just like old times...

last week we decided to visit our old stomping grounds, the YWCA, to show my mother where we had lived for 2 weeks as well as to relish in the nostalgia.

we talked to the security guard whom we had all grown so fond of.

every time we walked in or out he was cheerful and excited to see us.

he had always brightened up our day!

this is a pretty accurate representation of what our living conditions for the first 2 weeks were like.

although bugs like this were an everyday occurrence, we grew to love the Y. we were actually kind of sad when we left for a new hotel. the Y may have been buggy and hot and served us the exact same breakfast every morning while mrs. weiss bobbed her head in the corner asking us to buy water from her, but it was home.

RIP YWCA...we liked you. but not enough that we'd move back. 

............just being honest.

i am ashamed.

i, heather christianne leith, grammar and spelling stickler, incorrectly utilized an apostrophe on the blog header.

i don't care enough to go change it, but i do care enough that it's eating me away every time i look at our blog.

i am deeply and sincerely sorry, from the bottom of my heart.

i only hope you have enough love in your heart to forgive me and pretend that that apostrophe is invisible.

ministry update!

we have done some enjoyable things and plan to do more as far as ministry with the kids at mattakkuliya.

we started by showing them the JESUS film after about 2 weeks of getting to know them and playing with them. we had tried to show it earlier, but we had problems with the projector and so we had to put it off. that was just fine with us because we knew God had it planned all along.

the day we showed it went really well! the kids were glued to the screen the entire time, and afterwards a woman from campus crusade talked with them. she explained that Jesus loved each of them and wanted a relationship with them, and all they had to do was invite him into their hearts. after praying with them, she asked them to raise their hand if they had Jesus in their hearts...and almost every single kid raised their hand. it was an amazing moment.

after that the man who runs the center talked to the kids some more and told them that religion was not what mattered (there are kids from all different religious backgrounds), but it was their relationship with God.

we all know that the kids got a lot out of that day, but obviously it couldn't just be left at that. my mom had the idea to act out some Bible stories with them and explain the significance.

we decided to do the story of Jesus calming the sea and then the story of the demon-possessed man and the pigs. i told the first one and tali told the second, with tash translating and the kids acting it all out. it was pretty chaotic, to say the least! we think that went alright but we don't know if they REALLY got a lot out of it because of how crazy and high-energy everyone was that day.

so! we how have a plan for when we go back on thursday, our last day there (sad). my mom will do a recap of what they've learned so far, and then emily and melissa will share their testimonies. after that michelle will walk through the Evangicube with them and go more in depth about Jesus and how to have a relationship with him. we are really excited for that! please pray that the Lord will speak through all of us and that He'd open their little hearts to who He is. 

as far as the littlest kids, we told them the story of Noah's ark and had them involved, complete with a procession of animals (played by all of them) into the boat, a knee-slapped rainstorm, and a rainbow craft the next day. they all loved it and we loved seeing their faces light up as my mom told the story and ashane translated.

so that is what has been going on as far as ministry for the past week at mattakkuliya! pictures coming (:

as for here in kandy, my mom did an amazing job putting together a last minute sermon and preaching for the sunday service at the church here. after she was able to pray for people that came up to the front during prayer time. i think a lot of people were touched by what she had to say, and i know God used her in ways she isn't even aware of on that day.

during that same day, michelle and i helped out in sunday school. i taught the kids and the teacher a song ("sing, sing, sing"), and michelle told them the story of Jesus feeding the 5000. it was something we put together in 5 minutes but we enjoyed it and hopefully they did too!

in a few hours we will be heading to an orphanage. that's really all we know. if you are reading this i'd love it if you could pray that God uses each of our unique gifts and talents to show his love to the kids there.

this week we are also attending another cell group meeting (small group) where we will be showing the Damah films. we had a meeting last week where we showed the films to a group of about 5 girls, and they loved it, so this week we'll be showing them to a larger group of youth from the church.

the Damah films are short films made in a film festival. they all have underlying Christian themes, but don't directly talk about God for the most part. the purpose is to show them to non-Christians in a group of a few Christians and have a discussion after each movie about what the themes were, etc. it is a great way to have discussions about faith with believers and non-believers alike, and the movies are all really compelling. you can read more about the Damah films here.

