Sri Lanka

Our team leaves for Sri Lanka tomorrow. First we'll take a train down to Chennai. It's a long trip, and I'm not sure that it'll really be all that restful. You can certainly be praying for that. I think everyone on our team could use some good rest. From Chennai we'll catch a plane to Sri Lanka. We're doing it this way because it's way cheaper than a plane straight from Kolkata to Sri Lanka. We should arrive in Sri Lanka sometime mid-day on on Saturday.

In Sri Lanka our team will be working with Habitat For Humanity building new homes to replace those destroyed by the Tsunami. It's going to be a lot of hard construction work, and our sources say that Sri Lanka is really, really hot right now. Please pray our team to have energy for the work we are doing. I've been thinking a lot about Psalm 127 recently:

Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat- for he grants sleep to those he loves. (Verses 1 & 2))

That's really the truth our team needs to keep in mind while we are there. We need to be working for, and working through God.

We'll be in Sri Lanka for about three weeks. After that we will fly back to India and visit several Word Made Flesh Homes in southern India. We will return to a Kolkata on May 2nd - One of the hottest months of the year.

I think our team is a little mixed on their feelings right now. I think we can all use the break from Kolkata, but several people are dreading the construction work. Kristin (leader) just hit a huge breakthrough in her work here in Kolkata, so she is disappointed that she has to put it on hold for a month. For me personally, I'm really ready for a break from Kolkata. This city has worn me down a lot, and I think the change of pace will do me some good. Hopefully we'll also be able to come back to Kolkata with fresh eyes to see things that we have become blind to.

During our time in Sri Lanka and southern India, my internet access is likely to be a lot more limited (I will have some). I'll keep posting whenever I can, but it is very unlikely that I will be able to post as often as I have been in Kolkata. Please keep sending me emails though, I love hearing from all of you and will make sure to keep reading them. Just remember that I may not be able to respond promptly (or at all).

While gone our team will be reading the following three books:

• Where is God?
• Compassion
• The Way of the Heart