The Mission Matters
The Third Bible Truth Study Day
When
the Negombo News 11 went to print
we were just about to embark on the third Bible Truth Study Day (BTSD).
It
was a successful day and again those who attended indicated that they want
“more of the same”. The program
comprised of two presentations prior to lunch; the first one focussed on
baptism, what it represents and its importance. The second session was spent looking at Israel and the Middle
East in Bible prophecy. After
lunch there were a further two interactive sessions. Like the last BTSD
again there was a session “What does it mean to be a Christian?” and the
issues considered were associated with such things as military service,
politics and our calling to be “strangers and pilgrims”. The other
afternoon session had everyone looking at a selection of verses from the Old
and New Testaments that tell of the death state.
We
thought we would have approximately 30 people here on Saturday and about 15
staying overnight and that we would somehow have to accommodate them in the
11 beds that we have. We also
estimated that we would have to dish up approx 75 meals and that excluded
Saturday night’s dinner for fifteen.
Try preparing 75 meals when the two biggest pots you have each
hold ten cups! Dorothy hit the
panic button – “what to do?” as it would be expressed by an Indian.
So
we asked Rosemary (who lives nearby and who is a good cook – we had a meal
at her place about a week earlier) if she would be interested in taking a
paid catering job. Rosemary
baulked at the thought of it because of the numbers involved—and she said,
“in any case, I’m coming!” So
she took me (D) around to a shop near her house (about 10 minute’s walk
from ours) and introduced me to the owner.
He runs a little takeaway food/restaurant business (Ken’s sister
Elisabeth has named the business “Curry in a Hurry”) and he is a
wonderfully obliging man. He agreed to provide breakfast and lunches for Saturday
and Sunday for the numbers we believed were coming.
The breakfasts
were string hoppers and the accompanying side dishes (coconut sambol –
grated coconut with lots of spices added; coconut gravy – with lots of
spices added; potato/onion chutney – with lots of spices and “mouldy
fish” added). Lunch was
comprised of ... yep … rice and curry; a fish curry with lots of spices
added, two vegetable curries with lots of spices added and loads of rice
with lots of…..ooops, no that was simply plain.
Roy Taylor, you’d LOVE it!!! J
I
also ordered a prawn curry for nine people for Friday night’s tea thinking
that five members of our Nuwara Eliya family and one other would be here
then. We found out late on
Friday that only four of the six would be coming but not arriving until
Saturday am; so three of us (ourselves and Phil King) sat down to a prawn
curry and polished off 45 small/medium prawns between the three of us! It was delicious and cost Rs 270 (approx $4.50).
I bet it’s a while since you folks at home ate a prawn meal for
just Au$1.50!!! The shop is near the PO where we clear the mail
about three times a week so some of our future meals will come from there.
At last a good takeaway food option J. Perhaps one meal a week.
It’ll save cooking in the mozzie infested, sweat box of a
kitchen and it’ll be cheap and healthy.
All we have to do is take some pots/containers with us for filling.
Yippee J (In fact he’s now had his second lot of business from us
– Sunday 22 June – lunch for seven for the grand total of Rs 250
[$4.00]. Tuna curry and two veg
dishes; all we had to do was cook the rice.)
Well
the serves provided for the Bible Truth Bible Study day were very generous
and as we were two people short for breakfast on the Saturday – there was
lots of food left over (and it meant two beds wouldn’t be needed for that
evening). Then we had two phone
calls which amounted to a further seven people not coming for lunch and a
further five beds not needed that evening.
Then some of the other people who had either said they were coming or
had not replied didn’t turn up. In
addition to all that we were also one further person down as Phil was
included in the catering numbers and he was sick with a fever for 48 hours
and not eating. (That was a
REAL shame…..Phil could have eaten enough for 4 people!!)
So suddenly there were only about 12 people for lunch but a
lunch order for 30! There was
also a breakfast order for 15 for Sunday and about the same number for
lunch. Fortunately Mr “Curry
in a Hurry” was really nice about it all and let us cancel Sunday’s
orders at Saturday lunchtime. He
doesn’t normally open his business on Sundays so he had especially bought
in extra supplies on Saturday.
You
may well ask why don’t we under cater and just get in more food at the
last minute if we need it. The BTSDs
are held on Poya Days when people are most likely to be available to come
but most businesses are closed you can’t just dash out and buy a couple of
extra curries like you would dash out and buy extra chicken and chips at
home.
