A weekend in Sri Lanka...

Hi to you all...a quick update before I hit the sack...

After the Trinco conference, we piled into the bus and spent a couple of hours splashing around at the local beach. The first beach I have seen in Sri Lanka with a lifesaving outpost. We stayed until it was almost dark and everyone had a great time. For at least one of the local team - it was their first trip ever to the beach.

Saturday dawned bright and hot, and we had a day to see the sights and catch up on sleep/housekeeping stuff. It was a fun day, if not a little frustrating at times.

The bus left on Friday evening with two of the local team to go and pick Yan and Michelle up from the airport - a monster journey of around 7 hours right across the middle of the country, and then the same to get back again!

This meant that for our sightseeing, we arranged a local bus for the day. Well from the very beginning, the driver was going to try to run the show. We had made plans originally, but then decided to change them to make best use of our day off. He argued with us for 10 minutes about how he was only going to drive us according to the original schedule. We finally won through, only to have another big argument with him later on in the day. It was bizarre and bit tiresome as we were paying him to drive us for the whole day. When he did eventually drive us, we made a trip up to the hot springs, which is one of the attractions of Trincomalee. After arriving there we discovered that it was probably famous more because of it's significance to the Hindu religion than for anything else. It was interesting but a little disappointing. I think that the little market stalls on the way in and out were probably more interesting. Also, the boys from the local team sang all the way there and kept us clapping and singing, which was also a highlight of the trip.

After the hot springs, we came back into Trincomalee and went to look at Fort Frederick. A very old fort built by the Dutch, and now housing a Hindu Temple and some amazing views of the whole Trincomalee town, local district and the large harbour. Given the heat and the climb to get there, we were very glad the views were so good, and made it worth the effort to get there.

We decided, after the next big argument with the bus driver, to go up to Nilaveli beach - a beautiful beach to the north of Trinco, and have a swim and wait for the rest of the team to come and find us and go swimming also, after their very long trip to the airport. The beach was full of people - a very unusual thing to see in Sri Lanka, and lots of people were swimming too...an even more unusual sight. The beach is like an Australian beach - long and deep with white sand and small to medium sized waves. Micah and Ebonie were loving catching waves and splashing around. We stayed in the water for quite some time, waiting for our original bus to arrive...all the while watching as stormclouds gathered and moved towards us.

The rain eventually came, and we all made a dash for a little shed at the back of the beach so our clothes and towels didn't get wet. Most of the boys just stayed out in the rain, playing soccer, and then getting back in the water. We all kept waiting for the rain to ease, but it just kept going, and even got heavier so that by the time the others did arrive, at around dusk, it was really bucketing down. We made a trip back to the bus with some of the clothes...a distance of about a kilometre...and found that the path and carpark were starting to flood. Meanwhile, the rain had gotten even worse and had turned into a thunderstorm. We had to grab all our stuff and stumble back to the bus, through some substantial puddles, at times minor flooding and through the driving rain. It was quite an experience...and one we won't forget in a hurry. We all stood in the bus all the way back to the hotel, because we were all sopping wet and had no dry towels or clothes to get into. But it was very good to see Yan and Michelle who had come to look at the beach but had thankfully stayed in the bus and so were still dry. We all had a great day...it was nothing like we had expected...but was a very good day nonetheless.

Tomorrow...a day of ministry in the local church...rather than three of us preaching in three different churches, we're scheduled to all go to the one church - the church that hosted the conference, and Pastor David is preaching. Shanthi and the team have been asked to run the children's program aswell as the music for the adult service.

Well that wasn't so quick...but there was a bit to tell...so for now...I sleep...but I will bring you up to date some more tomorrow...with lots of love from us all over here in Sri Lanka!

Kidsreach Team 2010