Volunteering

I was able to meet with Therese (she heads up all the volunteers at CCS) on Thursday. It went pretty good. I have a couple of forms I have to fill out, but I think that by next week I might be able to start to help out. They are going to have me assist in the preschool class. That way Rachel can come too. I'm not a teacher, so I’m a little nervous, so any good suggestions would be greatly appreciated. The kids don't speak English, so I think my role would be of one, of thinking of crafts to do with them, and also teaching them a little English through songs. So please if you can give me some ideas! : )

Jesse's Awesome Day

So I can't write anything specific here, but I just wanted to let you know that Jesse had a great day on Tuesday. I wish that I could go into details, but for security reasons I can't. But there were about 4 huge things that worked out perfectly for IJM. It was so amazing to see God at work. Jesse has often said that he often feels like Moses, completely inept to be doing what he is doing, but completely awed by what God can. It was also neat to hear from IJM's D.C. office that night, b/c they said that during their prayer time that day, they had specifically been praying for Sri Lanka. We want to say thanks to all of you too who are praying for us & IJM's work. We feel so blessed to have so many people praying for us. Thanks!

Update on Situation....

Here's a link to the latest here in Sri Lanka... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5115968.stm

Jesse was just saying how things have been pretty quiet here the last 5 days...well I guess that's changed. Again this is not to worry you all, just to keep you informed on what's going on here.

Crazy TukTuk Driver

Okay, so last night we had the craziest tuktuk driver we've ever had! The driving here is insane anyway, but I seriously thought we were sure to get in an accident last night. We were on our way home from dinner & grocery shopping last night, we were on the main road in Colombo (Galle Road)...well it is usually a 4 lane road, but around the president's home they have the road merge to just a 2 lane road, but our driver didn't really feel like staying in his lane, so was straddling the center lane with oncoming traffic coming our way. I don't know where he thought he was going, it is a very busy road, and there is no way he could've passed anyone. He also ran red lights, and didn't really like slowing down for turns. I have never been happier to reach home! I wish I could've tapped it all for you to see, b/c words just don't do it justice. : ) But I think if I ever see him again, I'm running in the other direction.

Leisure World

Today we went with some friends we met last week at church to Leisure World. It was about an hour outside of Colombo. It was more inland, and the vegetation out that way is amazing. In fact it reminded both Jesse & I of the scenery of our favorite show Lost. Leisure World is sort of a water/amusement park. But compared to U.S. theme parks, much smaller and not as crowded.

Most of the rides would be considered kiddie rides, but they were fun anyway, and Rachel went on most of them as well. She even was brave enough to go on the log ride.

It was a nice day, no rain, but we did get a little sunburned. There were two other little girls who came as well, so Rachel had a great time playing with them (Jesse & I had a great time too). It's always nice to get out and just hand out with some really great people. Here's a picture of all of us...

Kiddies Fun Park

Rachel & I went on a mission today to try to find a park that is open before 4pm. We succeeded! We went to the main park in Colombo which is called Viharamahadevi. Yes, you should have heard me try to tell the tuktuk driver where we wanted to go. Thankfully he was very patient, and really was gracious in trying to figure out what I was trying to say.


We were greeted at the park by Buddha...which is very common. There are statues of him everywhere. There were not a lot of kids there, b/c most kids are in school, but Rachel enjoyed going on the swings.


After ice cream we headed home...and just in time too. This morning was beautiful, not a cloud in the sky. When we got home, I put the clothes out on the line to dry, and 5 minutes later it started to pour. I mean really pour; I have never seen so much rain fall. Last night we had a really bad storm too. In fact, Jesse & I both work up b/c our bedroom door kept opening & shutting b/c of the storm pressure. So we are definitely in monsoon season.

Rain, Rain, Rain

It rained all day today. So Rachel & I are going a little stir crazy. In fact Rachel called her Uncle Brian today, and begged him to "get on an airplane, eat some food (so he won't get hungry), get on a tuk tuk, and take it to seagull residencies" (the name of our apartment building). She is definitely getting bored with mom. Hopefully tomorrow will be nicer so we can go out. By the way I will try to get more pictures up soon, my camera was not working for a while, but thankfully now it is back to normal! So will try to get some more up soon.

Happy Father's Day!

First off we just wanted to let our fathers know that we love them & miss them lots! Hope all you fathers out there had a great day!

Today we went to a Gospel Tabernacle church. It had been recommended to us by some other missionaries here. And Brian (the pastor from the church who is supporting IJM in this endeavor), is here this week, and he was going to be preaching there this morning. So we decided to go. Well it was great.

The pastor & his wife actually work with Community Concerns (which I’ve mentioned before) as foster parents for I think about 21 kids! They have been with these children since they were babies, and most of the kids are now almost out of the house. The home is called Lotus Buds. They are actually looking for a new couple to commit to 17 years and they are going to start the whole program again...check out their website!

