February 10 th update....

Well the 4^th February here was independence Day here, from the British! There were big ceremonies etc....it was a national holiday....well I didn't actually get the holiday as it was the day that I opened the Youth Group! It went well, in the end there were only 10 youth, but it was really fun. We had a worship time first, then I talked for a while, just to introduce the whole youth group thing, the aims, and a little bit on unity... and then we had some big games, and then we had lunch together. The group is really nice and they are well behaved...well...some were mischievous during the games...but I had my eyes open, and they responded to my authority which is a good thing!! So that has started that adventure off!!

On the 29^th January I was reading the newspaper...and fell on an article talking about “Unethical Conversions”. It is actually the all Ceylon Congress' President who handed over a report of an investigation that was done into the conversions of Buddhists into other religions by unethical means. Here are a few quotes from the article..”according to their findings over 400 NGO's operating in the country are responsible for unethical conversions. 'Several Christian fundamentalist and evangelical groups have bee carrying out these conversions mainly in poverty stricken villages where people are easy prey for their conversion methods such as giving food items and by promising them to heal their wounds or to cure them with various religious rituals.....a considerable number of Tamil speaking people have become their victims”

This Buddhist group is trying to pass a law prohibiting conversions from Buddhism into any other religio

n...here mainly Christianity is targeted though....some say that the bill won't be passed and the president will say no, so that he will get all the Christian votes,...

If not the work at the school is still going really well, I still love it! But now there is only one teacher and I, the other left last week, so now there really is a lot of work to do, we have on average 16 children pe

r class, so we are nearly always on our feet, but there will be a teacher who will come in on Monday's and help, but the rest of the time it will only be the two of us.

Yesterday I had the 'privilege' of sitting through a three and a half hour cricket match in

the hot heat of Sri Lanka....I was sad not to be able to participate other than clap and look enthusiastic! I was a church match, and then right after I went to my first ladies meeting where I found out there is yet more that I will have to do, and more meetings to go to...though I am actually thinking of a way not to have to go!! I have realized that I can't do everything, well I knew that, but I have the right not to have to do everything, and that I should choose the most important and do them well, and not just doing it because someone said I have to, and that I feel guilty not doing it! But as well as the ladies meeting I also found out I am to go to the young adults group which is right after the service on Sundays too, a few times in the month!! So,....busy busy!!!!!!!!