Tuesday was the last day of our visit to Sri Lanka, and boy did we make the most of the time left!

In the morning we had the pastors' gathering of the Smyrna Church Network. This was the main event for which we had been asked to come.

The meeting was held at the Norwood church, the church where Josh had preached on Sunday afternoon. There was some very enthusiastic worship and prayer, although none of it made much sense to me- I really must learn some Tamil words. Pastor Sylvester had told me that there had been some incidents of persecution around Sri Lanka in the last 12 months, led by Buddhists at the instigation of the Government. He asked me to bring a word of encouragement to the pastors to stand firm. I shared some passages from Hebrews which talk about not abandoning our faith in the face of opposition.

Although I had prepared what seemed like enough for an hour, I was surprised to find that my talk only went for 40 minutes. I find speaking through an interpreter difficult. Some people say that you can use the part where you are not talking to think of your next point, but I find it is the opposite. My brain seems to build up a momentum so that as I talk, my brain keeps coming up with related ideas. When I am in stop-start mode that doesn't work quite as well for me. I suppose with more practice I will be able to work things out better.

After the meeting we had lunch and headed for the car. Pastor Kanne was taking us back to Negombo. He had lined up a Cell Leaders' meeting at his church to start at 6 pm. He told his young driver to go fast so we could get there in time. Joshua and I were thrown around the back seat as the driver hurried to get us there on time. Normally, you would expect to travel at about 40 km/hr on the road, but we did some long stretches of 60 km/hr. That doesn't sound too bad, but considering the width of the road and the amount of time we spent on the wrong side as we were overtaking other vehicles on blind curves and crests, it was exciting to say the least.

We arrived safely and I shared for abut an hour with the Cell Leaders. It was a good time. Kanne's church operates in both Tamil and Sinnhalese languages. Kanne's daughter Deborah interpreted in both languages. I found that there was more of a flow in this session, and the material that I thought would be lucky to stretch to 30 minutes took up the full hour.

We returned to Kanne's house where I had a shower and a shave. Thankfully, rain over the last few days had lowered the temperatures a little, so the clean water wasn't immediately replaced by a lather of sweat. 🙂

At 10.30 pm we left for the airport where we waited for our 1 am flight. After a 2 hour stop over in Kuala Lumpur, we continued to Sydney where we stayed at the good old Formula 1 motel- very basic, but luxurious compared to Sri Lanka! I was so tired from the day's activity that I fell asleep almost as soon as we sat down on the plane- it was a surprise to find that we were in the air. By the time we got to the motel it was 34 hours since the last time we had been in a bed.

We had to get Joshua to the airport by 6.15 am so it was another early start. I am writing this at the Qantas lounge. My flight to Rockhampton via Brisbane leaves at 11 am. The Apostolic Summit starts tonight- this is always a great time of teaching and fellowship. The only demands on me should be to turn up and listen. After the Summit, which goes through to Sunday, we travel to Yeppoon for a retreat for pastors.

Finally, next Wednesday I return home. I will be glad to get back to my own bed, familiar surroundings and of course my lovely wife.

Kanne has some plans already for my next visit. In the past my focus has been on Bogawantalawa, and just doing ad hoc meetings as opportunities present themselves. Kanne wants to start training up a new generation of evangelists and church planters, to go through the village areas of Sri Lanka to preach the gospel in places where there is no church. He is especially concerned for the north of the country which suffered badly through the civil war. I've offered that next time I could possibly do three mornings of three hours to teach whatever we think would be useful. We will see how that develops over the next year.