The
January event was again good with two new faces in the audience; two sisters
about 15 and 22 years old. The
program followed its usual format of two sessions before lunch and two after,
with the session immediately after lunch requiring their active participation in
an attempt to keep them awake given they’ve just eaten and have been sitting
listening all morning. The topics
covered were:
ü
It does
matter what we believe!
ü
Demons
and evil spirits.
ü
God is
One – Jesus is His Son (interactive)
ü
Slaying
Giants – David and Goliath (A Bible study)
The
numbers continue to go up and down like a yo-yo. We have a record of who has been at which sessions and which
topics they have heard. Now we have
to work out how we can “plug the gaps” i.e. present “old topics” to
those who haven’t heard them before while not repeating ourselves to those who
have. It becomes a bit of a juggle.
The
two new faces at the BTSD are Niluka (22 years old) and Iroshini (15 years old)
the daughters of Nilanthi, a very lovely lady who is doing the correspondence
course and now regularly attends the BTS days.
We
have visited this family a couple of times in their home and the most recent
visit included dinner. Surprisingly
they ate with us rather than having their meal after we had left as is the usual
custom here and in India. The meal
(rice and curry followed by tinned SPC peaches and ice-cream) included a pork
dish and this brought us to the topic of demons and evil spirits.
Nilanthi and her two daughters have had a very real fear of a
supernatural devil, demons and evil spirits.
We have discussed the issue with them on a number of occasions and they
appear to have concluded that demons, evil spirits and a supernatural devil
don’t exist. Their response has
been quite amazing and in their actions they express a real confidence in their
new-found certainty that they do not need to fear mythological demons or a
supernatural devil.
Nilanthi
and her daughters told us that up until now if they bought pork (which here in
SL is associated with the devil and demons — remember what Jesus did with
Legion’s demons?) they would always, while carrying the parcel home, also have
carried some limes and a nail. Somehow
these items are supposed to keep the demons at bay when you are carrying pork.
Now they don’t bother and they haven’t met with any mishaps as a
result!
Iroshini
is really
pleased as she was given a set of Harry Potter books by her father for Christmas
and she had been too scared to read them as their pastor had told them that they
were the work of the devil. Well,
all we can say is that they are no more the work of the devil than Mickey Mouse
and Enid Blyton’s Magic Far-away Tree.
Iroshini is enjoying
them and we’re looking for our commission for increasing J K Rowling’s sales
in SL! J
Last
year you would have read our comments regarding ongoing troubles we experienced
with the data-base.
The data-base (db) prepared by the Perth ACBM is
undoubtedly the most used office tool that we have. On it we have all the information regarding the 900 plus
contacts here in SL and we access it constantly throughout the day every day
other than when we are out and about. On
it we regularly update information regarding the contacts; e.g. who we’ve
heard from/seen, what they’ve requested/been sent, what issues we’ve
discussed, when, topics they would like to have addressed, directions to their
house, telephone numbers, family circumstances, etc.
We also use it to create labels for mail outs (up to approximately
200 people at a time) and we can categorise individuals as to the level of
interest they show and the nature of the information they receive.
It is a very versatile and valuable tool and is a credit to Walter and
Keren Ketterer who developed it.
But of course it is only as
strong as the weakest links in the chain and last year those weaker links drove
us nuts.
For most of last year we had to
down-load an e-mail that became nearly 5 megabytes of information on an almost
weekly basis and it was an ongoing problem for us.
It regularly had Ken up until 1.00 am on Sundays (late Saturday/early
Sunday being the quietest times on the internet and when the down-load was most
likely to be successful). There
were often occasions when even after multiple attempts to down-load the data
that it was still unsuccessful and at one stage we were working with a db that
was three months out of date! That
of course meant that the detail of 25% of the year’s work was not available to
us. Well, now the system is working
for us and not us for the systemJ.
With technical assistance we sought at home our problems appear to have been
overcome.
