A Week and Three days

Wow...I do not even know where to begin. It is truly amazing how busy we are here. We have now been here a week and three days and already have visited the south, where the tsunami hit, and Ape Kedella, Kithu Sevena’s farm which includes two orphanages, a home for widows and their children, job training and a missiological research and training center with housing for the students. In addition we were able to visit an elephant orphanage for war affected elephants. Some of the elephants were injured in the war (a leg destroyed by a land mine or eyes shot by poachers) others had lost their families. It is amazing how the war has affected so many aspects of Sri Lankan society. Our shower and toilet was fixed and we spent hours cleaning the room and making it feel like home. Last night we were told that we would no longer be living in that room and that we would have a “new permanent” room. This was very challenging for Ben and I. When you are experiencing culture shock you tend to hold tightly to certain comforts. The room had become our home and it was challenging to embrace the move with grace and love. But we made it through and we spent this morning cleaning everything. In the end, this is a much better place for us. So praise God for his providence.
Today was also laundry day. And yes there needs to be a whole day dedicated to laundry. In general men are never seen doing laundry here so the girls at the house got quite a kick out of Ben scrubbing away. It is amazing how much time it takes to do your laundry by hand. Not only does it take forever the outcome is barely cleaner than what you started with. All of our white clothing is now blue somehow...But luckily Blue matches pretty much all of the clothing we brought. Currently there is a Biola team working here, there are about 10 girls, and staying at the church. So between the girls at the orphanage, me and the Biola girls Ben is extremely outnumbered. Today is our fourth of July we will be going to a BBQ at the American embassy which I imagine will be small seeing that I have not seen any other white people here besides the Biola girls. It is extremely challenging to get visas here and Pastor Adrian said that there are very few missionaries living and working in Sri Lanka. It is very different than Africa, where you are likely to come into contact with multiple missionary families.
Ben and I are working very closely with Pastor Adrian and are basically his personal assistants and are capturing video footage and pictures of all of the projects for their future website. I am continually awed by pastor Adrian’s faith. Kithu Sevena, although in a poor area, has worked very hard and funds almost all of its work on its own. They establish projects without the funds and watch as God continually provides. The church has set up programs to train people how to breed pigs, chickens and even flowers. Ben and I are very happy to be working with Pastor Adrian because we feel our strengths are truly being used. We feel we actually can help the church which is an amazing feeling. My bed is currently broken and breaks when I sit on it. Ben just sat on it and fell to the ground...oh the joys of living abroad. Our feet have stopped swelling and the bug bites have lessened ever since we fumigated our room with extra strength bug killer. We are really settling in which is a great feeling.