Negombo News – July ’04
Hope this is not too disjointed. Again it’s been prepared over a couple of weeks and should have been sent off to Cathie 10 days or so ago, so some events have overtaken themselves.
The Mission Matters
Bible Truth Study Days – July
BTSD occurs twice this month. There are two full moons in July (2nd and 31st) so that means two Poya Days which for us translates to two BTSDs. Unfortunately the 31st is a Saturday rather than a weekday. We’ve noticed before that there is a higher attrition rate on Saturdays and Sundays. Presumably people have other commitments on these days and therefore not all of the regulars are free to spend the day here. August’s Poya Day is on a Sunday so that will again impact on the numbers.
BTSD held on 2nd July again saw a good attendance; ten contacts. The first session was “It does matter what you believe”; the second “Powerful reasons to believe – Jesus’ resurrection” and the third, a discussion session, was again a follow-up to the previous month’s program. The topic was “The relationship between God and Jesus”. A number of people advised that they would need to leave early so it was decided to drop the fourth session for the day and hold it over for the following BTSD. The program concluded at about 3.30pm instead of 4.30 pm and then most of the people sat around and chatted for the next 45 minutes; so much for an early finish! But it is good to see relationships developing between those who come.
The program for the 31st is being prepared now (19th) and includes, in response to a request from one of the class participants, a session on the character and names of God. The second session is listed as “Powerful reasons to believe – Israel and the purpose of God”. The discussion session will focus on “It does matter what you believe” again as a follow up to one of the topics presented at the previous BTSD. The fourth session (carried over from 2nd July) with the heading “What did they mean” will address:
Ø “Before Abraham was, I am”
Ø “Being in the form of God”
Ø “Your throne O God”
Postscript: BTSD 31 July. Eight contacts in attendance and four Christadelphians so given it was held on a Saturday we were quite pleased with the numbers. J
Yes please
Another literature offer was made recently to approximately 260 contacts. Our list of names and addresses has grown by about 120 people since the advertisement in May which offered “After Death – What?”. The offer was posted out in the last week of July and up until now we’ve had 52 people saying “yes please, I’d like to have a copy of the booklet sent to me”. Generally most of the requests come in over a three-week period so presumably there will be about 80 – 90 requests. This is about double the number of requests we received to the first couple of offers made in late 2002.
One of the gentlemen requesting the latest literature offer (Your Share in God’s Promises) has added a note at the bottom of the request form saying “pretty bride wanted for 36 year old business man”. So, is there any interest out there? If so, let us know and we’ll make enquiries. J
Trench coats and sunglasses
We find ourselves having quite odd conversations and in odd situations from time to time. There are some people whom we visit regularly (those who are keen to discuss the Gospel) and others who we only see once or twice at the most. We recently met a lady who is now in the “one visit is enough” category – or certainly for the time being. Either she is totally paranoid or we are incredibly naive. The lady is Russian, married to a SL and has been living here for 20 years or so. She is highly educated (Masters in Mathematics) but has a warped, or perhaps no sense of reality; she is convinced that the KGB is keeping a watchful eye on her. The conversation would have almost comical if it hadn’t been so, so sad. She has wasted her life theorising about the KGB and worrying about their supposed surveillance of her. It would appear from what was said that she spends the vast majority of her time investigating them. We told her that there are Christadelphians in Russia – but according to her “they are not Christadelphians, they are the KGB”. Aunty Marion and Uncle Jack – perhaps you’d better warn Stephen!
Why did we visit? Because she regularly asks for Bible literature but as it turns out she has no real interest in it, it’s an intellectual exercise only.
Thankfully we weren’t wearing trench coats when we arrived; our only spy accessories were our sunnies!
Out of focus
I (Dorothy) was recently asked to explain Jesus’ teaching about spectacles! The conversation began with the question “sister, are specs spectacles – you know, glasses?” (lots of people call us either brother or sister; they are terms used fairly loosely but generally signify “fellow Christian”). Then came the baffling question – “sister, Jesus’ teaching about spectacles; what does it mean?” The expression on my face led to further elaboration and the added information helped enormously. The next statement was “you know sister, Matthew chapter 7; why take the speck from the brother’s eye?”
