 6 dollars. The need for resources is so great in this country. Pastors who have never gone to seminary or bible school, are so eager to learn and study the bible, but they don't have any money even to buy books. However, despite their lack of theological knowledge, these pastors are dedicated to their people and full of compassion and zeal. Many of them are persecuted for their faith and continue to pursue God and spread the gospel.

Today we are spending another day in Colombo, and tonight the guys will go back to the farm to spend time with the boys this weekend. We will be getting a translator and hopefully be doing some counseling which should be a really good time both for us and the kids. The girls will stay here at the teenage girls' center spending time with the girls for a couple days. Our last week we will all be together at the farm with the kids. We come home a week from today! It's crazy to think that our time here is almost done. In some ways we are ready, but in others we would love to stay here with the kids forever. Please continue to pray for us during our last week here. Pray that God continues to shape us and grow us all, and pray for a good transition when we come back home. We want God to use us when we get back even more than while we were here.

For more prayer points, look at our prayer tab. We got some exciting news about the farm this week! Thanks again for following us and continuing to support us in prayer!

God Bless!

Halfway!

Hey Everyone! Greetings from Sri Lanka!

Sorry it has been such a long time since our last post, we were traveling for a few days, and we have been at the farm all this week, which means the internet is slower than molasses. BUT we have lots to fill you in on from our travels this past weekend!

Since our last post, we spent Wednesday and Thursday last week in Colombo relaxing a little while we waited until we could head to the east. In Colombo we spent a lot of time at the church, we got to see the city a little bit, and we spent one morning helping to load up a bunch of care packages to go to the east to help with the tsunami relief. We traveled all day Friday, making many stops: twice for meals, once for monkeys beside the road, one historical landmark, once to see an elephant in the wild, once for mangos, and a couple times for tea (Sri Lankans can’t miss tea time… and neither can Aaron and David). So after close to twelve hours of traveling we finally got to where we were staying in time for a late dinner before going to bed shortly after.

Saturday morning we went to the church plant, where they were praying and fasting, which they do every Saturday, and there were about forty people there. This church was really amazing. The ministry that we are working with built the community next to the church to make homes for tsunami victims whose homes were destroyed by flooding, so we distributed care packages that afternoon to the people. That afternoon we went to a Hindi village where all the people are Hindu except for one family that just became Christians that have a house church now. It was incredible to see their faith amongst such opposition, but we prayed for them and are praying that God will use them to bring redemption to that whole village. We spent most of our afternoon in the village playing different games with all the kids there.

That evening our team split up into three groups to visit house church meetings that were a part of the larger church that we went to in the morning. That was a really cool experience because we saw for one night what those people do every single night. They have groups of four or five families that gather each others’ houses every night to pray and open the word together. These people are living out the biblical picture of church, and it’s not some radical way of life to them, it’s just the body of Christ living life the way we are called on a day to day basis. We were blessed even more when we got to go to their Sunday morning service. God is doing incredible things through that church, and they have so much potential to be a center for a lot of change in that region.

 By Sunday night we were back at the farm, and all of us were very excited to see the kids again the next day. We spent this last week in our normal routine at the farm. We finished painting a building, and spent our afternoons playing with the kids. However, since many of the girls are sick from a virus, we were mostly with the boys. So be praying for the kids and their health, as many of them have been sent to stay with relatives while they recover. Also pray for our team’s health. A couple people have gotten sick this past week, and although they are feeling much better, continue to pray for good health and strength for the rest of our trip. God has been working in our hearts and teaching us all more and more each day. As we hear the kids’ and the widows stories, our hearts are heavy knowing the brokenness and pain of their pasts, but we know that God has a perfect plan for them. We have even seen Him working in the hearts of the kids as we spend time with them and love them. The farm is such a redemptive place, and He is actively at work there. So keep praying for the kids, the widows, and the churches and for God to keep providing for the growing needs of this expanding ministry.

This week we are heading to the mountains to explore the tea country! Thank you all for your love and prayer.  Check out the prayer tab for how you can be praying for our team specifically!

Love,

Team Sri Sri

One Week Down

It is now the end of our first full week here. We have spent most of our days playing with the kids, and they are blessing us like crazy. They are all so full of joy, and even though we can't communicate with words, our love is being shared through our interactions with them. It has been incredible to see how God is working in this place.

On Saturday we got a lot of time to play with the kids because they weren't in school. We helped clean the boys home with all the boys, then had time with all of the kids together, and finished off the day with prayer time at the girls home. On Sunday we went to a church close to the farm. It was so awesome to see how the people worshipped and how genuine their community was. It was clear that this church was a body of believers who shared the same passion for Christ not only on Sunday, but on a daily basis. After church we were treated to lunch with all the elders at one of the elders' homes, which was delicious. We are all really enjoying the food so far, and that meal was one of the best.

Monday we had a normal schedule as the kids went back to school, so we spent the morning painting one of the buildings on the farm. We finished as the kids were getting back from school and went straight to playing after that. That night we went to the boys home after their prayer time to spend a little time with them before we left for Colombo the next day.

Now we are in a church near Colombo, and we will spend the next few days away from the farm traveling and visiting sites where the tsunami hit a few years ago. Today we joined in on a conference that is gathering to pray for the country and the bondage that many of the people live under. It was incredible to sense the presence of God in this place as we worshipped and lifted up this nation. We are excited for the next few days of travel and to continue to see God work in this country! He is moving. So keep praying for our team and this country and the kids at the farm.

PRAYER


Pray for church leaders around the nation, that they would be bold before their congregations.

Pray for unity amongst the Christians in Sri Lanka.

Continue to pray for our team's health and that God would be with us as we continue learn and process things we are encountering.

