“Why are you late?,” our Sri Lankan contact asked us as we joined the parade of people going to the Methodist Church. We had ordered a tuk tuk to come pick us up the night before but he must have forgot. We were almost to church only to find a huge parade of parents and children walking with their palm branches in hand down the road. Our tuk tuk couldn’t get through so we just paid him and hopped out to join in the palm waving and hosanna singing. We didn’t even know our contact would be there so we were surprised to join him right in line. He told us that today was the children’s service and he had a translator ready for us because he had to leave to preach somewhere else. We walked in with our translator to the almost full church searching for a spot in a pew. We finally found a comfortable spot for the adorable service. Everything was in Tamil, but it was still the cutest Palm Sunday Ive ever been a part of. The kids did everything from leading worship to reading the Bible verses to preaching the message. It was so cool to see the kids step up to the podium and proclaim their love of Jesus. Some of them even had Bible verses in English which was sweet. The message spoken by a young girl was about glorifying Jesus in our lives and she spoke with great confidence. I loved every moment of service and they really had my attention the whole time even though I didn’t understand a whole lot. After the service we had the honor of having tea with he pastor who happens to be involved with Compassion. It was great to hear his testimonies and learn more about his life here in Sri Lanka. We had a great conversation over a perfect cup of milk tea. (They really know how to make milk tea here, it’s delicious!) It was a quick cup of tea but we had told an orphanage that we were coming. It’s an all girls shelter with girls who are saved from sex trafficking, bad home situations, and girls left without parents after the war or tsunami that hit in 2004. My heart is for kids, so to see these beautiful girls in their dresses playing in the backyard while we walked up made my heart leap in excitement. As soon as we walked in, we were greeted with smile after smile and girls grabbing chairs for us to sit down. Such vibrant and beautiful girls surrounded us in curiosity. They knew exactly what they wanted to do first, play a game! It started off with playing a few rounds of fruit basket and into a game of follow the leader. Even when we had no translator there, these girls tried their best to practice what English they knew. I could tell that they were learning some English in school because they had some vocabulary words they tried to use. They were instantly welcoming with hugs and holding hands. I quickly fell in love with some of the older girls who were practicing their English skills on me. After a few rounds of games, it was time to dance! They brought out a tv and started to play some music. At first they wanted to see us dance but I was way more excited to see them dance! We danced with them and they tried to teach us some of their moves. Even though sweat was dripping down my face, I had so much fun dancing with them to some Sri Lankan music. After a while they decided to play a musical and have one of the girls do the dance that she memorized. Each step that she did was in sync with the woman dancing on the screen. The girls were laughing and having so much fun watching the movie. As we sat there and watched I realized that these girls don’t need to be entertained, they just want to be known. They just want to sit with you and play with your hair. They want to teach you some of their language and laugh when you say something in a funny way. All they wanted was someone to come in and show them the love they deserve. I brought out my phone and showed them pictures of where I was from. They wanted to see pictures of my family and that kind of broke my heart. These girls don’t have a family, and here I was sharing pictures of my mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, and niece. With each new picture they had at least 10 new questions. Their eyes got bigger as I showed them some of the videos I had caught in Indonesia with traditional dancing. I told them that they should go there some day. These girls had dreams of becoming movie stars, doctors, and lawyers. Girls ranging in ages of 8-16 years old had such big dreams and I hope that they can reach every single one of them. After finishing the movie, it was time for lunch. They watched us as we ate with our fingers because they know that westerners use forks or spoons. They watched us with curiosity and listened in on my teams conversation. After we washed our plates, we started to have some more conversations with the girls that led to a Tamil lesson. We learned how to say “what is your name?,””My name is,” and “you are beautiful” in Tamil. The girl’s smiles were so bright as we started to say things somewhat correctly. The language is difficult for our ears to pick up but the girls were writing down how to say things with English letters. In Korea I would call that Romanization. I didn’t want the day to end but it was clear that the girls were getting sleepy. As we were sitting and learning, some of the younger girls were falling asleep at the table. It turned out that they usually nap after church but we changed their plans when we showed up. After a group photo, we told them that we had to leave so hugs were all around. After sweet hugs and some really sad eyes we were able to walk back out of the gate. We told them we would see them next week before we leave again. As we were walking back all we could talk about is the love that we had for all the beautiful girls. The fact that some of them are carrying so much hurt from family broke my heart. But I also know that they are stronger than a lot of people in this world. They know that these circumstances do not define where they are going in the future. They also showed me the deeper love that they have for people through whom they have lost. The connections they make are very deep rooted. Every Sunday when we see them at church they greet us with smiles and hugs. As we spend more time with them I hope that we show the most love that we can in such a short time. We have one more dance party scheduled before we leave for Kolombo. I pray that we have all the energy and love to show these kids the way Jesus wants to dance and love on them. Updates on our last week in Sri Lanka to come!