The translation program
The Sinhala translation program is still progressing well and has now resulted in ten attractive booklets. They all have full colour covers and are nicely presented. The display cabinet downstairs where we keep as many booklets as possible is bulging at the seams. Our ‘star’ contact was here on BTSD (31 July) and took a good supply to give to her friends. Her enthusiasm to tell others about Bible teaching constantly impresses us – if only all of us could show such conviction and enthusiasm in our every day lives.
Tissa recently drafted the Bible Companion in Sinhala and commenced work on the Bible Reading Planner. This is an ambitious job as there is a lot of material and a large number of graphics as well. So the challenge will be to produce maps etc with Sinhala script. This is likely to involve copying maps with English script, deleting the English and replacing it with Sinhala. We’re not sure how it’ll go but guess we’ll soon know.
We are starting to get a number of requests for Sinhala literature so as well as undertaking translation and checking Tissa is now also writing the occasional letter in Sinhala. Ken either drafts the reply in English for Tissa to translate or discusses the content of the reply with him first and then Tissa sets too and prepares the reply.
Tissa has prepared an article for the Bible Mission magazine which provides a snap-shot of his search for “a better life”. It’s quite an interesting article and for those of you who have been seeing his name fairly regularly in Negombo News it’ll probably be of just a wee bit more interest—assuming of course that the editors of BM put it in.
Who’s coming in late October?
Rob and Rachelle Oosthuizen and family J. Rob and Rachelle (and chickadees) are from Invercargill (NZ) and are planning on “taking our place” for up to two years J J J. At the moment their tickets have them arriving here about four weeks before we head for home.
It’ll be wonderful to have their company and it’ll give us lots of time to show them around, introduce them to a number of the contacts we have regular dealings with, experience their first Bible Truth Study Day, show them how we’ve operated and discuss with them options that they may wish to consider. Of course how they organise themselves and the activity here is entirely up to them. As we’ve learnt time and time again (or perhaps we haven’t learnt but have experienced) that the best of our plans often end up as good intentions and quite a bit of our time is taken up with responding to situations as they arise. Undoubtedly some of these situations are actually God putting His plans into action … and ours have to wait.
We envisage that Rob and Rachelle’s activities here will be quite different to ours just because of the fact that four children are involved. While we have relative freedom to head off, whether it be for a couple of days or for a flying visit they will presumably be a little bit more tied to home. Rob and Rachelle home-school the children so while that will undoubtedly keep them busy at least they are not tied to official school hours. The children are, from eldest to youngest, Rosie and May, Reuben and Adam and by the time they arrive will range in ages between appoximately eight years old and two years old.
From what we understand Rachelle is a Kiwi through and through. Rob is South African – yes, for those of you who are wondering Antony and Pat are his parents (sorry Rob – you probably get sick of still being identified as Antony and Pat’s son – but be assured, we consider it a compliment J).
We are going to be sorry to say good-bye to many people we’ve come to know and care for very much, we’ll leave with heavy hearts and teary eyes. But we are looking forward to going home. The last couple of months or so have been hard slog; partly because we’ve had some difficult situations to deal with which have been emotionally very demanding and partly because we feel quite “had it”.
Other Stuff
Ka-boom
Another SLan has died as a result of the civil war that is currently the subject of a peace-fire! In early July a women in her twenties who was attempting to see one of the MPs in his office, refused to be frisked, was carted off to the local police station where she blew herself up. She was a suicide bomber who missed her target – the MP she was planning to murder. There was a peace process in progress, being managed by the Norwegians, when we arrived her in late 2002 but the peace talks failed and the Norwegians have “temporarily” withdrawn themselves from the negotiations. This withdrawal occurred about 12 months ago. While the country is still relatively peaceful the so-called “peace” is sitting on the proverbial knife’s edge. There are constant reports of skirmishes and murders.
