Negombo News –
August/September ’04
Count
down!
We’ve just moved the calendar onto September and
have become acutely aware that “countdown” has begun! It’s still 12
weeks until we are back home but next month the Oosthuizen’s arrive!
They’re not due until late October but none-the-less --- that’s still
only next month!
The
Mission Matters
Bible
Truth Study Day – August
The 29th August was circled on the
calendar for two reasons. It was the date for BTSD and it was our
wedding anniversary. So how did we celebrate? With about 14 people
here for lunch (rice and curry). The crowds left at about
4.30pm and the celebrations continued with dinner being toast and
peanut butter, jam or vegemite; choose your own spread and make your
own toast!
The program was again successful even though the
numbers were below average. BTSD fell on a Sunday and as a result and
as expected a number of people were not able to come. But there was a
“new face”; Li Hua, a gentleman of Chinese descent who lives in Kandy.
Li Hua has only been on the books for about six months but he has
written to us three for four times with a number of unusual questions
(e.g. regarding the clothing of the High Priest and another about the
“abomination that makes desolate”). We were in Kandy about four weeks
ago and met him and his family and invited them to attend the program
here in Negombo. We were really pleased when Li Hua advised he was
coming. It is almost a three-hour trip by bus so his attendance shows
a fair degree of interest. We’ve since had a letter from him
expressing his appreciation, particularly for the Bible focussed
program – something which he says he has not found elsewhere. Li Hua
told us when he was leaving for the return trip to Kandy that next
month he will bring his family. The proof of the pudding will be in
the eating but with that “promise” and his subsequent letter we are
hopeful that we will see quite a bit more of him in the next couple of
months.
The August program followed the same format and
considered:
Ø
The patience of Job - why does God allow suffering.
Ø
How we got our Bible.
Ø
What is God like? (Discussion session, follow-up to 31st
July program – the character of God).
Ø
Israel’s exodus from Egypt – these things are examples
for us. Considering the parallels between the Israelites’ redemption
as they crossed the Red Sea and baptism.
Hither
and thither
We’ve not been out and about as much in the last
four or five weeks (July/August) as we are normally. A number of
people who we have planned to see have for a variety of reasons not
been free and we’ve been tied to home quite a bit. We did go to Kandy
and saw three people there and then visited three other families on
the way back to Negombo and several weeks before that we had a couple
of days on the south side of Colombo. We’re planning another couple
of visits to the south side over the next few days (3rd – 5th
September).
Translation
Tissa continues to visit us weekly (or twice a
week) and the translation program continues to make good progress.
There’s been a couple more letters written in Sinhala to which Tissa
has replied.
Office
work
We’ve been up to our ears in correspondence.
With an ever-increasing number of people requesting booklets we have
found that the office aspect of the work has increased significantly.
Two years ago we used to receive about 40/45 requests for literature
in response to the literature offers sent out. We now receive about
double that number so of course have twice as many letters to send out
etc and records to update. It takes a lot of time.
Amen
For some time now I (Dorothy) have been
encouraging Zenomy, the eight year-old Sunday School student (soon to
turn nine) to say the Sunday School prayer before our class
commences. Up until recently she’s always declined. But now there
are two other children in the class and nine year-old Shaloma recently
said the prayer. We always have a chat before hand about the things
we can talk to God about in the prayer. Several weeks ago Zenomy was
the only child present so she plucked up the courage and surprised me
by saying “I’ll say the prayer today”. Zenomy had two things she
wanted to tell God and I suggested another two. Both of us were there
with our heads bowed and Zenomy managed items one, two and three
before she had a mental blank. I stage whispered the last one which
she then repeated out loud and swiftly concluded with “Amen” followed
by a big sigh complete with puffed out cheeks and raised eyebrows.
I’m sure God appreciated the effort
J.
Other
Stuff
Negombo
wildlife
In the last edition of NN we reported a snake in
the yard – the first we’d seen in the yard in two years. Can you
believe it, there was a second one about a week later! None since
thankfully J. It may be
that with the yard cleared we are able to see what was previously out
of sight and out of mind.
