Thambalagamuwa: Day 2 of 2

Today we returned to the general area of Thambalagamuwa, but another 15 or 10 minutes further up the road, at the home of one of the members of the church.
As always, people were already waiting well ahead of the clinic start time. As the day continued, people kept arriving via foot, motorcycle, tuk tuk, and motor scooter, and waited patiently in the shade of the trees and patio in our host's yard.

Totals exceeded what was expected to be a short day. In 4 hours & 50 minutes active working time, we gave:
 148 total eye exams &
 128 pairs of eye glasses.

That's 148 distinct individuals who thought it worth their time to wait, sometimes hours, for a basic eye exam, in hopes of receiving help for vision impairment. And that's 148 people of differing religions and backgrounds who received time and personal attention and care from our team - including our host family, two local pastors, and one pastor's wife - who all agreed it is a privilege to be a tangible & useful expression of how Jesus loves.

Please be encouraged right where you are: You don't have to travel away from home to be used by God to show His love.  It doesn't have to be the biggest or the most lavish anything - you just have to look, and God will help you see a genuine need you have the ability to fill.


In case you wondered at the difference between the numbers of eye exams and distributed glasses, there are varied reasons some people do not receive eyeglasses at these clinics.
The best scenario is when they have perfect vision. Other reasons are typically for situations we cannot cover: different prescriptions in each eye, cataracts, glaucoma, injury to the eye, or extreme prescriptions strengths.

This gentleman informed us that he is a tailor and the reading glasses he received today will be very helpful in his daily work.



















After we'd finished the last exam and packed up our gear, our gracious hosts served tea in a traditional village manner, with chunks of hakuru or jaggery, a raw sweetener made from reduced kithul palm tree sap - you take a small bite of the hakuru then a sip of tea - yum!



On our return journey, we again debarked to portage at a very deep and rough section of the road. The little van has been impressive on its inaugural road trip with 5 adults and eye clinic luggage, but this would have been asking too much.





 
Once back in Trincomalee, we refueled with dinner at Trinco Lanka Seafood Restaurant, owned by friends of the local pastor - amazing fresh seafood! In a show of sisterly love, I gladly gave up my shrimp heads for Gary to enjoy.

Tomorrow we return to the same home for morning church service, and then continue our 6-ish hour drive back to Moratuwa.

This is a perfect illustration of the contrast in both geography and population between my home state of Montana and the nation of Sri Lanka. On developed roads in Sri Lanka (population: just under 21 million), with villages and towns peppered along many segments, the 6-ish hours covers about 270 km, or 168 miles. 
In Montana (population: just over 1 million, in a land mass almost 6 times that of Sri Lanka) the drive of 165 miles from Kalispell to Drummond will take just under 3 hours, through mountain & lakeside communities. You may see a few cows, deer, elk, bear - but not an abundance of three-wheel tuk-tuks. (Note: Click the text links for more information.)

 

And then Monday we rest up and prep for the week ahead - me to travel homeward, and Pat & Gary and the local team to prep for services in Moratuwa and eye clinics in Buttala. We appreciate all your support for this journey and your continued prayers.

-Cyndy 

Tuesday and Wednesday Gatherings

Tuesday morning, we were delighted to join the morning chapel singing and storytime at Adara Sevana, a local privately funded school for the differently-able. We noticed a significant change of increased calm and joy in several of the young people who were noticeably agitated on our February 2016 visits. Each student was thrilled to receive a kazoo that Kim Cline sent for them. This was a perfect gift, as none of them had ever before seen a kazoo, and they all enjoy participating in the music segments of their day. Once we figured out how to explain you don''t blow to create the noise, the kazoos were soon added into song accompaniments!

Tuesday evening, we were privileged to join a weekly prayer meeting hosted in a home in a fishing village right along the ocean, just 10 minutes drive from our hotel in Moratuwa. 29 people attended, half of whom were children who all stayed through the hour-long meeting. The meeting is led by a couple who both teach at Adara Sevana. They also started a Thursday evening children's program in the village, currently with 21 regular participants.

Wednesday evening, Gary spoke at the weekly interdenominational service held in the same facility that is home to Adara Sevana. He shared spiritual insight to the principle that we attain or become like what we actually expend our time and focus on. For example, spending notable amounts of time on social media feeds, TV, movies, etc, results in our thoughts and perception of life being influenced by this content. By the same principle, spending time with Jesus and ingesting the content of His Word results in our viewpoints aligning more and more to His. About 60 people came to the service; many requested prayer after the teaching. As we prayed for individuals, it was wonderful to see in person that there is no language barrier when it comes to prayer.

Our next clinics are in Thambalagamuwa, a village near the port city of Trincomalee, on Sri Lanka's northeast coast. 
We'll keep you updated!

Hiniduma Update

Apologies for the update delay.
Since arriving Sunday evening back at our base in Moratuwa, we've had a busy few days visiting Adara Savana, the school for differently-abled, sorting glasses for our next clinics, and a couple outside events. (Plus trying to sleep just a bit...and enjoying some tasty "short eats", as they call certain traditional snack foods prepared by local vendors.)