The
meals cost Rs 45 per head for breakfast (approx 75c) and Rs 50 per head for
lunch (approx 85c). Pretty good
huh? And excellent quality and
an overwhelming quantity.
The
Next Mail Out
We
continue to “work” the database, with the people on it divided into four
categories. The first two
groups are the keenest, they regularly respond to the offers we make and are
active in others ways, attending programs, having us visit them to discuss
Bible topics, undertaking the Correspondence Course, etc.
The third group show a lesser degree of interest but do respond.
The last group are those whom we have categorised as “inactive”.
We do continue to make contact with those in this group but, as can
be anticipated, less frequently; and they do not respond to our offers.
We
have just undertaken a further Bible literature offer to the third group of
approximately 120 people and are now busy replying to their literature
requests. They get both the
booklet they have requested and a personalised letter.
We’ve Been Nowhere!
Our
commitments over the last couple of weeks have kept us Negombo based.
Since our visit to the hill country (returning to Negombo on 1st
June) we’ve been no further afield than Colombo, and that only once.
It is likely that we will do one more hill country trip during the
second half of July before heading to India.
The next Bible Truth Study Day also falls on a weekend (Sunday 13th
July) so it will probably again involve an extended program including
activities on the Saturday and we will busy here in Negombo getting ready in
the week or so leading up to it.
Our
visit to Colombo and surrounding suburbs has been for the purposes of
visiting contacts, seeing the doctor in regard to Dorothy’s shoulder,
finalising our flights from SL to Singapore and Singapore to Oz, visiting
Bible House looking for resource materials we need, etc
The Translation Project
The
translation of a number of the booklets which address a variety of Bible
topics is progressing slowly. We
now have a good range of booklets that have been translated from English
into Sinhala and typeset. That was
the easy bit for us. All we had
to do was give a copy of the original booklets to Bro Indra who took them
home and week by week came back with a number of booklets translated into
Sinhala. We then took these to a local business and had them
typeset. More remain to be
typeset but we’ve put that “on hold” for now.
However the next bit is harder.
What
comes next?
i.
Checking the typeset document against the original booklet.
Sounds easy but what a job! Every
Tuesday morning and on some Thursdays, Ken, Vernon and Dunstan painstakingly
work their way through the booklets sentence by sentence.
Most of the translation (probably about 80%) is fine, but the last
20% is a challenge to say the least. At
times it is because the translator has missed or misunderstood a passage.
On other occasions it is because the nuances of English. A sentence may be written in the double negative or an idiom
may have been used which is meaningless in another language or culture.
Many English words have two meanings and that leads to all sorts of
odd results. Suggested
amendments are proposed and bit by bit the required amendments/corrections
are identified and handwritten edits are made to the text.
Our Sinhala “experts” even try on telling the booklet writer,
what they think he SHOULD have said and so want to change what he did say!!
So that takes just a lot of time and even a great deal more,
patience.
ii.
The typesetter makes the required amendments.
iii.
The amended document is proof-read to ensure that all the corrections
are as they ought to be.
iv.
Quotes are sought from several printers for the final layout and
printing of the Sinhala version.
v.
The printer prepares the document to the print ready stage.
vi.
The print-ready proof is
again checked by Sinhala
literate people to ensure that there are no typos, omissions etc and then
…
vii.
The document is printed – at long last.
Well,
we think these are the only steps – we hope nothing else will crop up in
the process. If it does we’ll
be finding out the hard way L Thankfully for our
first booklet (the Christadelphian Office, “Christ is Coming”) we’ve
almost completed stage i!! God
willing, we hope to have it running off the presses just as we’re leaving
here to return to Australia for our home break.
And
of course neither of us can do this work by ourselves; it cannot progress
without the input of Sinhala literate people.
We
are also hoping that there will be progress in the Tamil translation work
over the next few months. The
Tamil translation work proposed to be undertaken here will be organised in
conjunction with the Tamil translation work taking place in India.
There will be very little involvement by us other than managing
the electronic transfer of translated documents to Bro Tim Galbraith in
Hyderabad. Tim will co-ordinate
the proof-reading, editing and printing process.
Tamil is spoken in both countries and it would appear that there is
little or no difference between the two countries in the written language.
A
recent newspaper article indicated that about 25% of the SL population is
English speaking/literate. So
if we want to assist any of the other 75% of the population in coming to
hear of and understand God’s Word then this translation program is a very
important. Thankfully both
Sinhala and Tamil Bibles are readily available so that is one bridge that we
don’t have to cross.