Frustration plus
We have had an amazing run on dealing with what
seem to incompetent dudes! Over the last 6-8 weeks we have wasted
days and days chasing people to complete what should have been
straight forward tasks. It is so time wasting and so exasparating.
In summary:
Ø
the landlady had taken away the broken down washing
machine and had a temporary replacement installed while the old one
was being fixed. This took six weeks to achieve and more phone calls
than we care to think about and we spent numerous days waiting at home
for promised visits that just didn’t happen. Aaugh. Installing the
second temporary replacement washing machine (they never even got the
first temporary replacement to work) involved knocking a hole in the
solid brick wall between the kitchen and the garage so they could
install a pipe to take the water away. AND an explanation of which
button and dial was which because……it’s ALL in Japanese!
Unfortunately the hole and therefore the protruding pipe are too close
to the sliding door which provides access between the kitchen and the
garage so now we can’t open the door all the way! The pipe they
installed was too narrow and had a serious kink in the middle so after
they men had left and the first load of washing was put on the machine
wouldn’t drain. Another phone call, the men returned and new pipe was
purchased and installed. It was then found that it was too large to
fit under the garage door so they bashed a channel into the concrete
garage floor to accommodate the pipe. All this for a temporary fix
and after six weeks of hand washing every thing in a bucket propped on
the toilet seat. The original machine will be repaired and returned
once replacement parts are sent from Italy; there is no agent in SL
for this brand of appliance. The landlord is now in Italy so
hopefully he’ll get the necessary bits and pieces soon.
Ø
the travel agent owed us a refund on tickets which we’d
purchased but didn’t use when we went to India in May. The refund
process was supposed to take about six weeks. We got action after
about 10 weeks and a multiple number of visits to their office. The
one that achieved a result was when the riot act was read – the refund
became available the next day!
Ø
our kettle, a good one purchased at Abans – the retailer
with the most reputable name in SL – packed it in after we’d had it
for about a month. Two months later with numerous visits to two show
rooms including a trip to Colombo, numerous phone calls, the ultimate
in “run-around” treatment and again the riot act being read the kettle
was repaired and returned to us.
Ø
we purchased a water filter (paid for by the Bible
Mission). It both purifies the water and takes all the yucky tastes
away. It’s great. No more pots of boiling water on the stove top
every second night. It was installed again after numerous phone calls
and a number of days staying at home waiting for the promised service
man to arrive.
Don’t know why all these time-wasting
frustrations have occurred simultaneously but they certainly didn’t do
much for our state of mind. It seemed that in order to get any kind
of action we had to get cross – as long as we were prepared to wait
patiently everyone we were dealing with just kept putting each of the
various jobs on the back-burner. These constant broken promises of
“we will come tomorrow, the day after etc” have been one of the
factors that has really impacted on our mobility.
Waiting
patiently
We’re not the only ones having to wait
patiently. The whole country seems to run on the premise that no-one
has to consider anyone else’s timetable.
There are two or three roads which give access to
Kandy. It normally takes us about ¾ hour to get from the centre of
Kandy to the outskirts – a trip of about 5km! This is largely due to
two factors:
Ø
there is inadequate traffic management where the main
access roads meet up with the roads that take traffic to and from
other regional centres/villages and
Ø
non of the two or three roads which give access to Kandy
are wide enough or in good enough condition to cope with the large
volume of traffic.
During our recent visit to Kandy we saw a bus
pulled over to the side of one of these main roads at a garage.
Fortunately for us we were heading in the other direction. The bus
was not actually off the road but with its left wheels were just off
the bitumen so ¾ of the body of the bus was still on the road (there
is insufficient room to pull right off the road). The bus was full of
passengers and the driver was busy with an air hose checking the
tyres. Cars were banked back for a good 2kms behind the bus as there
was insufficient room to pull out and pass. So not only were the bus
load of passengers waiting for the driver to check the tryes but also
a 2km stretch of cars! It would be a bit like a bus blocking the main
road into Ballarat while the tyres were checked. Thankfully it was
just a check and the bus hadn’t broken down. That would cause a
seemingly endless traffic jam.