The office of the MP who was the target of the suicide bomber, and the police station to which she was taken when she “pulled the pin” are located on Galle Road close to the centre of Colombo. Galle Road is the main thorough-fare north/south; it is a very busy area and a road that we plus many, many thousands of others, frequently travel. However it is about 40kms south of Negombo. At least four police officers were killed and several were injured in the blast. There were no injuries to the general public. We wouldn’t have been surprised if there had been an escalation in violence following the incident but thankfully nothing “out of the norm” has happened.
“Big cats in spotty tights”
We managed to fit a three-day break into our program in July and took the opportunity to head to Yala National Park, down on the south-east corner of the island. It’s quite a hike from Negombo so to get the best value out of our travels we included a couple of visits on the way there and back and got some jobs out of the way in Colombo as well. We left Negombo on the Sunday afternoon and stayed with Ken and Rita Harding (and their son Michael) that evening. Having recently left Tassie and returned to Rita’s homeland they have purchased a property at Panadura which is as far south of Colombo as we live north.
On the Monday we headed to Elpitiya where Bro Indra lives to catch up with him and his family (sadly he wasn’t home but we caught up with him on the way back a few days later) and then made our way to the south coast heading east. At about 6.30 pm we found accommodation for the night. As it happens we had stumbled on a really nice hotel located on an absolutely beautiful beach. It is the typical idyllic tropical island beach. As it was only a stop-over we weren’t there long enough to be able to make the most of the spot but we’re hoping to have one of our future three-day breaks there. The lady who runs the hotel is Dutch and when Ken told her we were on our way to Yala she said “oh, I hope you see some leo-pards”! For the pronunciation of the word as she said it follow this easy two-step plan:
· out loud say “leotards” (i.e. tights worn by dancers)
· now, say the same word but replace the “t” with a “p” and there you have it …. leo-pards!
Thankfully Ken knew what she was talking about as the hope of every visitor to Yala is to see a wild leopard. The longer we thought about it the funnier it got and Ken has now come up with this definition: “leo-pard … a big cat in spotty tights”.
Yala was really good. At first we both felt disappointed as it is a fairly desolate place. At this time of the year it’s very dry and dusty and with a constant wind, blowing for all it’s worth. The area is flat, the vegetation is scrappy and on arrival the place didn’t look very appealing. But after 24 hours and a change in mindset we had a good time and would happily go back again looking for the elusive leo-pards.
On our first morning at Yala we got up shortly after 5.00am to go “on safari”. We hired a driver and guide, complete with 4WD, and headed off for the best part of four hours (3½ of which we were driving around in the National Park) on the lookout for wildlife. Again, at first we were disappointed as we didn’t see any leopards but in retrospect we realise we were very fortunate given the things we did see … and we did enjoy ourselves. The critters we saw included:
Ø loads of crocodiles either sunning themselves on the banks of numerous water holes or submerged in the water with only their “eye-brows” visible. One fairly big croc seemed to be eye-balling a large water bird that was standing stock still and within what appeared to be striking distance of the croc.
Ø heaps and heaps of birds including a variety of storks; about a dozen hornbills all in two or three neighbouring trees; some wonderful dainty and colourful little birds that darted in and out of the trees so quickly at times all they were was a blur. The colourful native rooster, loads of peahens and peacocks strutting around but sadly none with their tails fanned out and on display.
Ø a jackal – not really very exciting, it just looked like a scraggy dog;
Ø wild boar – again, not very exciting;
Ø deer and lots of them, some with big ornate antlers and some that we’re obviously quite young and staying close-by “mum”;
Ø a sea-eagle standing in shallow water at the edge of a lagoon; the water only come up to the bottom of his feathered breeches. We watched him for ages until two quite small birds started diving on him and he took flight;
Ø langur monkeys. There was a big group, probably comprising 30 or 40 monkeys all leaping and jumping around in two trees right next to our vehicle. They are quite different to the other macaque monkeys (they’re the ones with the Beatles hair cuts) we see here. These ones are very long and lanky and have white fur all over except for their faces which are covered in black fur (framed in white). They are quite handsome. We suspect they are not as confident as the other monkeys we see. We’ve seen them two or three times elsewhere but they usually nick off when we or our car approaches so we were fortunate to get such a good view of this lot. Alexander these are the same monkeys as the one on the tee-shirt we brought home for you last year.
