I Left My Heart In Sri Lanka

We’ve travelled to Sri Lanka often enough that it’s familiar and comfortable. Two short flights from our base, it’s on the same time zone, so no jet lag this trip. (If you have experienced jet-lag, you understand that this is a wonderful thing)  Peeling off layers of clothes as the heat and humidity embraces us, we are welcomed by our friends and hosts Layasing and Deepthi.  

The Peacock is Sri Lanka's National Bird

During our three-week stay in Sri Lanka, we found ourselves encouraging several people with God's promise that this would be a year where the 'fruit was sweet'.  That God is bringing his people into a season of mature, sweet tasting fruit, not immature and sour fruit.

Why is this encouraging?  Because as you work for Jesus in a country where only 7.4% of the people believe in Jesus - it can be discouraging. It's natural to want to see results 'now', but fruit that is sweet takes time to mature.  God’s promise is that we will reap the harvest – if we don’t become weary and give up. (Galatians 6:9)

Eye Clinics are an effective tool to share the love of Jesus while meeting a practical need.  We travelled to four different villages, performed basic eye exams for 321 people, gave free eyeglasses as needed, and prayed for everyone.  These are people who work hard for a living, many barely making enough to feed their family. Eyeglasses are totally unaffordable – but desperately needed:  to read, to pluck tea leaves, to clean the rice and lentils that are the mainstay of their daily diet.  The message that Jesus loves them softens hearts to receive the message of salvation through Jesus Christ.  

Sharing a word of encouragement with believers in the village of Panama was a humbling experience.  They are continually persecuted for their faith.  The Buddhist monk who controls the village has declared that ‘there will never be a church here.’  Yet they continue strong in their faith, meeting in home groups. During the Sunday service in Siyambalanduwa, Gary shared a powerful word on ‘Another Touch’.  After service we were honored to set the ceremonial cornerstone for a ten-foot expansion to the church a hall - a simple concrete structure that is filled to overflowing!  What a wonderful problem to have. 

Weekdays found us embracing our inner child and acting out Bible stories for the students at Adara Sevana – a school for the differently abled.  Their smiles and hugs convey their joy, even though they are unable to verbally communicate with us.  After morning chapel we spent time just being with them: sorting and stringing beads to help with hand-eye coordination and basic cognitive function or working on our laptops while they did their letters and numbers.

You are an important part of reaching hearts for Jesus through your faithful prayers, giving and ongoing encouragement. that enables us to share His love wherever He sends us. Thank you!  

Little pieces of our hearts are left in every nation we visit - Sri Lanka continues to call us back.  

May your heart be drawn deeper into the heart of God.  May His plans and purposes for your life be your priority every day.

The Journey Continues ~ Gary and Pat

Our Hearts are Overwhelmed - Sri Lanka

Two weeks into our time in Sri Lanka and our hearts are overwhelmed with the goodness of the Lord.  So many experiences, impressions, emotions - we’re on sensory overload.  

We are overwhelmed as we reflect on:  

• Our great joy to be back in Sri Lanka after almost 5 years. Working with our ministry partners Deepthi and Layasing, we slipped back into fellowship and ministry as if no time had passed.
  
• The overabundance of beauty.  Sri Lanka Means Resplendent land - and it truly is that. Photos provided as proof.
  
• Gracious people who organize and host the eye clinics and services and prepare delicious local dishes for lunch: even toning down the spice level so as not to overwhelm our western tastebuds (although Gary has a missionary stomach  and can eat the spiciest of foods without concern).
  
• The extreme poverty and seemingly un-ending need. Sri Lanka suffered through 25 years of civil war, ending in 2009. The nation was beginning to recover, when the world shut down during the pandemic.  Sri Lanka experienced a severe economic collapse beginning in 2019 and their Prime Minister was forced to resign. Costs of basic necessities have increased 400% over the past 3-4 years. There is little help for the people, their suffering is real.
  
• Gratitude that we can come alongside and show the love of Jesus in a practical way – by giving eyeglasses to those who could never afford them.

Eye vision clinics provide a unique opportunity to serve the needs of people on both a physical level and a spiritual level. Local church workers, pastors, evangelists are involved, meet the people and follow up with them regardless of religion or church affiliation. 

First weekend: Deniyaya  By 5:30 Friday morning the van is loaded with eye glasses, exam equipment, overnight bags, drinking water.  We drive three and a half hours southeast, much of it on the country’s new E-01 toll-road which greatly reduces our drive time.  

