Update: Sri Lanka

The military in Sri Lanka are celebrating a victory over the Tamil Tigers (LTTE). While I don't have any kind of sympathy for the Tigers - they have been employing terrorist methods, child soldier, enslaved the population etc, I think their reasons for fighting, their grievances are justified. If the government, from a position of military power is benign and gives the Tamils freedom and equality, there is a chance of peace. If they come down on them as Singalese superiors, then the war will be prolonged, and that perhaps in a very bloody guerilla and city terrorist kind of war.

If these things were not enough, parliament is considering a bill, that will make conversion illegal. It is a bill against unethical conversion. This really means that people who are being converted by promises of financial gain will become illegal. However the Christians are so poor generally, that this is not a reality. In actual fact the bill will turn out to make evangelism of any kind illegal.
Everything in Sri Lanka society is geared to the Buddhist prejudice. This makes things very difficult for the Christians.
On 22nd January they had a day of fasting and held an open prayer meeting to pray that the bill would not become law.

The Miwani Center

I just found this video in MySpace. I don't know the author but the center is from Nehemiah International!

Out of Africa

I'm sitting in a hotel room waiting to either be picked up or my credit for the internet runs out.
Probably nothing happened as I expected and I hope still that I was of use and was able to help some people.
The last day always seems to take a long time. I am looking forward to getting home but am a bit sad to be leaving Kenya. It is really a spectacular country and the people are wonderful. Many are suffering.
A lady asked me yesterday, if we have famine in our country. When I said no, she said that we are truely blessed.
Yes, we are truely blessed and what a blessing it is to beable to help that a few of the people have a better futute.

Africa Impressions

Africa

I arrived in Africa about ten days ago. After spending about a week in Uganda, I came by bus from Kampala to Kisumu, Kenya. The journey took me about 6 1/2 hours. It quite good because the roads have been repaired.
It took us some time to clear the border, but that's life and after travelling into Kenya the police stopped the bus and we all had to show our passports.
So now I am about 12km outside of Kisumu, Kenya in a place called Miwani.
One of the oganizations I work with, Nehemia-Team, has a farm here.
We are about 10km south of the equator. It is very hot and dry and the ground is very hard.
To the northern side of the farm are some mountains about 2-3km from here. They suddenly shoot up to a height of around 700-800m (I guess). We are already more than 1000m above sea level.
Kisumu touches the banks of Lake Victoria, the source of the river Nile. That finds its way down hill through the Sudan and Egypt to the Mediterrainan Sea.
They tell me that on the other side of the mountains is a high plain which is part of the Rift Valley.
The strip of land between the mountains to the north of here and I suppose about 5km to the south, was given to the Indians after Independance. It was supposed to separate the Luo tribe from another tribe as they were always fighting with one another.
Most of the Indian families are still bere. They grow and process sugar cane.

2009

So the new year has arrived.
It seems that this year it has come with such force. I spent New Year's Eve in bed with flu and since recovering have been working on my office. Actually although we have worked very fast, time has been lost on other things.
Tomorrow I am leaving for Africa and have not yet really had time to prepare myself.
Among the other things that I have to do today, I'll have to take care of that.

What's on this year?
I'm flying to Uganda tomorrow and will do some ministry in a network of churches there. With help from Germany, they have build a clinic in Kigali, Ruanda. A clinic? Well, a building, but during the next couple of weeks the clinic will get its inventory and soon it will be able to start. It will serve around 30,000 people in an area where there is no free medicine.
We also support a Street Children's Ministry "Chosen Generation" in Kampala and I will be paying that insttition a visit too.
I'll be visiting a farm in Kisumu, Kenya, that a ministry I am involoved in runs. I will also be going to see friends in Meru, near Mt Kenya. We have helped these people numerous times as they reach out to Kenyans. There last time was a year ago after the riots in Kenya that cause so many deaths and destruction.

We continue to work in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Nepal and the Philippines.
This year will be very full.