Ø a lone elephant. He was a big fellow but a bit scrawny, his ribs were quite visible. Our guide told us that the females and babies have probably moved elsewhere during the dry season in search of better food;
Ø a sloth bear busy searching out ants and berries. It was in the scrub right up against the side of the track we’d been driving along. It went to run away as we approached but changed its mind and we sat within two metres of it for about 15 minutes or so watching its foraging for food. It was making a snuffling noise as it scrounged amongst the bushes and leaf litter and pushed fallen branches aside with either its paws or its nose. When standing on all fours it would probably have stood about 1.5 metres high – quite a lot smaller than its North American buddies. Nonetheless it had a set of powerful legs and lethal claws and is quite capable of killing a human. Its coat was a coarse black fur.
Our accommodation was at the beach just outside the boundary of the national park … but animals pay no attention to boundary lines marked on maps. The first night we were there and while we were tucked up in bed there was a commotion out in the hotel grounds. We thought it was just other guests making a noise as they were heading off to bed, but apparently a wild elephant had turned up and was creating a bit of excitement. We never got the full story and still don’t know whether we are disappointed or relieved to have missed the action.
We went for a long walk on the wide beach one evening and Ken commented that he hoped there were no hungry animals lurking in the distant scrub. The next evening we walked in the opposite direction and climbed up on rocks thinking we’d make our way around to the next bay. The beach in this direction is quite narrow and at the point the scrub came down almost to the rocks. It is amazing how the thought of coming across a leopard or wild elephant as you round the next boulder impacts on the enjoyment of climbing on rocks with surf smashing nearby. There were lots of elephant pats around. After only a minute or so we decided that discretion was the better part of valour and headed back to the safety of the wide sandy beach adjacent to our hotel.
This rocky area is just nearby a lagoon on the edge of the hotel. It is home to lots of birds and we sat for ages and ages watching storks, egrets and pelicans fish.
The surf was constant and the beach one which drops away suddenly (the quick drop seems to be quite typical of most of the beaches here). There were warning signs regarding the danger of swimming in the ocean so we were quite content to stick with the hotel pool.
One of the little dainty colourful birds (a bee eater) that we frequently saw from our room darting to and fro had a nest in a burrow under the sandy grassy area just a little way back from the beach itself! It was regularly landing on the ground not far from our window, ducking down into the burrow with goodies in its beak, presumably for its chicks, only to appear a minute or so later with an empty beak and quickly taking off on its next food finding exercise.
Other than having to deal with all the looney drivers on the road as we travelled to and fro and some frightful roads, our three-day break was most enjoyable. We arrived back home safe and sound on Saturday 17th.
The diversity of scenery and vegetation in SL is quite astounding. There are the dry semi-arid areas such as Yala (though we believe Yala is transformed into a lush green panorama in the wet season [Jan – Apr]). There are the typical tropical island paradise scenes of beautiful beaches with swaying coconut palms etc and then there are the forested rugged mountains with beautiful waterfalls, cold wet weather and rolling mists. And that’s all in the little bit we’ve seen in the southern third of the island.