so the purpose of showing them this week is to familiarize the youth of People's church with the films and get them talking about them so that they can have a night where they all invite their non-Christian friends and watch them/talk about them. i think this will be a really powerful event for them and so we are all excited! please pray that the purpose of these films would be achieved, that the discussions would be riveting, and that the youth would be passionate about the topics when they show them to their non-believing friends. 

we are all seeing God work in amazing ways here in sri lanka. a lot has been happening and will continue to happen, and we are all so blessed to be here in the middle of it all. 

only 6 more days! pray that God would use each one for His glory!

colombo national musuem

on a day off we decided to visit the museum!

in my opinion, the coolest part was this tree.

it was enormous.

as you can see i rocked a fanny pack all day.

the museum itself was absolutely beautiful!

tali was sick on this day, hence her absence from the pictures.

oh, and here's a little treat for you.

shrimp & saddleback shirts & eating with our hands

tuesday was shelley's first day at mattakkuliya

as well as the kid's first time eating prawns!

we decided to get some for them as a treat.

and here is tali modeling them.

ashane, the girl of many talents, showed us the art of coconut cracking.

one thing we have all loved about sri lankan culture is eating with your hands...

it is seriously so enjoyable.

and messy.

it took melissa a couple of days to learn...but now she's practically a pro.

we found a frog!

that beacon of light in emily's hand contains the little guy.

my mother was a big hit with the children!

what we love about being here for a whole month is getting to spend a lot of time with these kids and getting to know them all well. (although we can't really remember any of their names...)

these boys are gems.

the middle one is one of the oldest ones here. he's a tough guy and he walks with a definite swagger.

this boy is the fastest child we've ever seen.

he fascinates us. he's very mysterious.

he can either be found helping serve meals to the other kids or racing us and his friends.

this one is just so sly.

that is the only word to describe him.

the boy on the right is the cutest little thing!

he loves being held and jabbering to us in sinhala even though we don't understand him.

this is kind of out of place...but here is mattakkuliya!

iruni! she is one of the only names i remember.

one day when we were leaving, she ran up behind me and put her necklace that she wears every day in my hand.

so i took mine off and put it around her neck.

it was a touching moment.

from then on we have had a special bond!

here she is with my mom.

isn't this precious?

ashane and i

these two are brother and sister, i believe..

sue cripe was thoughtful enough to make us these shirts and send them with shelley!

we all wore them the day after we got them.

thanks so much aunt susie!

here's fast boy and sly boy.

ahh these kids are great (:

see galle

get it...seagull?!?

okay great.

we journeyed to galle, a town about 3 hours away from colombo, on friday and stayed the night.

it was a gorgeous city on the coast of sri lanka and for our first meal we ate on the beach.

literally. our chairs were on the sand.

we enjoyed the coke bottles, as you can see.

we had this party animal take our picture, and we tried to give him a four spiritual laws booklet...but he gave it back, saying he was buddhist. at least we tried.

it looked like jamaica! we were in awe.

well, none of us have been to jamaica but we presume that it would look something like this.

every tuk-tuk is unique.

especially this one.

it was covered in mcdonald's toys.

o'neil took us to a dutch church that was built in the 1700's.

it was built on people's graves and had a cemetery surrounding it.

it was very interesting.

michelle and melissa tried on "elephant pants"

then we went to this gorgeous lighthouse!

near it was this huge rock you could go stand on, with no rails or anything.

it was so so cool!

the town was full of old buildings and interesting architecture, it was absolutely stunning.

then o'neil took us up on this old fort built by the dutch to see a cricket game.

it had already ended when we got up there but we stayed and enjoyed the view nonetheless!

it was between sri lanka and pakistan i believe.

it was SO beautiful!

and this is just a cool wall...

we saw a lot of areas heavily affected by the tsunami which was really devastating.

we also attended a church service that cathy spoke at. we all loved seeing her speak and the service was really different. we liked it a lot!

after we had lunch with the pastor, his wife, and his daughter, and we loved hearing about the ministry they are living out in galle! they used to work at people's church in colombo and then they were sent to galle for 2 years, but ended up staying there with the church. their story was compelling and really inspiring, so it was great to spend some time with them and learn from them.

overall it was quite the enjoyable trip and we all embraced seeing more of sri lanka!