Nuwara Eliya Conference!

It's been a busy time over here. We left Ampara and travelled for 7 hours back to Kandy with a dinner stop in the middle. The van carrying the Australian team overheated on the steep, windy road and the bus was down to 3 out of 5 nuts on one of the wheels. Needless to say, we were praying all the way back.
We were all asleep by about 1.30 - 2.00am, and then David, Hilary and Sarah were straight back into it with preaching at three different churches in and around Kandy, being picked up from 6.45am.

After preaching and lunch with the various churches, we packed the bus once again and headed south to Nuwara Eliya...high in the tea plantation region of Sri Lanka. We discovered that it is really quite cool up there - especially compared to Trinco, Batticaloa and Ampara. We stayed in a mission house right next door to the church which was hosting the conference, a place which also provided our meals. It was lovely to have everything so close and convenient. We were also within short walking distance from the centre of town.

The conference was slow to start with people dribbling in over the first session, to about 70 people in total. We found that the mostly Tamil population were quieter and and more serious than the previous conferences - but very keen to learn and take in everything we had to say. Everything went well with all the workshops - although it seems that a few team members had caught a cold along the way and so Yan and David took things easy and it was great to be able to go back to our accomodation during the conference for a time of rest if needed.
Given the temperature and the rain which was on and off for most of the time, we took the opportunity to go shopping down in the main town for some good quality and very reasonably priced jackets and jumpers.

Shanthi finished off the conference with her Heart of God message and a time of prayer for all the delegates and we were back on the road again - Yan and Michelle making sure that we we left on time...we had to get back to Kandy as early as possible because it's the last night of the Kandy Perehera - the big Buddhist festival when the tooth relic of the Buddha comes out on the back of the biggest tusker elephant. The festival gets longer and more elaborate as the parade continues, over 20 nights, so the last night is the biggest and most chaotic for Kandy city. Roads closed, police everywhere, carnivals dotted around town, checkpoints - the Prime Minister and the President of Sri Lanka in attendance. We made it back in quick time and Sarah and the Williams family went with the boys on the local team out to see the parade. A story in its own right. But it sure is good to be back in Kandy and we have a couple of rest days before our last conference in Ja-ela.



Michelle's Workshop



Hilary's Workshop


The Nuwara Eliya Conference


The Williams Family 2010


Beautiful Sri Lankan Tea Plantations