This Journey Comes to a Close but Mine is Just Beginning

Tomorrow is the last day I'll have access to a computer so this will be my last entry. It has been a life changing trip, which I wish wasn't quite over. The next few days, I'm playing tourist again as I stay in a hotel, on the gorgeous sandy beaches in Mt. Lavinia.

I think it is truly the people we meet in life that change are perspective that change who we are and how we think, what we believe and the morals we live for. This adventure coming to a close, brings with it the thought of time lingering the gavel of incomplete closure, but not without the new insight of how I should live my life. I've been surrounded this month by people of sickness and disease, of extreme poverty with no hope of escape, and Pastor's swamped with a mission much larger than themselves. The experience and wisdom acquired, no textbook could ever explain, since pictures of 3rd world countries in books merely seem as a far away fairyland. I travel back to America with tears streaming down my face as I finally understand God's unconditional love. Every heartache and pain is merely a testament of strength in this temporal world, which is merely the intermission between birth and eternity. I think about all my friends back in America, and how they live their lives, how I lived my life. Always with the American dream in my main thoughts, and the thoughts of Christ buried in some dark hole in the back of my head.

I've sinned. I am not perfect. Judgment will be upon me. I have no rest without Him. I live for myself. I am selfish. I wish I didn't need to reach out and touch the hole's in his hand to believe in his holiness. I beat him. I spit on him. I was the one that crucified him.

Falling on my knees in humble submission, for my king that took my place upon a cross, which I was so deserving. He died, so that I can live, so that I can show others his glorious face. I am burdened with my only relief coming from my Father, and living as he would have me live. I pray I find the strength to help those I would normally detest, and to look beyond an exterior of sin as my Father overlooks my own.

Thank You Lord for saving me from this world of destruction. Help me to live for you and not myself. Help me bare my cross and follow you and help me be like your son and truly live as I am made in your image.

A Week Long Update Worth Reading

No story is complete without a little comic relief. This week has been Caleb's attempt to play tourist and enjoy the country that Sri Lanka has to offer. I figure one only come to such a foreign island very few times in a life time, so one must take in and absorb all he can. Monday, I visited a close by botanical gardens located in Newari Eliya. The garden was breath taking, with exotic flowers from around the world. I think the cornerstone of the outing though, was not the flowers but the monkeys. Satheesh, my guide, and myself were walking through the gardens when we ran into a large group of monkeys. I video taped some of their behavior, which is simply fascinating. Anyways, the fun part comes when Caleb came a little to close to mother nature. I was trying to get closer for a photo and was literally in the monkey habitat. I don't think the monkeys liked that because this one monkey started chasing me!! He chased me until I was back on the main trail and out of his home. Hey, I still got the picture ha ha it was great. The only bad thing was that Satheesh was making fun of me the rest of the afternoon :).



Tuesday



Tuesday was a day, very few words can describe. After a hour and a half ride on the back of a small motorbike we arrived among the clouds. We were heading to a place known to the locals as the world's end. A place where you can look out over God's creation and truly see its magnificence. I was able to look past the mountains and the villages below, past all the heartache and worldly strain, and see the shimmering see far in the distance, as the clouds surrounding me seemed to lift me higher and higher. God is truly an artist. Though beautiful, beauty came at a cost. A cost of about nine kilometers up the side of a mountain through dense jungle. After seeing the world's end, Pastor Daneesh and I decided to keep hiking because about another four kilometers is a place called Baker's Falls, a gorgeous waterfall. We arrived at the waterfall, but the area was closed off with barbed wire, but Pastor Daneesh having been there before, took me a different path. The path was down an extremely steep decline, and Caleb's clumsy self of course can't go down an extremely steep incline without a a fall! Yep that's right I busted my but and had a little scrape to prove it. Thank goodness I was wearing jeans or it may have been much worse. Daneesh freaked out, but it was just flesh wound! ha ha and I got up and we made it to the waterfall. We were standing right underneath a breathtaking sight of stone and water, which made a great spot for a photo montage.