How Does the
“Other Half” Live?
SL, probably like most of the world’s developing
countries, has a marked contrast between rich and poor – but the poor are
poorer than in the west and there is no social welfare system to support
them. We’ve been into some
homes where the people are obviously very poor and there is very little
space and no “extras” – every cent is spent on survival.
We also been into homes which are quite comfortable though basic when
compared to the lavishness of the west.
The furnishings and décor are not nearly as extensive or of the
quality we would normally find at home but it is a simpler life rather than
a hard life. Most of these
“middle class” families have one living area, sleep several people in
each bedroom and/or in the one bed (and at times the living room is also the
bedroom), they have a fairly basic kitchen with few or no mod cons; some
have gas cooker top/burners and/or a fridge.
They have one very basic bathroom (toilet and hand basin – they may
or may not have a shower; none that we are aware of have hot water
(including ourselves) and many have to collect their water from a hand
operated pump or well. We have
not seen a washing machine in anyone’s house at this point, so ours with
its Italian made machine (our landlady’s husband has worked in Italy) is a
real blessing.
On the other hand some of the homes we walk past are
obviously very expensive and probably beautifully furnished etc.
There is one house cum mansion currently under construction not far
from where we live. It’s H…U…G…E… and looks like it’s been
designed by Rose Hancock!
Stocking the
Pantry for a Month
Recently we saw an itemised shopping list for a
family of six for a month. It
bears no similarity whatsoever to ours.
Some of the goodies
itemised are 20 kg rice (white), 10 kg rice (red), 15 kg flour, 7.5 kg sugar
(Sri Lankans and Indians have an exceptionally sweet tooth), 2 kg salt,
500 g margarine … and the most astounding of all … 1 kg chilli powder! This family lives very frugally – there are never any
luxuries – they live on the edge; so imagine how much rice, sugar, salt,
flour and chilli powder “wealthy” families buy!
Now 30 kg sounds like a lot of rice but it amounts to
1 kg a day between six people – and it is their staple food.
Some Indians and Sri Lankans consider that they haven’t really had
a meal if they haven’t had rice.
Take
up your bed, table and chairs and walk.
Recently
we saw a chappie transporting a double bed from “a” to “b”.
It was only the timber frame (bed head, base [timber slats] and
foot). He was carrying it all
by himself! He had a piece
of timber on his shoulder that would have been about the same length as the
bed. There were ropes tied from
the bed head and foot to either end of the piece of timber. So he was
trotting down the street in his lungi and bare feet with the timber slung
over his shoulder and the bed suspended from the timber.
Another sight we see fairly often is men carrying table and chairs.
They carry a table up side down on their heads and have the chairs
stacked on the (underside of the) table top.
We’ve seen these sights a few times now and we also see all sorts
of other odd bits of furniture and household goodies carried in a similar
manner.
Dorothy
blinds the ‘tuk tuk’ driver
A
couple of weeks back we bought a pedestal fan but I (D) chose to bring it
home in a tuk-tuk rather than balancing it on my head. I had a number of items including the pedestal fan and I
was trying to keep hold of everything so that nothing would fall out as we
were zooming along on the bumpy roads.
The fan had a great big plastic bag on its “head” and I was
hanging on to the plastic to ensure that it wouldn’t get sucked off in the
breeze. I had to momentarily
let go of the bag to secure my day pack and when I looked up next, the
plastic bag had taken off and was wrapped around the head of the tuk-tuk
driver! It looked very funny.
I don’t know how much of his face was covered but it was a
fair size bag J.
As we approached
the railway crossing the train was going through and the tuk-tuk driver made
his way to the front of the waiting traffic – they all push in – the
smaller the vehicle the further forward it can get.
We were pretty well to the front of the waiting traffic and the
gates lifted and everything started moving forward. We stopped between two buses which were level with one
another but at an angle so that they almost formed a “v”.
The tuk-tuk driver decided that if he “flattened it” he could
probably squeeze through the “v”and not get stuck behind these enormous
smelly beasts. And he was right
– we made it through without being squashed – but JUST!
It’s
not unusual to be travelling along in a tuk-tuk and grind to a stand still
as it runs out of petrol. All
the drivers carry a coke bottle or similar with a litre of fuel and it’s
soon back in action.
The Tool-less
Tradesman
A
week or so ago our main (the internet connected) computer “crashed” –
the one with ALL the Mission records on it.
We called for a technician but none were available for 24 hours so we
spent our time worrying that we might have lost all our records.