Because of the potential for persecution by the Buddhists in this area, the eye clinic was very low key.  With the goal of developing positive relationships in the neighborhood, news of the eye clinic was discreetly spread by word of mouth.

During four and a half hours, sixty-six (66) people had their eyes examined with assistance and translation by local church workers. The local church workers had helped Deepthi and Layasing in another community a few months ago and were very organized and efficient. 

Fifty-six (56) people received glasses. Many had cataracts so severe glasses could not help. Younger people were experiencing eyestrain because of excessive time on their devices. They were given some basic eye care instruction and were taught exercises to strengthen their eyes.

Because of the very real danger of increased persecution, we only prayed with those who were already followers of Jesus; or those who specifically said they believed Jesus could heal them.  This helps to avoid the accusation of 'buying' conversions by giving free eyeglasses.

Sunday morning service at Diniyaya – Joyful praise to the Lord went up from the roof top terrace of a local hotel, rented for Sunday morning’s church service.  Gary shared the Word, communion was received.  What a joy to worship with our Sri Lankan family. 

Second weekend - Udugama & Hiniduma The last time an eye clinic was held in these two villages was October 2017 and my sister Cyndy was with us. Much has changed in the past seven years.  Click here to check out posts from 2017 - Udugama      Hiniduma a    Hiniduma b  

Udugama – is just two and a half hours from Moratuwa.  Friday’s eye clinic was held on an estate that produces palm oil, rubber and tea. Estates or gardens are basically plantations. Tea garden villages are built up over time, workers live and raise their families right where they work.

With three people doing the eye exams, and Pat dispensing glasses, we saw eighty-four (84) people in three hours. All but 6 or 7 were given glasses.   Tea and a local snack were served mid-morning.  A delicious and bountiful lunch followed the eye clinic.

Early evening we drove an hour further south to Galle to visit a brother from the Buttala Church who was in hospital for full checkup - high blood sugar.  Since we were right on a bay of the Indian Ocean, we found a seafood restaurant and enjoyed prawns, cuttlefish and seafood fried rice. Along with Sri Lanka’s most famous beverage – Elephant House ginger beer. 

The local Holiday Inn in Udugama provided basic accommodations (including air conditioning, but not hot water) for SLR 3,000 each; equal to US $10.  We seemed to be the only guests in this beautiful large facility, which apparently stays in business with income from their events hall.  

Hiniduma was a short twenty minute drive on Saturday morning. The eye clinic was held in  the Methodist church house.  People waited patiently under the shade of large trees or in the covered meeting hall where church services are held. 

Eighty eight (88) people were seen in just under four hours, and most were given glasses.  Sister Deepthi also checked several children and youth and taught them exercises to do for vision convergence - which happens when we are on the computer or devices for long periods of time. 

Mid-morning we were served coffee made from locally grown Sri Lankan coffee beans. It was enjoyed with a local dessert crepe rolled around a honey coconut filling and slices of lovely chocolate layer cake, all on very pretty China. 

The church ladies prepared and served a bountiful  lunch, featuring a  special local vegetable.  In Sinhala it’s called “paththra koku” which translates as ‘newspaper hooks’.  Two teenage girls went out and foraged some plants to show us how it looks before cooking; turns out it is a variety of fiddlehead fern. Another new taste experience. 

Plans are to be in Nurawa Eliya for our final weekend. Our last visit there was in February 2016 – click to read Cyndy’s account of that drive. (note this was before the toll road was constructed).

Look for future posts on Sri Lanka and Adara Sevana – a school for the differently-abled. 

Each of you – have a part in the ongoing work God is doing in Sri Lanka.  There is a ripple effect as hearts are opened to hear more about Jesus, families are changed, communities are healed; the long term impact that we will only know in eternity.

~ The Journey Continues -  Pat & Gary

Sri Lanka - Resplendent Island

The ten days we spent in Sri Lanka went by very quickly and were very productive.  This was our 4th trip together and we quickly settled into our Sri Lankan home in the guest room at Adara Sevana - a school for the 'Differently Abled".  Each morning we joined the students for daily chapel which included a short Bible story narrated and acted out by - you guessed it - Gary and I!  They enjoyed our amateur dramatics. It was a blessing to pray and speak a blessing over them.  We also shared a special lunch on Children's Day.