Negombo wildlife
We had been home less than a week only to find some unwelcome wildlife in our own yard. There is a 1.5 metre strip between our house and the side fence. This is on the same side of the house as the kitchen window. Much to Dorothy’s horror, when looking out the window considering if it would be a good spot to grow a plant used in SL cooking, she saw a 1.2 metre snake slither past heading towards the front yard. While Dorothy has no time for snakes whatsoever Ken has a degree of admiration for them and came rushing downstairs to see it. The snake slithered to the edge of the front yard and then with us watching did a u-turn and returned up the side of the house. Having heard our description of it (it was quite a bright yellow) the neighbours had a good laugh at our expense and told us it was a rat snake and quite harmless. Rat snake or not, Dorothy will not be planting anything down there – the clearer it is the better. Seeing wildlife from the safety of a 4WD at Yala is great but we’re not so keen on snakes in the yard.
Rachelle, please don’t go into a blind panic. We think the snake may have been disturbed as a result of some garden maintenance. The yard is fairly scrappy and we spoke to the landlady about having it tidied up with some grass put in and the garden beds defined etc. So it was the day after the workman started on the job and were moving all sorts of bits and pieces around and clearing overgrown weeds etc from the rear and side of the house. By the time you all arrive hopefully there will be a nice grassy area for the kids to play on and all the weeds and odd bits and pieces will have been cleared away. That’s our hope. They started on the job a bit over a week ago and left after the first day. We’ve made a couple of phone calls since and they promise “again we will come”. It’s just that we’re not sure when! Just as well your arrival is still three months away!
Not for thinking
Dorothy was discussing the education/employment future of a teenager with his father and asked if the teenager had aspirations to go to college or university. The father, in adequate but unorthodox English, explained that his son “he is like mother’s father, my family not like this – his brain not for thinking”! Guess he meant that the boy is not academically inclined.
Mindless
Another odd expression has had us simultaneously concerned and amused. One person whom we have a lot to do with has had a few health problems of late. Recently one of his friends (someone we’ve never met) rang us to tell us that our acquaintance was “mindless and in hospital”. We were quite worried. How serious was this? Had he had a nervous breakdown or a stroke? It was pretty hard to tell given that “mindless” was the only information we had and these were quite real possibilities given his circumstances. Unfortunately distance precluded a quick trip to find out how the land lay. It turns out that the gentleman concerned had fainted/collapsed (hence was mindless) and had been admitted to hospital for 24 hours.
Dengue fever
The latest health worry here is Dengue fever. It’s carried by mozzies and there is no preventative stuff you can take for it. There’s been an outbreak, the biggest on record L, and the health authorities advise that only thing you can do to try to limit the risk is to minimise the amount of still water lying around. This is an absolute joke given the state of the drains. Fortunately Negombo is not among the worst affected areas. We only personally know one person who has had it as a result of this current epidemic and she is not from Negombo.
AntiConversion Legislation
This region is awash with various versions of legislation that seeks to stop “unethical” conversions. The legislation is usually couched in terms that stop “allurements” and “enticements”. The recent elections saw nine bikkhus (Buddhist monks) elected to parliament for the first time. Their party and the ruling Government have both formulated legislation of a similar kind. What is intriguing is that the census figures show that there has been no change in the size of Buddhist versus Christian populations in the last three returns. So the legislation is a furphy. But what it will do is embolden those elements in society who would use the opportunity to continue their harassment of Christians worshipping freely and in some cases (as occurred in December 03 and Jan this year) causing acts of violence against worshippers. Our community here is so small that we’re unlikely to be worried about the legislation although we do advertise publicly. So your prayers are invited that Isaiah’s word will be true, as they assuredly will be for Sri Lanka, and these wicked fellows will be thwarted and frustrated in their purpose:
Isa 55:11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper [in the thing] whereto I sent it.
Bye
… for about the fourth last time! We’re due home in less than four months!
Love from
Ken & Dorothy
Postscript from KC: Dorothy’s naturalist observations have just developed further at MY expense. One of our class attendees has recently been to UK and brought back an English Kit Kat for us as a momento. We shared it for afternoon tea but my piece sat on the plate on the table while I made a cup of tea. Dorothy watched with some intrigue while one of our resident geckos snuck out from his home under the dining table and hoed into MY piece of Kit Kat. Not sure how long she watched before she invited me to join her naturalist studies….but can you catch anything from gecko spit???