Fortunately there has been no damage to either the workings of the
computer or the information we have on it; it’d be a disaster if we lost
it. We do keep information
backed-up on floppy discs and after the fright we got we’ll be a bit more
diligent about a weekly back-up.
When
the technician turned up he had a quick look at the computer and then
asked Ken for “this and that” including surgical spirits – something
he must think is kept in every household or business.
Guess it’s okay if you’re fixing the computer at the doctor’s
surgery/consulting rooms. He
wasn’t carrying any tools of his own!
Luckily we were able to meet his needs – but only just, our “tool
box” is pretty light on.
There
has been an ongoing spate of troubles with the main computer and it has been
shutting itself down every couple of days and sending us frightening
messages like “a fatal error has occurred”.
It drives us mad and fills us with fear and trepidation. So far each of the “fatalities” have been short term and
once we log back in it seems to right itself.
The
IT technician came as a result of our call to our internet provider, so
presumably he’s not a self-appointed technician but is appropriately
qualified and knows what he’s doing.
But we couldn’t believe our eyes when he again turned up on the
doorstep a week later to repair one of our air-conditioning units.
He’s either related to or a friend of our landlady and he’s the
one she called on to show the AC technician what to fix. Thankfully his colleagues on that occasion brought their
tools for this visit.
The Rice-less
Restaurant
Recently
we went out for tea to Dephani’s; one of the local little guest-houses
(quite a few of the short term fieldworkers will be familiar with this
venue). We eat out every so
often when cooking tea just looks too hard.
This particular week’s cooking was hard as we had missed the fruit
and veg market on the Saturday because of the Bible Truth Study Day and then
when we went to the supermarket on the Monday evening the vegetables there
were a disgrace (and were all week). Well,
Ken ordered sweet and sour prawns with rice only to be told they had no
rice! It’s a bit like an
Italian restaurant not having any pasta!
A Burst
Shopping Bag
A
couple of weeks ago we were a couple of kms on the south side of Colombo
travelling along one of the busiest roads.
We passed a tuk-tuk that had stopped in the middle of the traffic.
The driver and passenger were busy picking up either chicken pieces
or fish and the rest of the traffic was swerving in an attempt to miss the
stationary tuk-tuk, the people picking up the food and the food itself.
A plastic bag had fallen out and split open and the contents -
chicken/fish pieces - were lying on the road.
Thankfully we weren’t going to their place for dinner that evening!
What Next?
Well
it’s now only three months and we will be due to return home; our return
ticket has us landing at Tullamarine at about 5.30am on September 29th.
Many of you will have already heard on the grapevine or noticed the
“news” that Cathie has already posted to the web site that we are
intending to undertake a further 12 month stint here in SL.
It’s been a very tough decision as we both feel that we have
commitments in both places. We’ve
been in quite a quandary. There are
family and friends whom we would dearly love to be with at home and towards
whom we have varying degrees of responsibility.
Then there are those whom we have to come to know both here and
in India. Many are desperate
for support and do not have the privileges that we have in Oz, particularly
in the context of those of you who are reading this who are Christadelphians
and enjoy the support of many, many brothers and sisters who live nearby.
There’s been lots of tears shed (especially by Dorothy but with Ken
not far behind) and much prayerful discussion before the agonising decision
was made. We had found
ourselves feeling that no matter which choice we had made it would have felt
like we’d made the wrong decision. And yes,
we have wondered if we’ve made the “right” decision but we guess as we
get used to the concept that the focus will change from what we are going to
miss to what we can do and will experience.
In
the meantime we are due to head back to India, departing here on 2 August.
That’s when our current SL visas expire.
We’ll stay in India for three weeks and return to SL on 26 August.
That will mean we are given a one month free visa on re-entry to SL.
We leave SL and head to Singapore on 25 September where we have a
three-night stop-over before we head for home.
The feeling
of “have we made the right decision” was heightened about five days
after committing ourselves to staying on.
One of the horrid creatures which visits our ceiling for a “toilet
stop” dropped in again and struck twice on the one evening.
There was not only the yucky mess to clean up but also a pongy
bedroom; the pong didn’t go away for two days.
This was after weeks and weeks of the critter not having been around.
Perhaps if it had struck during the previous week when we were making
our decision then the outcome may have been different!
It’s left its calling card once or twice more since L.
Dorothy’s Shoulder
Dorothy
saw the doctor again on 19th June and he, Dr Dhillon, still seems
happy with the SLOW improvement her shoulder is making.
