Today, we had a change of plan. Originally I was to share with the pastors and assistants of two of the branch churches. However they decided to postpone that meeting until next week. Instead I spent some time meeting with the leadership of the main Bogawantallawa church and sharing where I had come from and similarities and differences with here and Australia.

Later we went for a bit of a sight-seeing tour, looking at the fantastic Devon Falls and a huge natural lake.

The tea pickers are paid about 400 rupees ($4) for a day's work on average. They are expected to pick 14 kg of tea leaves to earn this. This was a group bringing their haul to be weighed.

Road workers have the same work ethic the world over.

Here is the lake which I did not find out the name of, with some tea sampling activity which we undertook at the locality.

Devon Falls is just magnificent

This is Pastor Fernando who oversees the church welfare projects with his brother who is also a pastor in the town of Hatton

On returning here we went up to an evening prayer meeting in the tiny home of one of the tea plantation workers. The church has decided to set up as many as 30 cell meetings in the district using everybody who volunteered to lead them. The leaders then draw together groups of people who want to meet to learn about God. The group tonight meets at the home of a Hindu man and apart from the leader and his daughter none of the people are christians. Yet there were several testimonies there of how God had blessed them since the group had started meeting.

This girl had her own camera and took photos during the meeting. I let her play with mine so she took one of me.

Tomorrow we will visit a nearby village and an Australian couple who run a mission and orphanage there. In the afternoon I will attend a meeting of young mothers who are being sponsored by Compassion to undertake training in nutrition and other family issues. There are 40 mothers on the programme. The idea is to help those who want to be helped and in the long term possibly have their children helped right through school.