To catch up, I'll focus this post on our last eye clinic.

After resigning ourselves to not being able to travel to Sunday's planned location due to flood danger, we were blessed with clear skies, and were able to join with the local church in Hiniduma for Sunday morning service.

Immediately following the service, we set up the clinic and got to work with exams and dispensing eyeglasses. The pastor, his mother, and sister graciously opened their home near the church to host the afternoon's clinic.

To reiterate, this home was flooded up to the roof just in May 2017.
It's a bit hard to tell from this next picture, but the still-high river level is currently 15-20 feet down the fairly steep riverbank behind their home. The floodwaters in May came up so quickly that some - including the pastor's family - had to be rescued from their rooftops, but we heard testimonies of thankfulness that they were able to get to safety, even though many homes required extensive repair.

We were inspired by the resourcefulness and lack of self-pity in the midst of heart-breaking and extremely difficult scenarios.

One gentlemen attending the clinic shared that he needed glasses because his were lost in the chaos of the flood.



 This little grandma, who is 76 years old, still has to support herself through the backbreaking work as a tea picker on a local estate. It has become very hard for her to even see the select leaves she must pluck. Her prescription ended up being a Coke-bottle-bottom -6.00 strength - the strongest glasses we had with us.

And why, you may ask, is this gentleman threading a needle? He works as an umbrella repairman, and so this is the perfect practical double-check of his diagnosed prescription.

In 2 hours and 40 minutes, 98 people had their eyes examined, and 83 received free eyeglasses, thanks to the generosity of many of you reading this. Thank you so much for being a vital part of this exciting journey in Sri Lanka.

Tomorrow we drive about 6 hours northeast to Trincomalee, where we will hold clinics in nearby settlements on Friday and Saturday. I've never been to this area, and am looking forward to seeing new regions of this beautiful country and meeting more of its gracious people. Stay tuned!

- Cyndy

Heading to Bibile: Week Three

Winding roads through the mountainous heart of Sri Lanka brought us up into majestic scenery, and down through 18 hairpin curves.  (known here as elbows)

Stopped for fresh fruit - local farm to table at its best. Refreshing stop to stretch our legs and enjoy a new taste experience of wood apple juice with milk.. tastes like a milk shake flavored with really good apple sauce.

One of the benefits of Layasing knowing every Methodist minister in Sri Lanka - is arranging to park on the church grounds in the city of Kandy where parking is at a premium.

Heavy rains cleared for Friday's all day eye clinic at Bibile, checking 130 people including villagers, agricultural workers,  school children, police officers, retired military, a Buddhist monk, and a witch doctor. (Yes the practice of going to a village witch doctor for cures,  potions and spells is still a very real part of life).

Saturday we drove to Mahiyanganaya. Morning service with about 18 new Believers a house church.  This is what pioneering a church looks like in Sri Lanka. After a delicious lunch prepared by the church ladies,  the eye clinic saw 63 people and gave out 53 pair of glasses. Light dinner of hoppers  (egg and plain) and we called it a night.

Sunday Morning we were served  breakfast at the mission house. A Sri Lankan specialty of milk rice with your choice of chili sauce, or sweetened with  a coconut honey mixture (made from coconut syrup and coconut meat).

The Church grounds have  room to grow pepper (shown green immature, plus ripened and dried)  when ready, they climb bamboo poles to harvest the pepper berries.  Also papaya, banana, and a fruit that when dry, the flesh becomes fluffy and is used as cotton to stuff pillows.

Our weekend literally winds down with a 6+ hour return trip to our home base in Moratuwa.  Stay tuned for a report on our final week's adventure.  Thank you cannot begin to express our appreciation for your love, prayers and support ~ Pat

If you are wondering what Cyndy is doing back in Montana, visit her photo blog at www.Montana1aDay.com .

Moratuwa Once Again: Sunday In Sri Lanka

The seeming whirlwind of the past couple days has brought us 'home' to our hotel in Moratuwa, with its close up views of oceans and trains - two of my favourite things (after raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens).

The staff may have shuddered upon seeing me again.: 'There's the lady who's clueless about the call button...' Sadly, my button pushing incident on the ANA flight in didn't prepare me for the arrangement of switches at our Moratuwa hotel. Our first night here I doggedly clicked away until I hit the right switch to turn off the bedside lamps. Belatedly, I realized that the fourth square didn't actually click - because it's a BUTTON. With a very faint outline of a bell on it. Oops. Another great opportunity to offer profuse apologies. 

Pat and Gary will be based here the first half of the next couple weeks, but I leave tomorrow at 4 AM from our hotel. Well, we all leave at 4 AM, since Pat and Gary are kindly coming to see me off. Partly because they want to avert anything similar to me getting on the wrong shuttle  to the wrong baggage claim at the Vegas airport. But mostly because they love me. It's a bit unbelievable that two weeks have already zipped past. But they were active and fruitful weeks.