He did warn us at the beginning that its healing would be
S…L…O…W… and he’s certainly been right about that.
It was early February when it first gave trouble and it’s still got
a way to go. Dr Dhillon’s
now taken Dorothy off all oral medication (anti-inflammatories) and instead
prescribed an anti-inflammatory cream to run into her shoulder.
He didn’t want her to have the oral stuff for long as it can be a
bit rough on the stomach and kidneys. Dorothy
has to continue with the heat packs and rub the ointment in immediately
after – twice a day for two weeks and then once a day for two weeks and
we’ll see how it is after that. He’s
also said that he can refer Dorothy to a doctor in Melbourne (Alfred
Hospital) whom she can see for a day procedure if necessary once we’re
back home.
This
middle age (heading towards old age) business is no fun at all!
Baring it ALL
The
26-month old twin boys who live over the road are growing rapidly and
becoming less similar as they get older.
When we first arrived we couldn’t tell them apart but it’s
getting easier, Enoch is definitely taller and darker and has a much longer
face than has Enosh. Enoch
looks more like his mum while Enosh resembles dad.
However it is not always easy to tell them apart; it all depends on
what you are seeing.
Ken
was out on the side balcony a couple of days ago hanging some washing.
When on this balcony you overlook the twins’ house.
It was toilet time for these two little fellows.
They were out in their front yard (a gravel/sandy area of
approximately two by three metres) squatting shoulder to shoulder with their
backs towards Ken - the four little cheeks all lined up in a row were quite
a sight! From that angle, Ken had no idea which one was Enoch and
which was Enosh!! J Both bottoms were the same shade, shape and size!! J
Wife
Beating in Public
When
Phil King (Ken’s nephew) was down south looking for some good surf, he was
eating out at a hotel* near his guest house one night when a commotion
started up nearby. It spilled
onto the street near where Phil was sitting and turned out to be a husband
beating his wife. Phil said the
husband took to her with quite a large piece of timber and beat into her. A number of locals observed the incident and the family
was trying to put a stop to it. The
hotel owner told Phil the guy was usually drunk and was again on this
occasion. “In Sri Lanka
it’s a disgrace to beat your wife in public!”.
Phil responded and said “It’s a disgrace to beat your wife, ever,
anywhere!”
*
Hotels in Sri Lanka and certainly India as well, are eating places.
We’d call them “restaurants”.
However liquor is not served. Liquor
outlets are called “bars”. However
“hotels” is the word also used for accommodation venues.
So there’s a broad use for the word.
The
Sound of “Music”
SL
is “crowded” with mosques, churches and temples and it would seem that
at each of these venues there is a great emphasis on celebrations of one
sort or another. Each of the
venues also all seem to have their own outside public address system so that
if the congregation spills outside it can hear whatever is happening inside.
There are also quite a few PA systems that don’t seem to be connected to
any particular organisation but seem to be used by all and sundry.
There are no noise control laws in SL, or none that are enforced.
This of course means that at any one time you can be listening to two
or three or more celebrations or services and there is usually something
being played somewhere. Most of
the “broadcasts” you hear from the mosques, temples and churches, and
indeed the local PA system, are music rather than speech.
There
are several churches, a mosque and a public PA system all within
“hearing” distance of our house. We are
not sure whether there has been a particular festival during this last week
or so but the noise has been woeful. For
several evenings, commencing at about 6.00pm and concluding at about 11.00
pm, there has been a droning chant played somewhere nearby. It
has also been played for several hours on some mornings.
We guess some of the locals like it; we like it when it stops!
But
what has taken the cake has been the really loud music which has commenced
at about 11.30 pm and gone on and on for hours for several consecutive
nights. It sounds like it’s
coming from the public PA system at the road/railway junction about 250
metres from here and it sounds like there’s a disc jockey or similar
promoting the celebrations. We’re
obviously not the only ones who dislike it; the dog next door seems to HATE
it and barks incessantly to show his displeasure.
So we’re stuck with this cacophony of sound – dreadful music and
a barking dog whose kennel is directly below our bedroom window. And of course the music is not the sort of music we as
westerners are accustomed too; it is the twangy, sing-songy music of the
east and almost has us barking too.
That’s
it for now. Our next update
will probably be just as we leave for India.
We have our next Bible Truth Study Day (Sunday 13th)
bearing down on us fast so we will be busy preparing for that in the coming
week.
Bye
Love,
K
& D