The day came to an end and we hiked the last five kilometers back to the motorbike, and I called it a day



Wednesday
On Wednesday, Sateesh traveled to Kandy, the ancient city of kings. It was great a bus ticket was so cheap only $2 per person, but locals told me that the price had recently been increased. Anyways, after arrival I dropped my bag where I was staying, at a bible college in Kandy called Lanka Bible College (LBC). More about the place later, because we immediately set off for the huge arboretum they have in Kandy. This place was huge. We walked around for several hours, with occasionally running for shelter because of the rain. OK I thought this part was funny. After we bought are tickets, we were headed for the gate when the guard told Sateesh that I could not enter through the gate we were headed towards. Foreigners had their own special fancy gate. It was actually quite nice, the gate was built underneath this gazebo, which was odd considering the locals entrance was just a large sliding gate. Well, I guess the difference in ticket price was represented. The gardens were gorgeous and unlike the Gardens in Newari Eliya, there were more tropical trees and flowers. This one walk way was surrounded on both sides with King Coconut trees, and very old trees with sprawling roots. One of the most, moving moments was when we came across a very specific tree somewhat distant from the other trees. This tree was intertwined with an adjacent tree and had formed into the shape of a huge cross. It was as if God had made a tree to show that he is present even among people who deny him. It was as if he was towering over the people with branches reaching out wide, welcoming the people with open arms. I truly struggle at times to truly understand how can love us, a sinful people, with such passion and grace, but none the less the outstretched branches of his cross always reach down to us with his mercy just asking for a return of His love.

That evening was an evening of fellowship. I was back on the LBC campus and Sateesh left to be with his wife, so I stayed and mingled with the students. They invited me to play a small game of billiards, and my love for the a me could not turn them down. Not to brag or anything, but I did kind of make them look bad ha ha, so yeah then I ate diner with the students, which was a great experience since they were amazed a foreigner wasn't afraid of eating rice and curry with his fingers. I'm actually starting to enjoy it now ha ha, so barbaric its great. I think I have finally adapted to their culture.

Thursday
Thursday morning Sateesh picked me up and we set off for our day of adventure, and a day of adventure it was. We were heading for Pinnawala. A city famous for its elephant orphanage. I've never seen elephants outside of the zoo before, and this orphanage allowed for all these elephants to live in the community of other elephants in a natural habitat. We first hiked down to this river where all the elephants were bathing. Have you ever seen a baby elephant bathe? Well, its the most adorable thing ever! Ha ha especially when afterwards they head to the adjacent bank and play in the mud in order to have a excuse to bathe once more in the tropical rivers of Kandy. We gawked at the elephants for probably over two hours before we decided to have lunch. After lunch though we walked over to the elephants feeding area, where the elephants devoured this forest. I don't think they ever stop eating. I think elephants are Americans at heart ha ha. At the end of the adventure we saw the true orphanage part of the reserve where they actually feed milk to the baby elephants, with out parents. Its so adorable because the baby elephants curl their trunks up and put these large bottles of milk in their mouth. They have to feed a baby elephant at least 8 of these bottles a day. Just a little side note, one of the people who helped prevent the elephants from coming to close to the tourists wants lets them touch and take pictures touching the elephant. Well there was only one elephant with huge tusks so I decided to take a picture touching its tusks, and afterwards the elephant guy was like "give money" and I was for taking a picture with MY camera, I don't think so ,and I walked off. He stared at me funny, I think he was lost in translation, but scored as the next tourist gave him a little money for a picture with the elephant. I laughed and walked off.

Friday
Friday was the strangest day. In the morning, we were going to go see this huge Buddhist temple in Kandy built by one of the old kings of Sri Lanka. When we got there, we found out the temple had become a tourist attraction, and required a ticket. The ticket was OK, but they said I couldn't go inside because I wasn't wearing the traditional dress, which they offered for me to by, but at that time I was slightly disgusted at the idea of making a place of worship into a tourist attraction I decided to just head back to Newari Eliya a few hours early. I couldn't help but think what it would be like if huge cathedrals required an entrance fee in order to worship Christ.