Since I have to take a melatonin tab and go to bed soon, I'll keep it brief tonite. But I'll post more about the last few days (and one whole foodie post - I heard Kathy is waiting for that one!) while I'm journeying home, alone, since I'll have plenty of time by myself (insert sappy crying emoticon here). Odds are more realistic that I'll have additional interesting conversations with total strangers like the young Buddhist monk next to me on the flight into Colombo. (If I were on Facebook, he'd already be my friend.) 

I will miss Pat and Gary; the time together has been amazing. And I can't think of a more delightful last morning than one spent with our extended church family. We left the bird sanctuary bungalow just after 6:30 this morning, driving a couple hours through miles and miles of switchbacks and terraced tea estates to join in the 8:30ish service at the Methodist church in Dunsinane.

This happened to be Communion Sunday.  Before the adults come up to receive the sacraments, all the children came forward and each were given a candy - what a wonderful way to be included and to learn that the life found  in Christ is sweet. 

Worship was rousingly rhythmic and fully engaged. And, again, we were privileged to pray for people after Gary's rousing and relevantly illustrated sermon, which was as rousingly interpreted by Reverend Richard, who travelled with us from Nuwara Eliya. To do this, he had to ride the bus for over two hours to get home, and Sumi, his lovely wife, covered the preaching at their own church. We were blessed time and again by this kind of selfless generosity through many people. 

After service and a short cup of tea, we looked in briefly as Reverend Richard greeted the students gathered in the classroom adjacent to the church sanctuary. On Sundays, the church hosts classes for the children of tea plantation workers, taught by an English teacher who drives in from his main school location (& he just happens to be Buddhist). We were sent on our way by smiles and friendly waves.t

It's off to beddy-bye for us. Oo - but not until after we eat this lovely watalappam (very special Sri Lankan custard that reminds me all at once of the most amazing bread pudding, pecan pie, rice pudding and flan) just delivered - and lovingly  prepared by - the indefatigable Deepthi!

More to come over the next travel days! - Cyndy

Wednesday Evening: Moratuwa

Wednesday evening's service, held in the same location as Adara Sevana, was a lively blend of music, preaching, and prayer. Funny enough, I knew most of the songs we sang, but hearing them in Sinhala blanked out the English words in my brain. Thankfully, I retained the melodies, and could draft along with the local language surrounding me.

One purpose of the service is to bring together Christians from many churches and denominations, thus it is deliberately scheduled from 6:00 to 7:00 PM, to allow people time to also attend service at their home church, particularly during the Lenten season. Gary shared a very direct and faith-stirring message on the eternal, inimitable, life-altering power in the Blood of Christ, after which many people came forward to receive prayer. 

Praying for people is always a privilege, and we all step forward in faith every time we pray. But a difference in language between a pray-er and pray-ee presents an interesting reliance and stretching of another sort, when you have no idea what the person wants prayer for  - and even when they tell you, you can only nod and smile, and dive in! (And I'm sure there's stretch and oddness on the pray-ee side as well!)

My sister and I have chatted a bit this trip about how we absorbed at a very young age that God was always with us, and He has promised that He hears us when we pray. I think this sureness of His nearness provides a launching pad from which to pray for people, resting in the confidence that it is God's job to see and meet the need, and we get the easy work of paying attention and being willing to go along for the ride. It's the most amazing, rewarding interaction - with both God and people He loves dearly - and we really need to be available to do more of it, no matter where we are in the world. (Big note to self...!)

Thursday, we are up with the birds and headed to stay at a bird sanctuary in Nuwara Eliya, which will be home base as we conduct four more eye clinics nearby on Friday and Saturday. The weather forecast there is significantly cooler - similar to late spring in Montana - which will be a nice change. 

Thank you for journeying with us this far; please stay tuned for more of our travels! - Cyndy

Tuesday In Moratuwa, Sri Lanka

Today (whatever that is on your side of the world!), please join in a brief tour of our Tuesday in Moratuwa:

Morning chapel and exercise time at Adara Sevana, the school Deepthi and Layasing have here in Moratuwa for 'differently-abled' young people. There is nothing available for them in the regular schools, so without Adara Savana, which means 'Love Shelter', they would just sit at home and not learn and grow at all.

J

Lovely rooftop terrace views while we enjoy a cup of tea (to recuperate from all that exercise!)

Stop to see the resell shop that helps support Adara Savana - and I mean a literal stop just to see; we just opened the van door and said hello, as we still had to go to the bank, pharmacy, and produce stand, then stop to pick up lunch.

Takeaway fried rice and chicken on our balcony for lunch - yum!

Examining and cleaning 16 boxes of newly purchased eyeglasses, with a break for tea and lemon biscuits - I will miss tea time!

Since it was raining, we hopped in a 3-wheeler to dinner - too much fun! The swoosh of red on the right is a small bus, very close, in a small lane. 

The cook made Pat's egg hopper fresh on the little griddle cooking promontory out front of the shoppe.

A walk back in the dark - yes, with flashlights - capped the evening. 

Wednesday, we fast and prepare for an early evening service, which is kind of a weekly unity service attended by congregants from many different churches in the area. The early time frame still allows them plenty of time to attend the service at their home church. (Double-scoop servings are always delightful