Our Sri Lankan ministry partners,  Layasing and Deepthi, have caught the vision and seen the fruit of the eye clinic ministry.  Deepthi has pursued her education over the past 3 years and is almost a fully licensed optician. Her training and certification legitimatizes the eye clinics with the Ministry of Health.   Eye clinics were held in the city of Kandy and village of Akureesa.   We saw about 230 people and gave out 200 pair of eye glasses. Everyone received prayer, and a touch of Jesus' love in a practical way.

Worship and the Word were shared in Sunday and Wednesday services, and a special weekend revival service in Kandy.  It is always encouraging to worship with The Church wherever God sends us.

Deepthi and Layasing are wonderful hosts, graciously making sure we had all that was needed to make our stay in Sri Lanka a joy.  Not to mention the delicious Sri Lankan food!

A part of our heart remains in Sri Lanka.  God is moving, the church is seeing increase – remember to pray for them as they shine the light of Jesus in this primarily Buddhist nation.

The journey continues ~ Pat

DISCLAIMER: Due to our travel schedule and sketchy internet - Journal updates are not in real-time or even in chronological order. 

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 

Thambalagamuwa: Day 1 of 2

Well, grand totals from today's eye clinic in Thambalagamuwa set a new record for a single day clinic thus far:
 -186 people's eyes examined
 -141 pairs of glasses given away.
And this all in 6 hours and 20 minutes of working time.
Exams started at 9:40 AM, paused for a short lunch break in the early afternoon, and the last one finished at 5:05 PM.

There is a bit of a back story to this amazing day unfolding as it did.
The Methodist pastor's requests to build a church have been denied by local officials. But when he brought a request for permission to hold the eye clinic at a private location in the district, the same officials said, "Why don't you hold it at our district government offices?" So, this morning's clinic started with formal greetings and addresses from several district representatives, as well as the local pastor who laid the groundwork & coordinated logistics.

We saw a fair number of students in the morning, many brought by their parents with permission from the school officials.

During both the morning and afternoon, many area police officers took their break time to wait for an exam. We saw this as a positive opportunity to build goodwill relationships with more local officials.

The caption that sprung to mind for this next scene was:
How many Reverends does it take to examine the eyes of a Buddhist monk?
(From these pictures, the answer, apparently, is three!)

The entire day was an amazing example of eye clinics - or any relevant answer to an actual need - opening doors and building relationship bridges - and relationship opens doors of the heart and mind for the very relevant Gospel of Jesus to be heard.
-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

On To Hiniduma

The rain kept pounding down  intermittently during Saturday's eye clinic in Udugama, but paused for our walk from and back to the car! 

The van couldn't traverse the last little bit so we got in a nice little hike down to the meeting hall. 

In 3.5 hours, we set up (& later packed up) 2 exam stations - one each for distance and near-sighted testing - and a dispensary for diagnosed strengths of glasses, examined the eyes of 53 people, and gave out 38 pairs of eyeglasses.

With the continuing rains, our Sunday plans were jeopardized, from a safety standpoint. Since Sunday's location was just further up the main road another 15 km, we booked it up there to say hello to the pastor and see the mission house and church location.

Rain persisted the entire drive up and back, and the water level in the river kept rising, with water across the road in a couple places. (Fear not - it wasn't over the tiny tyres on the van.)

In comparison to the murky high water pictured, this river is normally more of a trickling flow. 

The turquoise mission house pictured has a second story on the right side. This is the house I mentioned yesterday that flooded in May up to the second story roof, where the family was rescued. 

Just before the flood in May 2017, Buddhist leadership organized opposition to this church in Hiniduma being built. In response to the flood, the church pastors and people offered much needed aid to others in the community, and that was the end of that round of opposition. 

Many homes along the way had also been  flooded out at the same time. Some buildings and roads are still undergoing repair. This station for the #10 bus route was flooded to right below the roofline. Since May, it has been repaired and repainted. 

BUT today, prayers were answered with clear skies, both at our hotel in Hikkaduwa and up in the hills at Hiniduma. 

Even one of the little local orphan dogs is enjoying the clear view.

Breakfast was on time & delicious, and we are on our way with high expectations for both the morning service and afternoon eye clinic. 

Then we head back to our main base in Moratuwa, to prepare for next week's clinics in Trincomalee.