March update

Well this month has been rather strenuous...needed a lot of perseverance and patience...have been learning to be humble, learning to share the task....learning to trust God more, and know that he has all under control, and though I may not know what is happening...He does, I must just be faithful and trust that He controlling the situation!

Well, I started my work in the East. In this country, flexibility is of the essence, if you don't have flexibility..frustration is the product...and a lot of it! For example:I told you in the last update that I was going to teach in Unnichchai, and not the nursery school in the next village...in fact in my head...I didn't actually want to teach in the nursery..it seemed to be rather more... tough...and not so much my cup of tea...turns out...that after all the talk...all the planning, they told me that I was teaching in the nursery school in the village of Nelikarduh!! I am not teaching at all in Unnichchai in fact! I live in the next village during the week, which is actually just round the corner, it's called Neliour.

I also was to have a translator and a teacher...I established this fact with the people when I threatened to call the work off for a couple of months to learn Tamil so as to communicate with the people..and hence share the gospel....turns out...that the girl who comes with me....Tavedgini, well she is not a translator...in fact, she can't really speak any English! At first this was a great great frustration, I would sit in people's houses...including the host house, and not be able to understand anything...not be able to be kind with words...not be able to have the slightest conversation and hence appear a little pompous, just sitting, eating, going to work, coming back and eating and sleeping and that is about it! The girl on the other hand was having nice conversations and building up a friendship...which I was a little envious of!! This girl actually came from a very strong Hindu household, she only got saved last September...but she said that she committed herself to this area that we are working in, but no one was going...so when I turned up..she kept her commitment, and she came! She is nice, she helps me a lot with everything...a little less now that she knows i can am capable of doing some simple tasks..but she is always ready to jump up and take my plate or cup when I have finished eating...! we don't fight because neither of us speak the same language, and we don't really expect anything from each other because we don't know each other either...so it's quite good in a way really, we just concentrate on our same desire to see the people come to God.

Anyway..at the beginning each of the first 2 weeks, it was a little bit of a struggle, teaching nursery..which I never really wanted to do...ever...and not being able to talk to anyone except when I was trying to teach them...but then people started to be more friendly to us...inviting us to their houses, in fact they all talk together about who is going to cook for us each day before we come! We were told that they find it an honour, the fact that we are there and we are there to teach the children, to give our time and live like them and with them, they find it rather unbelievable, as they have never been particularly treated like that ever! So, whilst we are in the houses and I use up all the Tamil that I know in the first few seconds...and smile stupidly, and eat the food, the girl with me chats and chats away...at first i had no idea what she was talking about...but sometimes there was quite a crowd...and they would all listen intently, and then after i understood that she was talking about Jesus and stuff to them, so my...'quiet time' i would pray...and it changed my mindset..I realized that what i had on my heart to do was to teach English as a way to share the gospel...but it wasn't specified that i would be doing all of that myself! So, i stopped seeing the girl as a failed translator....but as my partner in the work, i do my bit, that is the teaching english and she does her bit once we are in the peoples houses and stuff...it works great...in fact we have had 7 people come to Jesus...actually I must say...that I didnt actually know about it until the pastor in Batticaloa told me when i asked him what the girl had told him about the people and stuff when we had left the place!! So that was a nice and encouraging way to finish the month!

I live in quite a nice house, with a 28 year old lady with 2 daughters...13 and 8...she is a devout Hindu, but lets us stay there, we are allowed to read the bible but not to pray in a shouting way in her house...fair enough! We sleep on the floor, there is no running water, but a well in the middle of the field...there is no electricity, but this last week we learned that it's coming in April!!! So that will mean no more teaching on the floor around the little candle in the heat!

At first, well it was arranged that i would teach in the nursery, there are 29 children,...in the afternoon, after lunch because of the heat and I was quite tired from the journey, i would have a nap, when i opened my eyes, there were all these little children, and not so little, waiting with their little notebooks and pens, for me to give them a lesson! in fact they came in steady streams every afternoon!! I like teaching the older ones and playing with them, being silly! In fact, one afternoon, the lady of the house had about 20 visitors, men and women whilst I was playing a kind of volleyball with the kids. The men and women were all sitting in a civilized way, watching the weird foreign girl screaming...anyway...some of the women got up to go and wash their hands...on their way back the ball got hit in their direction....I can't really express how funny and satisfying it was for me to watch those ladies, who never really play anymore, jump into action, grab the ball and start playing with us...I say with us...but it wasn't really, some of my kids left coz they were never getting the ball anymore!!

Relationships have now formed....these last 2 weeks have been for me really enjoyable...I like it...I organized a little chicken party this past Tuesday for nearly 30 people...it was a nice time...We are now integrated into the society...and even though they are Hindu, and know that we are Christian, because of the fact that we are helping the children, and that we are not putting extra divides between us and them, they accept us....well nearly all of them..of course there are those who do not...but the majority do, so that is a good start!

We have set the foundations this month, and hope that lots will be built upon them, and that more people come to God, including the lady where we live...her husband left her for a lady just around the corner...this has caused a divide in the village, both parties are open to the girl and I but it's now a matter of not showing partiality...even unconsciously between the two sides, even though we live with this woman.....I didn't actually get the whole story about this right away...but one lunch time we were invited into a new house...and after it was explained to me that that was where the husband had gone! the lady where we live is able to laugh a little about it...so that is good but forgiveness from both parties is needed, and I pray that that will happen one day..

Extra stuff..

-Youth group has been cancelled now, they thought it wasn't worth the trouble as not many are coming, so they will be going to the adult youth group from now on...

-A man got killed by an elephant just behind the village we are staying in the East...!

-Have now been renting my little place for a year today!

-Zoe my friend from Wales is coming this week for a few months!! so exciting!

-April is holiday from schools...so...going to rest and go south to Galle, and try and get my papers...and maybe a trip to Nuwara Eliya..to the cold!!

-8^th is the government elections