We have learnt a lot about religion since coming to Sri Lanka. Buddhism is the main religion of the Singhala people and so in Colombo most people are Buddhist, and there are minorities of Hindus, Muslims and Christians. In the north, amongst the Tamils, the most common religion would be Hindu. Today we took part […]

Much that has happened this week has caused us to reflect upon Pentecostalism in Sri Lanka. What follows is not meant to be prejorative but simply a way of processing thoughts as we go along. Yesterday we spent the day at the Baby clinic – once a week mothers come with their babies to the […]

All this week we are volunteering with the charity CCS – Community Concern Society. As Nirmala is explaining in the photo below, the charity has been going for over 30 years and has grown to cover many different ministries over the years. Nirmala has arranged different things for us to do each day; so that […]

This morning John preached at the English service at Kollupitiya (pronounced Collpetty) Methodist Church in Colombo – it was the 120th anniversary of the opening of their building. (John wonders if he could lose weight by sweating that much every time he preaches.) Methodism has strong roots in Sri Lanka since Methodist missionaries played such […]

This morning Dr Arul Anketell picked us all up and took us to the Health Care Christian Fellowship in the centre of Colombo for their prayer meeting. We sang and prayed; John shared a short talk (translated into Singhala) and we celebrated Carmen’s 86th birthday. It was such an encouraging time. Along with discipleship and […]

Today was a lesson in translation for communication. The day started with trying to give to a taxi driver the address of the Colombo Theological Seminary. Even writing it down in English didn’t work since being able to speak a little English is not always the same as being able to read Latin script. Thankfully […]

Last night was a great festival in Dubai – Ramadan Kareem – after fasting through Ramandan Muslims then eat out as they begin to celebrate Eid. We managed to miss the month of fasting and arrived in time for the eating. Pastor Thomas and Emerald (from his church) not only fed us well but also […]

Links to our July posts can be found below. July 4th – Independence Day July 5th – Dubai July 6th – Zion Inn July 7th – Found in Translation July 8th – HCF July 10th – Anniversaries July 12th – Community Concern July 14th – Pentecostalism July 15th – Religion July 17th – all the […]

Find links to all our June blog posts here: June 8th – Flood Training June 14th – Orlando Shootings June 16th – lots of books June 21st – EMA June 24th – Brexit! June 25th – James & Jenni June 27th – Brexit: think of the children!

Today was a day for breaking records: we went up the tallest building in the world, walked round the largest shopping mall in the world and ate the most expensive breakfast in the world.* Pastor Thomas Francis, who leads a Tamil church here in Dubai picked us up from the airport and was a fantastic […]