At the beginning of this month Ash and I and some other team members took a trip to the East Coast. We all decided to take the bus there and were completely surprised when a fancy charter bus rolled up to the stop. (See my previous post about SL stepping up their transportation game). It left at around 9pm and we arrived on the east coast at around 4:30 am. (Despite the fact that we drove through the night, I slept like a baby on this bus!) We hiked our bags to the fancy YMCA where we stayed for the next few nights. We didn't really have any plans for this trip. Our goal was to talk with some local pastors and perhaps set up some trainings in the future, make some new connections and get into one of the Mus. areas in town. The first day we went out and decided to do some prayer walking in that very difficult town.
*background info: The east coast is predominately Tamil speaking meaning there are a lot of Hin. and many many Mus. There are still affects from the war there and everyone has a story about the Tsunami that happened back in 2004. During this trip, we actually drove around and saw roads that just stopped where the rest had been washed away, and foundations of houses that were destroyed during the Tsunami. The east coast is a very different area than the rest of SL and certainly different than the capital city where we live. *
So as I said, that first day we went out prayer walking in that all Mus. area. We're talking, giant Arabian looking arch way at the entrance of the town, women completely covered, and a rule saying that you must be Mus to live in this area. As we're walking around, the guys met a store owner who spoke English and they began talking and sharing with him. Us girls had stayed back by the fence and as we were waiting for the guys, an older mus lady, walks up and begins jabbering on in Tamil as if we're fluent. We were able to pick up a few things she was saying and understood that she wanted us to come over to her house for tea. Thinking her house was around the corner, we followed her. We ended up weaving in and out, up and down streets when we finally came to her house. It had begun to rain so she began making tea and all of her neighbors were popping their heads over the fence to get a look at the white girls sitting on the porch. We attempted to speak the very little broken Tamil we know but mainly just sat and smiled. After awhile, we decided to leave, and a girl about our age who knew a little English came up and started speaking with us. We shared a little with her and then gave her our numbers in pamphlet that shared more in Tamil. The same little lady that had lead us to her house, lead us back out to the beach road, where we were able to meet back up with the guys.
It was just a simple cup of tea, but we had been invited into a home in that very very difficult area! And we weren't just invited we were lead! It sounds semi silly to be excited over this. No one came to follow Jesus through this meeting. But were these not new connections, and was this not a victory? We have seen numerous doors opening up over there and this was just another example of that. PTL!
(As a funny side note...remember me telling you about the fancy charter bus we took to the east coast? Well, our luck was not nearly as good coming back to the city. All tickets for the charter bus leaving the east coast were sold out, so we had to take the "normal no ac" bus. Imagine an old school bus, but with neon flashing lights at the front of the bus and LOUD Tamil/Sinhala music playing for nine hours straight. Don't know what Sinhala music sounds like? Picture mariachi music and there ya go. Thank goodness the brakes worked REALLY well and that there were handles on the seats in front of you so you could hold on when the bus was slamming on it's brakes and driving like a maniac. In fact if you've ever seen the Harry Potter movie where he rides the night bus, just picture that and you've got an accurate depiction of the "smoothness" of this ride. Needless to say, I didn't really sleep on the way home...go figure.)
*background info: The east coast is predominately Tamil speaking meaning there are a lot of Hin. and many many Mus. There are still affects from the war there and everyone has a story about the Tsunami that happened back in 2004. During this trip, we actually drove around and saw roads that just stopped where the rest had been washed away, and foundations of houses that were destroyed during the Tsunami. The east coast is a very different area than the rest of SL and certainly different than the capital city where we live. *
So as I said, that first day we went out prayer walking in that all Mus. area. We're talking, giant Arabian looking arch way at the entrance of the town, women completely covered, and a rule saying that you must be Mus to live in this area. As we're walking around, the guys met a store owner who spoke English and they began talking and sharing with him. Us girls had stayed back by the fence and as we were waiting for the guys, an older mus lady, walks up and begins jabbering on in Tamil as if we're fluent. We were able to pick up a few things she was saying and understood that she wanted us to come over to her house for tea. Thinking her house was around the corner, we followed her. We ended up weaving in and out, up and down streets when we finally came to her house. It had begun to rain so she began making tea and all of her neighbors were popping their heads over the fence to get a look at the white girls sitting on the porch. We attempted to speak the very little broken Tamil we know but mainly just sat and smiled. After awhile, we decided to leave, and a girl about our age who knew a little English came up and started speaking with us. We shared a little with her and then gave her our numbers in pamphlet that shared more in Tamil. The same little lady that had lead us to her house, lead us back out to the beach road, where we were able to meet back up with the guys.
It was just a simple cup of tea, but we had been invited into a home in that very very difficult area! And we weren't just invited we were lead! It sounds semi silly to be excited over this. No one came to follow Jesus through this meeting. But were these not new connections, and was this not a victory? We have seen numerous doors opening up over there and this was just another example of that. PTL!
(As a funny side note...remember me telling you about the fancy charter bus we took to the east coast? Well, our luck was not nearly as good coming back to the city. All tickets for the charter bus leaving the east coast were sold out, so we had to take the "normal no ac" bus. Imagine an old school bus, but with neon flashing lights at the front of the bus and LOUD Tamil/Sinhala music playing for nine hours straight. Don't know what Sinhala music sounds like? Picture mariachi music and there ya go. Thank goodness the brakes worked REALLY well and that there were handles on the seats in front of you so you could hold on when the bus was slamming on it's brakes and driving like a maniac. In fact if you've ever seen the Harry Potter movie where he rides the night bus, just picture that and you've got an accurate depiction of the "smoothness" of this ride. Needless to say, I didn't really sleep on the way home...go figure.)
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