It has been a busy two days for sure. We arrived at Samudra Sri, the orphanage we are staying at, around 4 yesterday. As soon as we pulled in, all the kids were waiting on the front steps singing songs for us- one in English and one in Sinhal. As soon as they were done singing 11 of the smallest kids ran up and gave each of us a big red flower, grabbed our hands, and led us to the back patio area. We had such a wonderful time playing with the kids. They loved to practice their English out on us and we tried our best to learn a few basic Sinhalese words (not an easy language at all!) We had a BBQ with the leaders of the orphanage. Fresh tuna, prawns, chicken, and so much more!
This morning we woke up relatively early and got ready for church. They sang familiar songs in English and the pastor preached entirely in English as well. It was so amazing to see people who live half way around the world worship the same God that we do. They have such a passionate spirit and their joy was contagious. After church we were able to drive around a bit and see some of the damage that the 2004 tsunami had on this area of Sri Lanka. It has been over 4 years and there is still so much devastation. Many of the kids who live at the orphanage are there because their parents were killed by the tsunami. The others are orphans of the civil was that is raging in the north eastern part of the country. As we were driving around I was praying for these people and the unrest of the country and God just gave my soul peace. I kept thinking of the word “restoration.” This country needs to be restored with the power of God and I have faith that this will happen.
We were able to do a little sight seeing/shopping in Colombo and then we found out that today is actually the day of the Parahara-a huge Buddhist parade through the entire downtown area. Our hosts thought it would be a good cultural experience to watch the parade and it definitely was! Since we were foreigners, we were given the “seats of honor” which were basically padded chairs on a platform. The parade was so vibrant and colorful! There were drums, horns, elephants dressed in sparkly outfits, dancing- like a scene out of a movie. It made me sad to think though that these people were celebrating a false god -praying to a god who would never answer them back.I didn’t know what else to do so I prayed, we all prayed that these lost people would come to know the true God.
We have orientation tomorrow and start at Lady Ridgeway on Tuesday…I guess the vacation’s over!
Talk to you soon!
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