Checking the bus tyres while the bus is full of
passengers would be a normal practice here. At home you would never
pull into a petrol station while on the bus but they do here. It is
quite common to see a bus packed with passengers stopped beside a
petrol pump; the bus is refueled en-route rather than at the “depot”.
Ozzies
drop in J
We thoroughly enjoyed a visit from Rob and Leah
Crawford and their two children, Josh (11) and Ellie (9) from Bowral
(NSW). They had come to SL primarily to visit family (Ken, Rita and
Michael Harding) but also managed to visit a couple of contacts and
brethren and sisters and spent some time here with us in Negombo. The
Crawfords spent about five nights in total with us. It was great to
have them here – and we saw a bit more of Ken, Rita and Michael too.
On the Sunday that they were here we had about 12 people at the
meeting (including kids) and most stayed on for lunch.
Raja and Praveen also came down from Nuwara Eliya
during the Crawford’s visit so we had a full house which was fun.
There’s nothing like a bit of company to boost the morale.
Tourists
We’re hoping to see a few spots that we haven’t
visited before we head back home. Sigiriya is a huge squarish rock
formation which just rises out of the ground and was the site of one
of the ancient king’s palaces or similar. Don’t really know much of
its history at the moment but a couple of people have told us it’s
well worth seeing. It’s one of SL’s major tourist attractions.
It’s only about ½ day’s drive from here (we think) heading north-east.
The other spot we’ve had on our wish list for
some time is a place called Trincomalee (Trinco). We had to revise
the earlier draft of this September NN as it too was on our wish list
but now we’ve been there J.
We arrived there about lunch-time on Wednesday 8th and
returned to Negombo on Saturday 11th. Trinco has had an
interesting and chequered history. Control of the area since the
1600’s has moved to and fro between the Dutch, Portuguese, French and
the British. It is now of course independent, as is the rest of SL.
The British used the area as a naval base (harbour) during WWII. Jim
can you please tell Fred Walker of our visit; we saw him when had our
break at home last year and he told us a little bit about his time
there during the war. The Royal Navy (or RAF?) used the lovely calm
waters of the bays to land the flying boats. If our memory is correct
we think Fred used to fly these machines between Perth and Trinco.
Emphasising our mortality
We visited the Commonwealth War cemetery in
Trinco which is on the way to where we were staying. There were
probably about 200 graves of servicemen and women in the cemetery
which is beautifully maintained. We found just one grave of an
Australian RAAF serviceman. But some were quite sad. “An unknown
Burmese soldier” etc. But what emphasized our own mortality were the
descriptions of families which said “Always remembered, Mum, Dad
and….” siblings. And we contemplated that “Mum” and “Dad” would now
be dead and his or her siblings would themselves now be approaching
the time when they may only rarely think of their dear one resting so
far away in a foreign land. “All flesh is grass” God’s word tells
us. But the “Word of the LORD abides for ever”. The one who makes
that Word part of himself or herself ensures their ultimate
immortality when they will no longer be a memory….or simply forgotten,
because no-one knew them. Isn’t the possibility of being remembered
by God a wonderful assurance?
Trinco’s
sights
Trinco and the nearby beach areas are quite
beautiful. Trinco itself is quite a good size and a busy town. It is
set on a series of huge bays which, although subject to quite a bit of
activity, still have lovely sparkly blue water and relatively clean
beaches. We stayed about 15kms north where again the beach and water
was really great. It’s the first time we’ve taken an ocean swim since
we’ve been here. We also enjoyed a couple of walks along the beach
and swimming in the pool. Unfortunately our “time out” was a bit
disjointed as we had ½ day to ourselves the day we arrived. The next
day (Thursday) we had to head back into Trinco as some Mission
business cropped up which needed immediate attention and to access
email and the bank we had to spend the morning on the road. But we
had Friday to ourselves and did not do too much at all
J.
