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