Now
for the good newsJ. Hurrah, hurrah. The customised db is working well, the
problems we constantly experienced seem to have been overcome and the despair,
frustration and stress experienced as a result of last year difficulties appear
to be things of the past. And when
the line drops out or we can’t get access to our Internet Service Provider (as
still happens regularly), our work here is not affected….well, except for the
fact that we can’t make contact as quickly with some of you dear folks!! J
Another
large mail out has been completed with an offer of the booklet “After Death
What?”. There were also 50 Bible
Reading Calendars sent out to the more promising contacts.
Tim Galbraith (India) produces a calendar that has lovely photos; a Bible
theme for each month; a verse for each day which reflects the month’s theme
and the three daily readings detailed in each day’s square.
We distributed quite a few of them last year; they were really popular
and lots of people requested the 2004 version.
So
the January mail-out involved:
§
identifying
those contacts who receive the monthly magazine “Great News for the World”
as these people automatically receive a calender from India but still needed to
receive the literature offer;
§
identifying
the 50 most promising of the contacts who do not receive “Great News for the
World” and sending them a calendar and literature offer;
§
sending a
literature offer only to those who do not fall into either of the first two
categories;
§
updating
the data base recording the offer made to each of the 200 or so contacts and
distribution of the calendars.
We
find that we are regularly asked questions about the same topics which are not
necessarily covered by booklets or to which the person asking the question is
wanting a short, sharp answer. So in
the last month we have started developing a series of Bible
Truth Facts Sheets. They are
usually on one A4 page and have a simple conversational style.
If a topic is raised regularly this acts as a catalyst for the next Bible
Truth Facts Sheet. The sheets
developed/drafted to date are titled Bible
Truth Facts Sheet:
ü
about
Jesus’ family
(that he did have brothers and sisters and that Mary was not “eternally a
virgin”);
ü
about the Book of Mormon;
ü
about Christmas;
ü
about the wives of Cain and Seth (we are fequently asked who they married).
As
we send this off to Cathie to be posted to the website we will be just about
running out the door heading off on a trip south to areas we haven’t been to
before. There are a number of
contacts whom we’ve not met previously who we plan to see. It’ll be good to see some new sights and to meet some new
people but the down side of going to places we haven’t been before is
navigatingL. The
maps have fairly scant information on them and of course once we leave the busy
centres it is harder to find anyone who speaks English and there are very few
street signs in English so we often spend ages and ages driving around in
circles.
We’ve
had a very frustrating couple of
weeks. It seems that our plans have
been jinxed and many of our grand plans have come to nought.
It doesn’t take much to throw plans into disarray.
But this is our Father’s work and chance has nothing to do
with what ultimately occurs. As
we’ve been reminded more than once, “things may not go according to your
plans, but they WILL go according to God’s Plan”.
One
day last week, which we’d allocated as an “office day”, all went well
until about 9.00 am when the power blacked out.
This in itself is not an uncommon occurrence but it is not normally off
for more than an hour. We waited
and waited and waited and eventually Ken rang the electricity supply people to
be told “yes sir, there is no power; no sir there will not be power until 6.00
pm we are doing necessary scheduled maintenance”. For some reason they don’t seem to think it important to
give their customers advance warning despite it being scheduled.
Aaugh. Then to add insult to
injury, we had planned a busy “visits” day for the following day (Tuesday).
However at about 8.00 pm on Monday some turkey decided to dig a trench
about 40cm wide and 400cm deep across our “driveway” and left the soil in
the way as well so we couldn’t get the car out!
Mind you the car was only about 2m away and visible from where they were
working. After they’d dug the
trench they asked “do you want to
go out this evening?”. They also
said they’d have it all filled in by 9.00 am Tuesday but that didn’t happen
until late Wednesday. So much for
that day’s visits program. Aaugh
(again).
There
are a number of contacts and one sister who live in the southern suburbs of
Colombo who we like to visit a regularly. But
a trip to the south side involves a minimum of three hours commuting (Negombo,
Colombo, Negombo) and that’s before you account for the travel time to the
various addresses some of which are also widely spread.
So this month we decided to minimise the travel and have a three-day
program with two nights spent at a guest-house.