Monkeying around…
We commented that we had seen a large group of
langur monkeys while at Yala in July. These are grey monkeys with a
very black face and an extraordinarily long tail. We also commented
that they seemed quite shy of people and whenever we’ve seen these
monkeys they have always quickly run off. Well, we’ve since found out
that they are not all shy. There was a really big “menagerie” (what
do you call a group of 40 or 50 monkeys?) of them living in the
vicinity of our accommodation. They spent ages and ages in the trees
around the rooms and made themselves quite at home despite the best
efforts of the staff to frighten them away. The “dining room” was out
in the open and one of the staff members told us that if they don’t
frighten the monkeys away they come and overturn the tables and create
absolute havoc. So they are not quite as retiring as we first
thought. They were really boisterous playing with one another and
jumping from rooves to trees and from tree to tree. They jump on the
branches with such force that the branches become their trampolines
and they appear to use the leverage they achieve to enhance their
mobility.
On the Saturday we were back in Trinco visiting
some contacts before the five-hour trip back to Negombo. One of the
contacts we met (a young guy about 18 years old) lives at home with
his mother, his married sister and bro-in-law (Gerard) and their two
children. We had a good chat with him and the whole family. Gerard
has an interesting occupation. He works for a Dutch organisation
involved in social rehabilitation activities that are necessary as a
result of the impact of the civil war. He has invited us to join him
and visit some of the newly re-established villages for which he is
responsible. Gerard assures us we would be quite safe. If we have
time we’ll probably take up this invitation – it would be quite an
interesting exercise and give us a glimpse into the life communities
that have been decimated by war.
There is an old Fort at Trinco, built in the
1600’s (Fort Frederick) and now occupied by the army/navy. Its roads
are open to the public but its buildings are out of bounds. I
(Dorothy) was wanting to go the toilet and we asked some soldiers who
were sitting outside their barracks if there was a public toilet. No
there wasn’t but after a bit of chatting amongst themselves they
suggested I could use the one inside their barracks but warned me it
was “not comfortable”. I was pleased to find a western toilet; quite
clean, running water, etc. The only uncomfortable thing was that it
was set in the middle of a very large bathroom which had double doors
opening into the men’s sleeping quarters and another set of double
doors looking out into the courtyard where the men’s washing was
strung up. Neither set of doors would close properly. I could push
them too reducing the opening a bit but I still had a good view of the
yard and sleeping quarters and of course anyone out there would have
had a good view of me! However the call of nature overrode the risk
factor and fortunately there was no passing traffic while I was there
J.
A bit of
history….and an evidence of Providence (??)
One of the buildings inside the Fort is a large
residence where Colonel Wellesly (later to become the Duke of
Wellington), stayed a long time ago (1799) when recovering from a
wound received in southern India (near Bangalore) when fighting with a
Moslem ruler called Tipu Sultan. Turns out that the Duke was lucky
(or was it Providence?) to have been wounded and therefore grounded
while he recovered as the boat he was supposed to sail home in sunk on
its way back to England with the loss of all lives. However it was
unlucky for Napoleon as it was this same Duke who later walloped him
at the Battle of Waterloo! We spotted the building where he stayed in
the distance but were not allowed to approach it – it currently serves
as the Officers’ Mess. But it is really interesting to see something
like that – it does make history come alive. I (Dorothy) didn’t enjoy
history at school – and still don’t – it usually seems to me to be so
irrelevant to the here and now but my outlook changes quite a
bit when there is something right before my eyes. We’ve also both
seen Tipu Sultan’s summer palace near Mysore in India – another added
point of interest for us J.
By the way – does anyone know the title of a Sultan’s wife? Anyone
who said Sultana is right!
There were heaps and heaps of beautiful spotted
deer wandering around inside the Fort. So much for being pleased at
seeing them at Yala back in July. These ones were much closer to us
and we saw one family patting one of the deer.
