We arrived in Dambulla with little to no expectations. No assigned ministry, no contacts, no plan. Having met a kind man at our hostel in Colombo who invited us to live in his cabin and help him dig a well in this town, we only knew that wild elephants roamed the countryside and that God gave us peace about spending the next week there. If you google Dambella you will find two major things, the first is its proximity to The Historical City of Sigiriya, featuring Lion Rock. Claimed to be the 8th Wonder of the World, it is a famous historical site and tourist destination although it costs $30USD for foreigners to enter and all of the locals attest to how gigantic this rip off is.
The second thing the internet produces for you is the Cave Temple / Golden Temple / Royal Rock Temple / Golden Buddha Temple Site Thingy. There are many names for this same thing. It was this land that God called me to upon our arrival the first night. It was this land that I walked to three times in one week. It was this site where God showed me His Presence, the power of aligning my heart in prayer with His purposes, and the overwhelming enormity of His tenacious love as He redeems country after country, calls person after person, and breathes life into heart after heart. Jesus also gave me a beautiful gift – His Creation.
The first visit to the Cave Temple was a little bit chaotic. I heard God’s small still voice the night before, insisting I go find ‘a temple to pray in front of’ without knowing what was around or what that might entail. When I brought this up to the team, a few of them had knowledge of a famous temple down the main road and believed it was within walking distance. (Walking distance on the race is definitely different than walking distance at home).
We had a few days to wait and see if the well digging would pan out, so without any alternative plan for the day 7 of us strode confidently down the narrow road, declining TukTuks, weaving through fruit stands and mopeds and stray dogs towards, well, something. As we curved the last bend of the road, we saw a large golden dome and realized how close it was. Still chatting about our crazy train experience the day before, our excitement for Thailand and curiosity about other teams experiences, I wasn’t exactly prepared for the wall of anxiety that smacked me as we arrived and started walking up the front steps under the gaze of a sitting 100foot tall golden buddha.
Now, I’m socially familiar with the image of Buddha sitting silently with his fingers in the ‘OM’ position, surrounded by Lotus flowers and teaching personal enlightenment. To be honest, compared with the figures of Islam or Hindu and after the intensely satanic ancestor worship we encountered in Africa, I’ve always seen buddha as a fairly harmless alternative. Sure he’s not Jesus, but he’s not Jihad or blood sacrifices either.
But that day, I could feel darkness. As I watched people stride through the gate, removing their shoes, carrying flowers and bowing down before stone pillars, the weight of their separation from their Creator hit me as it never had before. Anything apart from Jesus is just that – apart. And when Jesus is the Way to relationship with our Father, to living on earth in the power of Holy Spirit, to knowing our true identity and to living in fullness of all we were created to be, anything and everything that distracts or detracts is evil. period.
Our large group scattered over the grounds and I talked to my lover, redeemer and friend about the revelations He was stirring up in my heart. He led me up the first set of stairs and asked me to just bring His presence, back and forth across the stone pathways. He gave me his peace and asked me to carry it up the next set of steep stairs, partnering with Him, invading earth with the atmosphere of Heaven. As I watched humans striving to fill an intangible hole, buddhists always working and tourists always curious, looking for answers only He knows, I felt His heartbreak. Around the grounds I walked and prayed for all His children to experience God’s love, “to open the eyes of the blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness” (Isaiah 42:7).
Eventually our team met back up and debriefed that it was more intense than we were expecting. We discussed spending about $10 (a lot in a country where dinner is $2) on admission to the actual Cave Temple. After some confusion, it was decided that we would head back to the hostel and those who were interested in returning would do so the next day.
Part 2 coming soon!
<3 Hannah
**There are only a few days left to financially contribute to all God is doing around the World through myself and my team! Please consider donating any amount you can:) **