It also meant that those who are only available from 7.00 pm onwards are
easier to accommodate
We
took a room for the two nights in a suburb called Mt Lavinia, which is filled
with low cost guest-houses. Our
room was quite basic and clean and just off the beach so we were able to walk
along the sand in our free time either early morning before the sun got too hot
or late afternoon. I (Dorothy)
contemplated going for a swim as the water looked much cleaner than the ocean
here in Negombo but as we had to visit a contact later that day and I couldn’t
be bothered going through the fuss of hair washing etc. I missed out.
In hindsight I’m rather glad as the next morning we went for a walk
along the beach past the tourist beach where we were staying (and where I would
have swum) 500m to the fisherman’s huts where a number of the locals live in
huts on the beach. It was about
7.30 am and all the locals were out and about, some bringing in their catch,
some sorting their catch, others heading out in their boats and - - - some
children going to the toilet right there on the water’s edge – YUCK L. We had to watch where we stepped. Bleah. These
“homes” have no bathrooms or toilets so what has to happen, happens right
there on the water’s edge. Oh my,
how the other half live! And of
course when the waves come in and wash the yucky bits away the current carries
it up and down the beach so the quality of the water must leave a lot to be
desired. Horrid.
The
number of contacts we visit on any one-day is of course determined by a number
of factors:
v
their
availability;
v
how close
they live to one-another and the impact this has on travel time;
v
whether
or not we can find their house; sometimes we can’t. The street naming and numbering system is at times different
to Oz. Over the last few years
quite a number of street names have been changed to reflect a more traditional
character rather than the British colonial heritage (like Ayers Rock
being renamed Uluru) or they may be changed as a result of an association with a
VIP. However sometimes the street
signs remain unchanged and/or the name isn’t changed on the map so this can
create a great deal of confusion. Not all streets have signs and many are written in Sinhala.
If you are looking for “6th Lane” (as we were earlier this
week) it does not necessarily come immediately after “5th Lane”;
this week we found 5th and 6th Lanes were separated by a
couple of unnamed lanes. But once we find the right street or lane finding the house
is the next challenge.
Like at home, not all houses display their street
number. Then to add to the
challenge the numbers are not always in numerical order, they seem to come in
clumps e.g. 32 – 39 are near one another as are 42 to 46.
Forty-six might be number 87’s next door neighbour so if you happen to
be looking for 40 it becomes quite tricky!
One of the locals explained that sometimes (not always but sometimes)
someone will move house, within the same street, and they take their house
number with them
v
The other
factor is how many glasses of soft drink are we prepared to drink in any one
day. On Wednesday this week we
had three visits before lunch. Normally
we would only schedule three per day as if we plan to spend up to two hours with
any one person, and we can’t always tell in advance who will be keen and want
to keep us there for ages and who will only have a cursory interest.
However we knew in advance that two of the morning visits would only be
brief.
We had breakfast at about 8.00 am and our first
appointment was at 9.30 am. We were
each served a glass of soft drink and a piece of very sweet slice. The
next appointment was at 10.30 am and we had our second glass of soft drink and
something else to eat (can’t remember just what it was).
Our third appointment was at 11.30 am where again we were served a
glass of soft drink, a piece of Christmas cake, some slices of ham and beef.
Once we had eaten these our hostess was really keen, despite our repeated
protests, that we have a glass of vermouth - - - and it wasn’t even noon!
We managed to leave quite sober – in fact we managed to leave
without drinking any vermouth. We were
so full of cake, slice, biscuits, soft drink and cold meats that we skipped
lunch. Our afternoon
appointment didn’t eventuate but our 7.00 pm appointment went ahead. This of course meant we were going to have a late dinner but
that is okay, we often find we are not eating until 8.30 pm or so (normal
dinner-time for the locals). We
arrived at our 7.00 pm appointment to be served another glass of sickly sweet orange flavoured drink (not fizzy) another piece of
Christmas cake and a round of sandwiches. Now
we had been looking forward to dinner given we’d forgone lunch but this
pre-dinner “snack” thoroughly messed up our appetite. Dorothy made the mistake of commenting to the hostess that
the sandwiches were very tasty and she immediately headed off and made us both a
further round despite Dorothy’s pleading with her not too.
Fortunately her husband came to our rescue and told her not to force us
to eat them and she backed off. But
for a couple of minutes there it looked like we were both going to have to eat a
second round of sandwiches (which is more than D would normally have for lunch).