Traveling Churches

Sunday was a day to be remembered.
Pastor Satheesh, several on the Timithian students ( the bible school where the church I'm staying at), and myself all saddled up in this huge van and drove to another church, maybe an hour away. The church was having a one year anniversary, since the doors of the church were opened. I'm finally getting use to all the smiling stares from the locals, which is actually quite nice. Sidenote: I found out later that night that America actually donated tons of flour to the country to keep the people from starvation. Anyways, when we first got there I needed to use the restroom, but I keep forgetting that they do not understand what that is. They only understand, toilet. But none the less I got to use the restroom. Well the point of me saying this, is to actually describe the toilet. It was literally a hole in the ground surrounded by some porcelain, good thing I only needed to go number 1, oh by the way there was no toilet paper or one of those water spraying devices, only a picture of water sitting on the ground. Man I felt sorry for the locals, but understood why disease is so prevalent in third world countries. Moving on, the church service was truly amazing, taking into consideration I only understood Hallelujah and Amen. The service was preached in two languages simultaneously, Sinhalese and Tamil, the two local languages. Being in a place of such beauty, but such starvation, it was a miracle to see the people of this church with tears streaming down there faces, and their arms outstretched to God. I've never been surrounded by such a faith. I've always known its easy to believe in a God when there's no gun pointed to your head, but these people face the gun of starvation on a weekly basis, and praise God more fervently then the people God has chosen to bless with a comfortable life. One can only truly question their own morals and actions, as each day most Americans come home to a house with some form of food. Praise God for sending Lions of the faith to face such worldly tribulation, and not the America sheep.

Sweating and Sri Lankan Ketchup

Saturday,
Laurence has the day off so Pastor Yoganathan and his wife, Shiela decide to go pick up food from town instead of cooking. I swear they would rather do anything than cook quite funny actually. Anyways, eating breakfast I was told to put some of this sauce on my breakfast sandwich, which I didn't realized until I tried that it was Ketchup!, It was in a strange bottle and the words Ketchup were no where to be found, but none the less the tomatoey goodness was present:) Lunch was the funny part. This was great food bye the way. Pastor told me that my lunch wasn't hot, but I guess the people who made the food don't know the difference between not hot and American. Ha none the less, half way through the meal I had to shed my jacket because I was starting to sweat, and Pastor Yoga was like "Not bad eh?" It was actually really good, but I think I lost weight by eating:) All morning it rained and the power was out for like two hours. They were like that always happens in the raining season. Sidenote: raining season is between June-August. But it was nice because I was able to talk to Poparage ( the man I mentioned in the previous blog, that has polio). A great man truly remarkable, I just can't seem to get him out of my head. But now BEAUTIFUL blue skies and the me and the boys are headed to this large Cricket field to play a real match after they eat lunch. What great fun, can;t get much better. I'll post my agenda for next week later.

Especially Moving

Well this post is a little different since its simply an account of a conversation I had with a man that lives here at the church.

I was walking around this church where im staying at in Sri Lanka and this man wanted to talk to me, so I was like alright. He started telling me about his life and how he was born Hindu and worshiped many gods in his life, but it didn't matter what God he prayed to he always felt (the way he described it was almost bare and always burdonsome) you know like incomplete always struggling to live and make do with what he had. Anyways, he said he accepted Christ and inside felt whole and that ever since he has had a joy he cannot explain. He remarked that u know sometimes "no food no eat its ok I sing and praise Jesus Christ for he has saved me" Quite amazing I was practically in tears by this point. By the way this man was diognosed with polio and can barely walk. His feet looked clubed as his ankles seem to be disattached but not. I have never met a more cheerful an joyous person in my whole life. Thinking back to my own life when I complain about friend problems and family issues and ocasionally money problems, I wanted to slap myself for at times growing angry and not understanding God when he only makes us suffer to pull us closer to him.

