The Lord has definitely been growing Ben and I. For those of you who know me well, you know I hate throw-up. I have a completely irrational fear of throw-up. The fact that I fear throw up does not work well with working abroad. I often find myself in awe of the fact that God has given Ben and I a heart to work abroad because in so many ways I am ill equipped. I hate bugs and things that are dirty, have a specialized diet and hate throw up (an almost inevitable part of traveling abroad). This week the Lord truly threw a challenge my way. We traveled to the English speaking church with the girls who live at the church and during the 45 minute drive 7 people threw up. Although this was very challenging, God came through calming my anxiety and giving me joy despite my surroundings. Ben and I were just asked to move to the English speaking church near Colombo. We are sad in one sense because we will be much more secluded from our community but on the other hand we feel this is our calling and the place where we can serve the most. The English speaking church is just starting to get on its feet and due to the language barrier it is the place we will be able to help the most. Pastor Adrian told us that 10% of Sri Lanka’s population speaks English as their first language. These are the people the English speaking church seeks to reach. Many of the English speakers are the educated and elite of Sri Lanka. Kitu Sevena wants to reach this population in order to aid its work for the poor. It also wants to reach this group of people because no one is currently trying to. We are excited and scared to begin the moving process. The new home we will be staying in needs a great deal of cleaning, furniture and work. So we have a lot ahead of us. Please be praying for this transition.
This week we spent 3 days at Ape Kadella farm and took part in the Asian Access Conference, a conference that seeks to equip Asian pastors for ministry. It was an extremely enlightening time. During our stay we had many visitors to our room. I wish I had a video of Ben and I trying to remove the hoping frog and crazy lizard from our room. Although we succeeded in removing them, we looked up fifteen minutes later to see their eyes staring back at us. So we decided to share our home with them. The farm accommodations have many creatures and their poop. It is always an adventure when we sleep there. Today I have been deeply saddened by the ever present pain in Sri Lanka. Ben and I have heard story after story of sexual, physical and emotional abuse. I met a beautiful 30 year old women who has been living at the widows home at Ape Kadella for 8 months her entire face is burned from the acid her enraged husband threw on her one evening. Ben and I also heard the horrific stories of some of the orphans. A young boy of only 13 was given to the Buddhist monks at a very young age. His mother is a prostitute and his father is dead. He was sexually abused by the monks at night. This is a reality for many boys of poor families. Families give their sons to the monks because they will feed and educate them but sexual abuse is rampant. This young boy now lives at Ape Kadella, he is too emotionally damaged to attend school and sometimes tries to abuse the younger boys at the home. The depth of the brokenness and pain of the thousands of orphans in Sri Lanka is truly unbearable. Sri Lanka is truly a country full of abandon children due to the tsunami and war. Pray for the Orphans and Widows of the broken world we live in. Even though we often cannot see God among the horrific tragedies of our world, HE is Sovereign.
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