Now this diet is manageable for a day, though it
leaves us feeling bloated and yucky. But
when we have a two or three day visits program by the end of the second/third
day we feel like we’ve gone past the point of saturation into the “overdose
zone” as far as soft drink and cake is concerned.
It is quite unpleasant but the locals are very hospitable and are not
happy if we say no to their treats.
One
evening last week we went to visit Dunstan, Margaret and Zenomy who live in a
village (township) about 8kms from Negombo.
When we arrived we asked why the village was decorated with so many
lights and displays and they informed us that it was to celebrate the Feast of
St Sebastian.
On
the way to their house we drove along road that was lit up like Melbourne’s
skyline or Sydney Harbour Bridge on New Year’s Eve. The lighting started with fluros hanging of poles at three
metre intervals but as we progressed along the road (towards the RC church) the
lighting and decorations become more and more elaborate.
Fairy lights appeared to be draped in every tree and hung off every
building. Not just the odd string of lights here and there but masses and masses
and masses of lights. Some archways (not curved archways but three sides of a
rectangle) had been built over the road and they too were lit up with fairy
lights.
The
archways were masterpieces. The
first one we drove under was constructed out of pineapples! The uprights of the archway was three or four pineapples wide
when laid on their side. The
pinapples were then stacked on top of one another (laid sideways) to a height of
six or seven metres and then somehow they were also laid out on the horizontal
part of the archway. There must
have been a support structure but it wasn’t visible.
Of course the whole thing was outlined in fairy lights.
The
next archway was contstructed out of bottles of softdrink and the bottles were
arranged in layers of colour. Again,
fairy lights outlining the whole structure.
Presumably there was a board of some sort between each layer to help
stabalize the display.
The
next archway was constructed out of colourful plastic fruit; oranges, apples,
bananas, something green, etc and the fruit was arranged to make pictures (like
a mosiac). We had whizzed through
so fast that some of the detail is a blur, the only picture we can actually
remember was a really tall candle with a flame. And again, fairy lights everywhere.
The
next archway, which was still under construction and led into either a laneway
or the entry of the church property, appeared to be made out of coca-cola
bottles.
Can
you imagine the mess if a car or truck side swiped any of these arches?
There could be orangeade, lemonade and creamy soda, a coca-cola flood or
pulverised pineapple from one end of the village to the other!
Unfortunately
we didn’t have a camera with us, but as it was dark the chances of a good
photo would be pretty slim. But we
also we missed much of the detail of this amazing sight – however we did have
the benefit of the impact of all the lights.
We
have no idea who St Sebastian was, or what he is the partron saint of – he
surely can’t be the patron saint of pineapples and softdrink – or can he?
Last year we told that St Barbara is the patron saint of lightening and
if you make a cross and pray to her during a thunderstorm she will protect you
from the lightening!
We’ve
often reported on the diversity and beauty of the birds we see from our upstairs
balcony and as we travel around. In
the last couple of weeks one little bird which we hadn’t seen before has
arrived and spends lots and lots of time in the trees only a stone’s throw
from the house. It is a tiny little
sun-bird, a miniature little fellow about half the size of a sparrow with an
orange-red head and lime green wings and back.
While it is a stunning little creature to watch it nearly sends us
cuckoo. Its chirp is like a
car-alarm! It doesn’t seem to
need to take a breath between chirps and the chirps can for at least 10-15
minutes without a break. The
monotony and volume is enough to send you running for the ear muffs once
you’ve been tuned in for more than a couple of minutes.
How such a tiny little bird with even tinier lungs can make such a racket
for so long defies logic. In
fact Ken wishes it would do a “Shrek” (remember the little bird that sang
so, so loudly and at a higher and higher note?) and blow its little legs off!! J
The
other bird which we only saw two or three times last year is the woodpecker.
In the last couple of days two of them were in the nearby trees and
clinging precariously to the vertical side of a coconut palm while hammering for
all they were worth. We think there
may have been some bugs just under the bark of the palm trunk and that they were
enjoying the fruits of easy pickings. Their
plumage is magnificent. Their
bodies are covered in dark blue/black feathers and their wings and top-knot have
bright red/orange feathers. These red/orange
feathers were catching the sun in the early morning and looked like they were on
fire.
