Back home

I"m back in Los Angeles after a rewarding trip to Sri Lanka. The entire trip went well, and I know that is because of your prayers. Now, just have to recover from jet lag! Pictured is the graduating class in Sri Lanka. We were blessed to be there for their graduation, to meet these pastors who have met together for the last two years growing in their leadership capacity.

Graduation and Sunday Worship in Colombo

Saturday night and Sunday were a great end to my week here in Colombo. Saturday night we had the graduation of the Sri Lankan pastors who have completed our two year leadership development program. It was a fun celebration, complete with traditional Sri Lankan drums and dances. I'll get you pictures later after I get copies from the official photographer. I enjoyed getting to meet each of the graduates and hand them their certificates.

Sunday morning we went to worship at Kithu Sevana Church, where Adrian is the pastor. I love to worship in another country and culture. It is always a rich experience. Kithu Sevana was no exception! After church, Manori, who was on my team at Lausanne, showed a few of us around town. We had a great time.

From the Farm to Colombo

It has been a very insightful week. For the last several days we have been on the church campground of our leader here in Sri Lanka, Adrian De Visser. The call it "the Farm" but it's real name is Ape Kadela (which means "the nest"). It is an incredible place. First, it houses their orphanage. They have 45 wonderful children--about half boys and half girls. They range from newborn to early teenager. They love Adrian and his wife Ophelia. Whenever they are staying out at the farm, each school day morning they come to the guest house around 6 AM and line up at Adrian's door to be "blessed" before they go to school (pictured is the guest house one afternoon. Adrian is on the right with some of the kids). They love him to bless them. He does, putting his hand on each child's head and giving a short blessing to them. It is a very touching site (my room was right next to Adrian's which is why I was 'blessed' to watch the ritual).

They want the orphanage to become sustainable within the next 2 - 5 years. So they are doing lots of things toward that end. First, they have cows, pigs, and chickens that they raise and sell their products. Second, they have a flower garden where they grow plants to export. Currently they are building out the church camp capacity to be able to host groups of 200 people. The profit from hosting the camps will go back into the orphanage. They have lots of other creative income sources including making and selling their own jam and yogurt.

Of course, we were there just to have our leadership meetings. It was the perfect retreat setting to do that. Seven of us spent our time planning our upcoming March Summit (will be in Vietnam) and working on opening a new country. Now we have just arrived back in Colombo, the capital, for the graduation ceremony of our leadership class that has just finished their two year program in Sri Lanka.

Please pray for safe travels as I start back home tomorrow.

Layover in Bangkok

Just a quick update to let you know that I'm in Bangkok on my layover en-route to Sri Lanka. The good news is that Thailand is just an hour and a half off of Sri Lanka time. So my 24 hours here hopefully gives my body a chance to adjust to the right time zone. I'm at the airport hotel and spending as much time outside as I can to get the sunlight. It is amazing how helpful the sun is to adjusting your body to the right time zone. I find if I can get lots of sunshine, I do better with jet lag.

The weather here is amazingly pleasant. I'm used to Bangkok being pretty hot and humid. Today it feels like the low 70's with a nice breeze blowing.

Specific prayer requests:

• I'm taking an anti-malarial drug for Sri Lanka. Pray my body does well with it. It is the same one Lori and I used in South Africa with no problems.
• Health as I travel. It is very apparent it is the cold/flu season on the airplanes!
• Rest as I travel all night tonight to get to my final destination in Sri Lanka. My plane leave Bangkod around 10:45 PM local time and gets into Sri Lanka just after midnight local time. Then I have a long drive out to the church camp where we will be meeting.

Off to Sri Lanka

Hi Everyone,

I'm off to Sri Lanka in just a few hours. Thanks for your prayers. This is my first trip to Sri Lanka, so I'm looking forward to seeing the ministry context there. It is one of those unusual countries that is has a time zone off by half an hour. So it is 13.5 hours ahead of Los Angeles. That can be confusing!