When our team got to Batticaloa, the first day we prayed for two things: to get in touch with an English speaker and get involved with a church. As we were walking downtown, we asked the Lord to guide us. One of my teammates Taylor saw an open gate to what looked like a church so she turned and walked in and we were greeted by an English speaker who was traveling with a group of people and the church had been hosting them. We then met a man who worked with the youth at the church and he spoke English pretty well. He told us of all the opportunities there are to serve the community and offered to take a day off from work to hire a driver to take all of us around showing us the different ministries…. seriously? How flippin cool is the Lord. Come on.
We visited a deaf children’s school, a preschool, and a woman’s home along with some cool sightseeing places. That weekend, half of our team went to an orphanage and fell in love with those girls as well.
SO our team did some listening prayer and asked the Lord….What should we do? What steps do we need to take to make the biggest impact in this place while we’re here?
As a team we all got the desire to go back to the woman’s home so we did! By ourselves, no translator.
Now, when we first visited the woman’s home, the girls would barely look at us. They were extremely shy, but one of the women managed to tell us about their current situations and why they were in the home. As our translator was telling us what was being said, their eyes began watering. As we left that day, our hearts felt pretty heavy.
SO when we returned….. It. Was. Awesome! Although we came without a translator, we brought them ice cream (always a good start). At first, we were all sitting around the table, not knowing how or where to start. As we began to try to communicate, the topic of singing was brought up. When we asked if any of them could sing, they all seemed to become shy again. However, one of the girls then began to sing at the table…. then another…. then a couple… then our team sang. We were taking turns singing worship songs and it was powerful.
We then asked if they could dance and ended up watching one of the girls do a traditional Sri Lankan dance and she was amazing. We then proceeded to try to dance with her and it was pretty hilarious. My team then performed some NSYNC… and you could probably imagine the rest.
We then brought out our art supplies and started to paint together. Again, it was so powerful. Just having so much fun even though we were not able to verbally communicate well at all. Some of the girls were trying to teach us Tamil (the native language) and BOY was I STRUGGLING! We were laughing so hard. And to think back to the first time we met them, they barley would look at us and when they spoke you could hardly hear them. Needless to say, we made plans to return and do some crafts.
When we came back a few days later, the girls were showing us how to make these flowers out of wire, string, and nylon. They were so intricately made, it was amazing! So we each made a couple of them. A few of the girls then wanted to take pictures of us holding our flowers and putting them in our hair. It literally felt like a little girl photoshoot, it was so cute. They were bringing out all of the bouquets of flowers that they had made and just clicking away at the camera, smiling and laughing. I loved it. I could sense that these girls don’t get these opportunities to just have visitors come and to have girl time. They needed it. We needed it. There was one girl in particular that was helping me make my flowers and she was so patient with me. She kept pointing at the flower and saying, “You good!” Even though she basically did the work for me. When she wanted to take photos of me I wanted her to be in them, but she was so hesitant. When she actually let me, she wouldn’t smile. She was so beautiful and full of life so why wouldn’t she smile and have it captured? I had some opportunities to snap a few of her while she was laughing so I’ll always remember her joy. I’m excited to see those faces again before our team leaves Sri Lanka.