War torn
Up until recently we have been hesitant to head
to Trinco as we’d been led to believe that we may not be safe due to
the tensions between the govt and the Tamil Tigers. We also had the
impression that the road conditions were deplorable making the trip
even worse than most travel on SL roads. But the Crawfords and
Hardings went there three of four weeks ago and came back with quite a
different story.
We were pleasantly surprised. The road
conditions by SL standards were quite good for the majority of the
trip. The traffic was a lot lighter than normal (though the drivers
just as bad) and although we passed through numerous police and army
roadblocks we were only stopped once and then immediately waved on
once the cop had a cursory glance at us and in the back seat. But
there were lots and lots of roadblocks and lots of lots of armed
soldiers patrolling the countryside.
The impact of the war is tragic right across the
country but more pronounced in the east than anything else we’ve seen
to date. The standard of housing is very poor. Many of the houses
are made by pasting mud between horizontal timbers and have thatched
rooves. Many are made with thatched walls and rooves. Then there is
also the old corrugated iron version. There are a lot of buildings
which when constructed were more solid than these thatched rooved
homes but they are partially demolished, presumably as a result of the
war and the cost of repairing must be beyond the capacity of the
owners. Generally the standard of living was much, much lower than
those living on the west coast enjoy. But, for those who live in
these impoverished conditions they at least generally have a cleaner
environment to live in than the poverty stricken city dwellers. And
as usual you see some incongruous sights. We spotted one mud/timber
house that had a huge piece of black plastic draped over the thatched
roof (to help with the weather proofing) and all sorts of old junk on
top to hold the plastic down. Then atop all of this there was solar
panel sticking up into the sky providing the household electricity.
Even the very best of the houses were quite
basic.
The schools we saw were either brick walls with
openings for windows and thatched rooves OR were made entirely out of
timber and thatching. Ken says his Dad’s chook house provided better
accommodation! No need to look for the science wing, the computer
wing or sports store – there were none.
It’s a
small, small world
On our way back from Trinco (about 100kms
homeward bound) we stopped for a drink and parked beside a car that
had a Christian sticker on the rear window. Ken commented on it to
the owner and gave him one of the booklets we had with us. We got
chatting and it turns out that this gentleman is a friend of Gerard,
the chap in Trinco who has invited us to tour some of the newly
re-established villages.
So on an island the size of Tassie with a
population of approximately 20 million we met two people on the same
day, in quite independent circumstances, in separate locations,
neither of whom we’ve even heard of before … who are buddies!
The
nature of the work…and one of its challenges
Dorothy comments above about our three day break
being punctuated by Mission business. We’ve commented before about
the fact that our role is not simply preaching and being spiritual
mentors and advisers to those with whom we come in contact. It is
also often about financial counselling, career advice, marriage
guidance etc. We feel incredibly inadequately equipped at times. The
nature of it is that it is a 24/7 experience; there simply is no time
off. We take our mobile with us because we never know when someone
will ring with an emergency problem or wanting to see us etc and we
don’t want to miss any opportunity. We’ve been up at 1.45 am
receiving calls from overseas. We’ve had text messages peppering us
at 2 am. So it is not like being at home and being able to walk away
from such problems or having many, many others with whom a problem can
be shared. We have come to appreciate in very real terms the Apostle
Paul’s stints of 18 months and 2 years in places like Corinth, Ephesus
and Rome. AND perhaps even more so, his words where after a long list
of bruising and painful experiences like shipwreck, a beating, or
imprisonment, he says simply “and besides all this, the daily care of
all the churches”. It must have been a gruelling and difficult
experience for him. We certainly appreciate his words more than we’ve
ever done and understand why those terms were the length of time they
were and are glad that we’ll soon be HOME after 26 months away!
12
weeks?
When we put most of this NN together countdown
had just begun and we had 12 weeks to go; now we’re down to ten
weeks. Better finish straight away or we might be bringing it home
with us!! J
Bye till
next time,
Love
from Ken & Dorothy