Pray for the kids! They are all wonderful, but there is still so much brokenness that needs to be overcome. And only the power of Christ can fully heal them.

Pray for the workers at the farm that God would bless their constant service and hospitality.

WE MADE IT!

We have now been in Sri Lanka for three days, though our trip started five days ago. Our flights went really well, and everyone adjusted to the time difference fairly quickly. The day we arrived we were greeted at the airport by Thilini and friends. We took a bus to the orphanage where we were welcomed by all the children waiting for us who had formed two lines, one of boys and the other of girls. As we got off the bus they gave each one of our team members a lei to welcome us. All the children are beautiful, and we have already been extremely blessed by them.

We spent the rest of that day resting from our long trip, then later we got a tour of the farm. To give you guys an idea of what it is like, the main part of the farm is the orphanage, which is home to about 75 kids. The orphans come from either abusive and broken homes or were abandoned by their parents, and there is a lot of brokenness in their lives, which is why this place is so incredible and it has been great loving them and playing with them the last couple of days. The farm is incredible and the ministry here is very holistic from the orphans, to widow ministry, agriculture, and community. They focus on meeting not only physical and spiritual needs but also the mental and emotional needs.

The second day we woke up, and after breakfast we sat down with Uncle Adrian and he explained to us his vision for the farm and other ministries he is involved with and the theology behind why they do what they do. We have learned so much from him already. Later that day we got to play with the kids for a couple of hours and tried our best to learn names. The guys were learning cricket, and the girls were all holding hands and running around. All the kids are adorable and so easy to love because they themselves are so full of love. That night, we joined in on the girls’ prayer meeting. They come together every night for a prayer meeting in which they all pray for specific things together and sing songs. They taught us a couple songs and a dance to go with them.

Today, we SWEAT. That’s pretty much all there is to it. After breakfast we were put straight to work carrying mattresses and mats from the soon to be dorms. Then we went to the girls’ home while they were away at school and cleaned the floors and the walls and the beds. This took the whole afternoon to finish and after we were all so tired, but our tiredness did not take away from how excited we were to play with the kids after they got home from school. We played with the kids until they had to leave for dinner, and again were so blessed by them.

Now we are resting until dinner. The food has been delicious, and we are so grateful for everything they have done for us so far. We simply want to come alongside them for whatever they need, and we have been learning so much from them as well. We won’t be able to update you guys every day, but we will do our best to keep you up to date.

PRAYER

Please pray that everyone stays healthy.

Pray that Christ’s love will shine through us, and that Christ will be the center of our team keeping us united.

Pray for the farm and for God to provide for the projects they want to do.

It's Almost Here!

Nine days until our team flies out to Sri Lanka!

We are extremely excited and have been preparing for a couple months now. God has been growing each of us a lot since we have been a team both individually and as a whole. We have already seen God overcome obstacles for this trip, and we can't wait to see what He does while we are there!

Right now we are all at home trying to rest up after a crazy semester! Pray for us during this time of preparation that our hearts would be prepared and that God would strengthen us. Our team verse (at the top of the page) talks about finding rest in Jesus, and that is exactly what we want to do right now! So pray that he would be the source of our rest because that's what we want to take to Sri Lanka. There are men, women, and children that are hurting, living in poverty, and in bondage with other religions that need the truth of Jesus to find rest for their souls.

Our team is also still in need of money! Although we are all definitely going on the trip, we still need lots of money.

If everyone could donate even $5, it would help so much! The easiest way to donate is through this link:
https://connect.biola.edu/NetCommunity/SSLPage.aspx?pid=530

Make sure to select 'Team Sri Lanka' under the Designation drop box!

Thank you all so much for your support! We can't wait until we actually get to update you from Sri Lanka! Please check out our 'Prayer' tab for specific prayer needs.

Blessings.

Welcome!

Aayu-Bowan! (Hello in Sinhalese)

Thank you for following us on our blog. We will be keeping you updated with all that is going on with our team, and we want to use this blog to post prayer requests so that you guys can be praying for specific needs. We'll be posting things now before our trip as we prepare and also while we are in country to fill you in on what God is doing because we expect great things!

Our Mission

We are partnering with Kithu Sevana, an organization established by a local pastor who saw the devastation and suffering of the people there. He knew he could not just stand by preaching the gospel without acting to fulfill the great needs of the local people. Hundreds of thousands of people live on less than $1 a day. Many parents can't afford to send their children to school, and they are caught in a world of poverty and suffering.

What we want to do is come alongside Kithu Sevana's ministry and help them in what they are already doing. God has worked through their ministry to contribute greatly to the needs in Sri Lanka, and our prayer is for God to use us to bless them in their ministry and serve them.

What's Happening Now

God's hand has been on this team from the beginning, and we've seen Him work in many ways to bring us together even in the last couple weeks. We expect Him to do great things, and we are excited that He's called us to be a part of His plan.

Today we went prayer walking in Little India, a small area of Indian shops not far from Biola, because we wanted to get a feel for the culture since Indian culture is very similar to that of Sri Lanka. We encountered many different people, and got a feel for what we'll be doing while we're there.

Last weekend we had our team training with all the other missions teams from Biola. Through the many different team-building exercises we came together as a team and learned to lean on each other (literally, at times). Our team is full of joy, and we expect God to use that in Sri Lanka to bless the people there. We want to shine His love, joy, and compassion on the all people we come in contact.

Prayer

We want you to be a part of our team! You can do that simply by praying. We will have a separate tab for prayer requests that we will be updating periodically so that you can continue praying for specific needs. For now, please be praying for our team. We want to have a God-centered, fully united, and servant-hearted team. If you feel led, you can also support us with your donations using the link on the right.


Thank you for supporting us! We are looking forward to what's ahead.

Love, Team Sri Lanka