But anyway, it was so refreshing to see this community of believers! We have missed our home church sooooooo much, and have missed the fellowship. Everyone was really friendly, we even got asked out for lunch! Lunch was great, Rachel ended up playing with 2 Sri Lankan kids, & their parents ended up buying Rachel an ice cream. But I was able to exchange numbers with the mom...they actually are trying to come to America in 6 months, they are just waiting for their paperwork. So for me today has been really nice. I've been getting a little lonely, so making some friends has been an answer to prayer.

Reports are still not any better with the fighting up north. There was an incident with a grenade being thrown into a Catholic church, where a bunch of people were hiding. It was said to have been thrown by the government military!? Crazy! We'll keep you posted.

In the News Today

I don't know if any of you have read what has been going on in Sri Lanka, but wanted to update you on the situation over here. I am pasting some of an article I found on Yahoo News....


Bus blast kills 64, Sri Lanka hits back with air, sea and land attacks
Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels blew up a packed bus, killing 64 passengers, including 15 children, in the deadliest attack on civilians in Sri Lanka for 10 years, the military said.

The government hit back at suspected Tamil Tiger positions across the island's embattled northeast using supersonic jets, naval gunboats and artillery, military spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe said in Colombo.

The bus crowded with villagers was heading to this village of Kebitigollewa, in the ethnic Sinhalese North-Central province, when it was hit by two powerful blasts on Thursday around four kilometres (2.5 miles) from the town.

Survivors said about 160 to 170 passengers had been travelling in the bus meant for 60 passengers when the Claymore mines exploded, toppling the vehicle and sending it crashing along the roadway.

The attack was the worst on civilians since the July 1996 bombing of a train in the capital Colombo which killed 70 people. The military blamed Thursday's bombing on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

"The air, sea and ground attacks were carried out as a deterrent," Samarasinghe said in Colombo, 260 kilometres (162 miles) south of here. "We have taken known LTTE targets."

The rebels denied involvement and said the blast was aimed at discrediting them.
...
"This is not a declaration of war but an act of terrorism. As far as the peace process and the ceasefire agreement are concerned, they are still on, but we have to re-look at it seriously in a proper context," Rambukwella said, referring to a shaky truce in place since 2002.

The separatists also condemned the blast.

"The LTTE condemns this attack on the civilian bus," they said in a statement. "Directly targeting civilians, as the Kebitigollewa Claymore attack has, cannot be justified under any circumstances."

A Finnish representative of the Nordic observer mission said the blast was retaliation by the Tigers for recent government attacks.

"This is a retaliation for the mine attacks that killed a number of people in the zones controlled by the (rebel) Tamils. It seems that the Tamil Tigers wanted to avenge these acts with a bigger attack," Jouni Suninen, the head of the regional office of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in Vavuniya, told Finnish news agency STT.

The spiralling violence renewed fears that the island is sliding back to full-scale war after peace broker Norway last week failed to arrange a face-to-face meeting between Colombo and the LTTE.

A spate of recent bomb attacks have targeted security forces as well as civilians and have been officially blamed on the guerrillas, who are waging a campaign for independence.

A surge in violence has left at least 760 people killed since December, according to official figures.

I am not putting this up to scare anyone. Colombo is quite safe, and Jesse & I don't feel at all in harms way. I am putting it up to let you know what people here are dealing with. This country desperately needs prayer. Please join us in praying for this situation, for the families that have lost loved ones, both the victims on the bus, and also the victims that have now been killed b/c of the air strikes from the government. There have been tries of peace talks, but they have failed thus far. The other thing that Jesse has noticed is that with the possibility of a war people here are kind of in a state of limbo. It is hard for people to really talk to Jesse about some issues, b/c there might be a much more immediate problem to have to deal with (the war) than the things Jesse is trying to work on. We are keeping close tabs to what is going on here, and will keep you all updated.

Save Lanka Kids

Yesterday, Rachel & I got to go along with Jesse to visit a local NGO (non-government organization). It is an amazing Christian organization, which has a lot of smaller programs underneath them. The organizations name is Community Concern Society. (I'm putting their link on the right) It was started by this Sri Lankan woman & an American man (husband & wife). In fact the man is from Lincoln, Nebraska, which Jesse loves. Anyways, their daughter runs one fraction of the organization called Save Lanka Kids. So we were able to go with her to check out what they all do. They are about 15 minutes south of where we are, and they mainly work in the slums...right off the beach.

It was so neat to see how much this organization is doing. From youth meetings, child sponsorship, "catch up" school, medical center, drug abuse meetings, & even a weight lifting outreach. This area was also affected by the tsunami, so they have added even more programs, to try to help the people that lost everything. There also might be a possibility that I might be able to help in some way as well. She mentioned that their preschool teacher was leaving in July, so that I could fill in there, but I've never taught, & I have no idea what I would be doing, but we'll see. We will be getting together with her again soon, & hopefully there might be a way in which I could help out.

