We arrived in Colombo at nearly midnight local time (4.30 am NSW time). It took us 14 hours from when we left Sydney, including the stopover at Kuala Lumpur. Because our bags had been checked through from Sydney, it took longer to get them as they must have been the furthest point in the depths of the plane.

A short time later we met Pastor Sylvester and his brother Kane who lives in Colombo and pastors a church there. It was about 1.30 by the time we collapsed into bed. The humidity was quite oppressive to us and made it hard to sleep despite having a ceiling fan going all night. It wasn't terribly hot but we've discovered the dry air of Narrabri makes it really hard to adjust to anywhere near the ocean.

I woke to hear the Muslim call to prayer and thought "You're not in Narrabri now!"

This morning I preached at the Smyrna Church. they have about 50 people there and are just starting to move into cell groups in a big way, seeing some early successes there.

The worship was good. People were enthusiastic in their praise of the Lord. They have an unusual approach to prayer in that the leader would say "Let us pray for the government" and then they would all pray out loud simultaneously. Then the process would be repeated with the next prayer point.

I preached about how people approach church from the point of being a consumer or a servant, but God wants us to be sons in a family of faith. I had my first experience of preaching with two interpreters, one into Tamil the other into Sinhala. It worked well once we got into the rhythm of it. The pastor said it was a very timely message for the congregation.

After church we prayed for just about everybody there, including some really desperately needed healing.

We had lunch back at Pastor Kane's house. I really was not hungry and didn't eat much.After preaching I think I was pretty well worn out and my body clock was out of sync.

We then started the long journey up the mountains to Bogowantalawa. If you can imagine driving up to Mount Kaputar with much much more traffic on the narrow road and people walking all along the way then you start to get a feeling for it. The rule of the road seems to be only give way to vehicles bigger than yours. Overtaking on blind corners is encouraged at all times. If in doubt blow the horn. The twists of the road are amplified by the stop-start nature of the traffic due to having to suddenly pull over for a bus coming the other way or dodge the pot holes while avoiding the man carrying a load of wood on his back.

We stopped at the Big Teacup for a really nice cup of tea. This would be tea lovers; paradise being in the place where they grow and process the tea.

Finally we arrived here after a 4 hour trip. We met Sylvester's family and friends.

By the time we had dinner at 8 pm my stomach clock had adjusted well to local time.

Grant is enjoying his first trip outside of Australia and is yet to find a food he doesn't like. I found that when he was praying for people after church this morning he prayed with faith and boldness that was good to see.

Tomorrow I speak to pastors from all over the country who are gathering to encourage each other. They are part of a network of churches planted by Swedish missionaries in the 1940's. It will be good to share with them.

I have some photos, but right now I'm feeling too tired to post them. Perhaps I will be able to do that tomorrow evening.

We discovered that the Sri Lanka Rupee is worth less than one cent in Australian money.

It is almost impossible to buy Sri Lankan Rupees in places like airports or banks in Australia. Instead of physically bringing currency in, I bought a "Cash Passport" which is a Visa debit card put out by Travelex. You put on an amount in Australian Dollars and then use any ATM to get cash in the local currency. The only catch is you have to find an ATM which has instructions in English.

Tomorrow I will post some pictures and a report on our meeting with the pastors.