Back from Sri Lanka

I've just spent the last two weeks in Sri Lanka. The situation on the island is very tense.
A civil war has been going on for the past 25 years and I guess somewhere between 80 - 100,000 people have lost their lives. Since the new president has been in power the war has intensified. The government say that they are winning the war by military power. However during my stay a high ranking government delegations from India visited Sri Lanka and tried to make the Lanka government understand, that this conflict cannot be solved by military might. In the meanwhile the Tamil freedom fighters have brought the fighting to Colombo in the form of terror attacks. Suicide bombers blow buses up. Claymore mine line the side of the road and are ignited through remote control. The unnecessary deaths of lots of people is the result.
The Buddhist majority continue to fear that the tiny protestant minority (14,000,000 against 80,000!) will somehow take over the country. Persecution, intimidation and the burning of church buildings is the result.
The rise of the fuel price has not left Sri Lanka unscathed. The poor people were hardly making it anyway, but now life has become unbearable. Fuel prices are linked to so many other commodities. In Asia there has been an increase in the price of food too. This is very difficult for so many who are living below the poverty level anyway.
The economy is at rock bottom and the way up is difficult. Initiatives are largely undermined by the rampant corruption.
We are looking to initiate some projects just to help a few to survive.

There are good things happening and I'll report about these in a few days.

Back from the Bush

I have just returned from Indonesia and Malaysia. I spent three weeks there. I taught the Bible in a number of places and preached in quite a number of churches. The most exciting thing to see is that people receive what is being taught and act upon it.
More than 100 people professed to being healed after we prayed for them. The gathering were very lively and moving.
I had a doctor with me and I hope that it will be possible to start doing some medical work in this part of the world very soon.

Travel was very tedious. We drove over very bad roads and used speed boats to take us eight hours up the never ending and winding rivers.
The villages we stayed in and ministered in were very very under developed. Water supply and hygiene was a challenge. But by God's grace and His help we have suvived to tell the story.