Dorothy has now ventured out onto the roads as a driver
for her first time in SL. Her first
venture was only a short trip to the shops – about five minutes there and of
course five back. What was of note
was the interest of the neighbours. It
is not unusual to see a woman driving in Colombo but it is less common here.
Obviously the neighbours had presumed that Dorothy doesn’t drive as to
date it’s only been Ken behind the wheel.
Surprise was expressed by Sangeewa (the twin’s dad) when he realised
Dorothy was about to take the car out. Sangeewa’s
wise crack was that he hoped Dorothy had life insurance!
By the time Dorothy hopped into the driver’s seat both Sangeewa and Lal
(the chap who lives in the other house across the lane from ours) were there
ready to guide her out. Mind you
our gate is 10’ wide and the lane about 8’ wide so it’s not hard to
manoeuvre - - - and we live and the end of a dead end lane so there is no
through traffic to worry about. But
they were out there waving Dorothy on as she reversed out and holding up their
hands when they thought she should stop.
In
stark contrast to the independence most western women enjoy many SL women are
very dependent on the husbands. Over
the past few weeks Margaret (who is in her mid 50’s) and her eight-year old
daughter Zenomy have been coming to our home by themselves on a weekly basis.
When we were here last year they used to come as a family with Dunstan on
his motorbike however as he is working at present the arrangements have changed.
Now they come by bus. What is
amazing is that it has all been a bit of an adventure for them.
From what we can gather Margaret had never caught the bus on her own
before! On one of the days
that they came to the house Ken drove them home in the car – Zenomy was very
pleased as again, from what we can gather, she’d never been in a car before.
A
recent photo in the daily newspaper was of about 10 seven or eight-year-old boys
dressed in orange robes and with their heads shaved being dedicated as Buddhist
monks. They were kneeling with
heads bowed in front of a similar number of older monks who were seated on
chairs on a low platform. The two
other people in the photo were a local RC priest and a Methodist church
minister. The caption underneath
reported that the dedication was attended
by and included the participation/involvement of these two church officials!
The Lord Jesus certainly wouldn’t have participated with those who deny
not only his existence but also the existence of His Father, the Creator.
Since our return in late November there has only been one
heavy downpour of rain here in Negombo that we are aware of.
Of course there may have been rain when we’ve been away but we
haven’t been away overnight very much in the last eight weeks.
By this time last year we’d seen many a heavy storm and one of life’s
challenges was keeping the computer dry when the waterfall developed next to the
computer with water gushing through the ceiling and down the wall – not so
this time.
In
the last week or so the daily newspapers have referred to the drought and
advised that there may soon be water restrictions imposed in some areas.
Okay so we don’t have a garden here to worry about, but given that most
of the island’s power is hydro-generated we could be facing some pretty
uncomfortable living. The monsoons
also failed about eight years ago when Ken was here for some extended periods of
time and he says it was horrid. In
addition to water cuts there were also power cuts for long periods everyday.
When that happens it means that for about eight hours a day there are no
lights, no computer, no fridge/freezer (or not one working full time which means
everything has a pretty limited life), no fans L -
- - and no ice-cream L
L L! Eight years ago the ice-cream companies almost went bust.
So unless we get some rain we could be in for a pretty uncomfortable and
inconvenient time.
The
lack of rain appears to already have had an impact on some of the locals.
Since we’ve been back we haven’t once heard the “frog choir”
which used to go on for hours and with great gusto following heavy rain.
We’ve seen many less birds and lizards and we think, thankfully, that
there doesn’t seem to be as many mozzies – though there is still a plentiful
supply. Some people’s gardens are very dry and grassy areas such as
Galle Face Green are covered in brown stubble.
The
only other “plus” to date is that it doesn’t seem to be as humid as our
first few months here in 2002/3.
That
wraps up our news for the last couple of weeks. Tell us what you’ve been doing.
It’s been a bit quiet here L.
Love
to all from Ken and Dorothy
25th January 2004