Tea Time and Kricket Anyone?

Ok well yesterday, I didn' end up going to that flower garden thing because some church pasters and office people decided they wanted to talk to me about well, America, and especially American politics. Its amazing how the res of the world worries about the presidential elections. I had no idea how much who the president is actually affects the rest of the world. It seems as if the rest of the world is completly dependent upon the actions of American politics, well atleast third-word nations. Anyways, what a better way to discuss myself and America then over a hot cup of milk tea, especially when its freaking cold outside. I've never felt pompous in my whole life until that moment. We just sat there sipping tea and discussing the world. It definitly gives T.V. a run for its money. Around four they bid adue, and Laurence convinced me to play a little Kricket. Hey guess what I actually enjoyed the British sport! It was odd hitting a tennis ball with a flat wooden bat, but I wasn't half bad. The strange part was, was that there are no strikes! You keep batting until the pitcher either hits the home plate with the ball or someone catches one of the balls you hit. Sidenote: The home plate is set up vertically not lying on the ground like in baseball. What great fun, until one of the guys hit the ball too far and we spent like 10 minutes looking for it, but it was all good. Haha Sheila (the lady of the house) told me not to go buy shirts and jackets in town until Paster Yoganathan could go with me because she said they always raise the prices for tourists, and you need someone that knows how to barter with them in their local language:). Anyways, more and more adventures are always around the corner in a foreign country so there is no telling what might happen next! This trip is turning me into an adrenaline junkie!

The Food SUCKS!!!

OK whoever invented eating rice smothered in curry with your fingers should burn in a fire. Truly representative of the uncivilized culture. For example, the servant Laurence asked me this morning, you bathe every day?! I was like ugh sometimes *shifty eyes* So foreign and so strange. Growing up my whole life in America I didn't realize what third world truly meant until now, living in shacks an eating with fingers. Hmm talk about a culture shock. OK OK maybe I'm making seem a little intense but i do rather miss home. Later this afternoon I am to visit this flower garden park. The funny thing is the pricing. For tourists Rs. 100 for locals Rs. 30 Sidenote: one dollar equals Rs. 106. Still cheap none the less, I can't wait the sites definitely make up for the bad food.

The Upside Down America

OK well yesterday I was walking with this guy who is kind of like a servant for the household I am staying with. Sidenote: He called me master until he learned how to say my name. We took a tricle, as they are called, a three-wheeled taxi to his house which was about two kilometers away. He lived in a bungalow. A house with maybe five rooms, but each room is rented to a different family. This bungalow just happened to be owned by the church that he works for, the one that I am staying at. His name is Laurence. Laurence his wife and his four year old son all live in this tiny room in the bungalow with only one full size bed and two chairs. There is a common kitchen shared by all the residents of the bungalow. The kitchen uses no gas and no electricity to cook merely fire by burning whatever wood that can be found. Though the inside seemed in shambles walking outside simply took my breath away the mountains surrounding Newara Eliya surround the bungalow on all sides with towering terraces covered in green tea plants. Sidenote: Neware Eiya is considered tea country the entire country side is covered with tea. The fog can be see rolling off the mountain tops and bringing with it the abundance of rain accounted for in the raining season. The air free from industry, and my lungs actually tasted fresh air and not smog. What a life this would be is America looked like this place.

Likewise, America is backwards. America gloats its high towers and houses with eight bedrooms to house two people. But, the second you step outside your American house nosy cars, planes, angry people, a hatred for humanity, and the desirable crave for money attacks the senses. Well I live in America. I love America, but I wish America could find a peace that the citizens of this country had even though there country has been in civil war for 25 years and frequent bus and train bombings occur more regularly everyday. Sri Lanka is in war but is truly a place of peace of mind.