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!