Day 23

Traveling to the East this weekend was one of my highlights of the trip so far. It is a dryer, hotter climate, and since they speak Tamil rather than Sinhala, we had to start over in our language learning endeavors. I am proud to say that I can now say "my name is", "what is your name?", "thank you" and "how are you" in 3 languages. 5 if you count German and ASL. A huge cultural difference, like I mentioned before, is the more extreme dominance of men, and consequently, poor treatment of women. The hardest part was probably just being exhausted all weekend, since I think we were running on like 6 hours total, but Pastor C. and his family took really good care of us. Sri Lankan culture is incredibly hospitable.

Pastor's home

We got to attend a fasting and prayer meeting directly after breakfast and immediately followed by lunch - that's my kind of fasting - and then took us to the beach! I jokingly asked if we could go out on one of their fishing kayaks, but they took me seriously and found us a boat to take us out on the river. Can't say I'm sorry, 'cause it was awesome.

The beach with brown sugar colored sand

A fishing kayak 

A piece of the Catholic cathedral that fell during the tsunami in 2004

We spent Saturday night at house churches, and then attended the Sunday morning service which is made up of all the house churches combined - about 75 people in all.

Pastor C. asked Ji and I to each share a message on reconciliation for the house meetings because of the way the cast system affects those in the church - not to mention the division amongst the Sinhalese and the Tamils who just ended a 30-year long civil war. Who am I to speak into such an issue, you ask? Great question. Luckily, wiser men have already written about it in scripture, so all I had to do was teach their words. Ok, God's words. It was a really cool, stretching experience, 'cause I've never prepared a message like that before. Jess and I also got to sing some Tamil and some English songs at church.
I think my favorite part of the trip was playing with the kids from the church on Sunday afternoon. I definitely didn't want to leave.