Playground

Since Rachel has been doing such a great job on her potty training, she earned a trip to the playground. There is a playground only a couple of blocks from our place, but it is only open from 4-6pm. So we haven't had a chance to go yet. It was actually a quite large playground, and there were a lot of children there. They had all the fun equipment that we used to play on as kids (since now they have taken all those out in the U.S. b/c supposedly they are unsafe).

Again, we got a lot of stares, but mostly with smiles as well. One man came up with 2 boys (one his, the other his brother's son), and tried to start a conversation up with us. He was very nice, but his English wasn't great, and obviously we are terrible at Sinhalese, so it was a little hard to communicate. We did get that his wife actually lives in Dubai and works as a house maid, while him & his 3 year old son stay here. We hear that happens a lot. One spouse ends up leaving to make more money & sends it home, but rarely ever ends up coming back. Very sad. He ended up buying Rachel an ice cream cone; it was very sweet for him to do that. Please pray for him & his family. You could tell he missed his wife very much. I hope we run into him again.

Trip to the Zoo

Rachel and I went to the zoo today. It was a hot day today, but it was good to get out. The zoo was actually really nice. Of course b/c we are not locals we had to pay 10 times what the locals pay to get in, but it was still worth it. Rachel loved the Jaguars, we had to watch them for about 20 minutes. Most of the exhibits were really nice. But the elephants were all just changed up in a row...pretty sad.

Today was weird though, b/c I think that there were more pictures taken of Rachel and I then there were being taken of the animals. You see people are intrigued by Rachel. They often see white adults, but they don't usually see many white children. So wherever we go, Rachel gets her cheeks pinched, and everyone crowds around her to touch her. But it seemed much worse at the zoo today. I was even asked to pose with a family for a picture. Just seems kind of weird...why would they want a picture of me? But overall it was fun, & Rachel had a good time playing with some kids at the zoo playground.

Dagoba

On our last afternoon in Unawatuna, we climbed up a hill to see a famous Dagoba (Buddhist temple). The views were amazing. The sunset would have been nice too, but there were too many clouds.


Here's a family picture...not a great one, but it will have to do.

Sea Turtles

Our first day in Unawatuna, ended up not being the nicest. It kept raining on and off, and was pretty cool & cloudy, so we had to stay inside. Which you can see Rachel was getting pretty bored...

So we heard about a sea turtle hatchery that we could go to. Needless to say Rachel loved it. Especially looking at the babies. It was great that we could hold them too.

Unawatuna

Here we are all in a car on our way from Matara to Unawatuna. (a very small car)

This is a veiw of Unawatuna. This is a big tourist area for Europeans to come. Since it is the beginning of monsoon season, it wasn't very busy. & you can see how they build right up to the ocean...not much room for the beach.

We did have a great time here though. Rachel didn't care much for the ocean, but our place had a pool as well so we hung out there most of the time.

Ants, Ants, Ants

The Brown's Beach Hotel in Matara...our travel book said that this is the nicest place in Matara...I don't recommend Matara for a vacation.

We have come to learn there are ants everywhere. Even at our place in Colombo, you can't leave anything out for more than 5 minutes or there will be ants all over it. Even on the counter. Our room at Brown's Beach was covered in them. This picture is of our bathroom sink. Gross!

Jesse accidentaly left his pants on the floor that night. They had found where he had once kept a package of crackers.

Needless to say Matara wasn't the nicest place to stay, but we did get to meet with a local organization that works with women and their rights, especially concerning domestic abuse.

Our Weekend South

This past weekend we went down south. Jesse had some meetings and I went along for the beach. : ) We took a 5 hour bus down (only cost us $1.45), it was amazing to see the coast, especially since we could still see a lot of the damage that the tsunami caused. I divide our trip up a little and post pictures. But we had a great time, but it was nice to get back to Colombo where we knew a little more where everything is.

We Have Internet...for real this time!

YEA! Finally after being on the phone with tech guys & returning the modem & 7 days...we have internet at home! ~thanks for your prayers! I can't tell you how happy I am about this. I haven't tried our vonage phone yet, but will try to have it hooked up tonight, so you all should be able to call our virginia number (703-435-3297) to get a hold of us...hopefully.

We have internet....well almost

Okay, so we supposedly have internet. But we can't seem to get it to work. So we have been on the phone with the internet company all day, but nothing has been resolved. And just like in America you get the run around. We were first told that someone was going to come out and help set it up, but then tonight were told that they never send anyone out.... so I guess we will see.

We are heading south this weekend. This weekend is our 6th wedding anniversary, so we thought we would take a little trip. Jesse has some meetings to go to on Friday and Monday, but other then that he will be free. The beaches are supposed to be really nice down there, so I am excited about snorkeling, and just relaxing a little.

But all that to say that it looks like it will be at least 5 more days before anything else happens with the internet. Please pray that this can all be worked out on Tuesday when we get back, and that we also can figure out a way to make our vonage system work (our 703 number)...b/c right now with the modem they gave us we are not sure how it will work. We miss you all lots! & I can't wait till I can stay in better touch with everyone.

Mac & Cheese

Rachel eating mac & cheese after having to wait a long 12 days! Pure Joy!