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