This really is our last newsletter! We came to Sri Lanka in August 2005 and now James has left just before his visa expires, almost exactly five years later. Rosemary left on June 16^th to return to England and a round of furlough and other appointments. James stayed to complete as many as possible of his institutional development tasks and other work.

It has been a busy time for James but he is delighted that the College has recruited a new Senior Administrator to look after the day to day running of the non-academic side of the College as well as to take over the development portfolio as expressed in the new Living Development Plan. Mr. Peiris is a recently retired senior civil servant who lives nearby. He has slotted in very well already and is popular with the staff. He is also effective and enjoys sorting out the tricky issues.

Part of the new Administrative and Academic Support project is to upgrade the computing facilities for the students, faculty, library and office staff. Having spent much time over the last five years fixing computers, James was very keen that the upgrade improved reliability considerably. In the end the College decided to go for new thin client systems hosted by high quality central servers – rather like the old mainframes. Not only do these ensure that an expensive PC is properly used, the College also saves quite a lot of electricity. These systems are becoming popular in schools and universities and are also used in some offices. (For those interested please see www.ncomputing.com.) A local company agreed to take up the challenge of making it all work and then to provide the all-important support thereafter. James has been training an office staff member and a student to act as basic system administrators.

The biggest College event since we came to Sri Lanka took place on July 9^th when the new Principal was inducted. This was on the same day as the annual convocation to award certificates. A tremendous amount of work was involved and the entire College community contributed. The College was properly spick and span. There was the usual procession with Kandyan dancers, drums and conch shell setting the (very relaxed) pace. Then, students Indra and Rukshi danced a Tamil welcome into the packed Library Hall. The induction itself was a solemn occasion. The congregation was asked to "pray continually for this your Principal, who is set over you in the Lord, and to help him in all the duties of his calling." In his response Jerome said, "I am convinced that my ministry lies here at TCL at this juncture" and he went on to emphasise the concepts of institutional integrity and excellence that he aims to apply at the College.

In the new era of quality systems at the College it was gratifying that, a few days later, Jerome held a short review meeting with all the students to assess what had been good and not so good about College Day. The students much appreciated this. A similar meeting took place with the College office and garden staff.

On 27^th July the Board of Governors approved their Policy File which James had prepared on their behalf.

After June 16^th James lived at the College without Rosemary; after June 28^th he lived without most of his furniture; and, after July 8^th when the shippers came, with not much more than he could put in his suitcase. The furniture had gone to the new home of Rev. Dr. Arul Dhas and his family who arrived from India. Arul replaces Rosemary as the new New Testament lecturer. It was immediately clear that he will be a great asset to the College in many different ways, as will be his wife Ann - also well qualified academically.

Another "shedding" was of the faithful Nissan Serena van that had made meeting people and seeing the beauty of Sri Lanka so very easy. Owing to the tax regime on new vehicles in Sri Lanka, it is possible to sell a second hand vehicle for as much as you paid for it even after 8 years. So the vehicle was a pretty good investment by the Methodist Church in Britain. James has never been attached to a vehicle before so it was rather strange to feel a little bereft when it was driven away..

As far as food is concerned, James was very well looked after by student Yeherome and his wife Anoma, who every weekday put enough in the pot for three. James was fed some excellent curries - including brinjal (aubergine) with dried sprat, one of his favourites. One evening they showed James the biggest moth they had ever seen that had come into their house. See our web-site for photograph.

And what has Rosemary been doing in the meantime back in England? She has been an advocate and fund raiser and she has travelled far and near. She is always pleased to have an excuse to go to the Queen’s Foundation in Birmingham where she had her own theological training, and she had a meeting there on June 22^nd. On the same day, she was given the all-clear from Selly Oak Hospital concerning her melanoma discovered in 2005 just before coming to Sri Lanka. Concern about this is one of the reasons she remained as pale as she did and wore a knee length bathing costume when swimming.

She gave two different talks in Bath and others in Goudhurst, Kent and Caversham. She was especially pleased to meet the Goudhurst Link Committee, and to have had the chance to give personal thanks to the Parish who have been supporting the TCL Field Work Programme for many years. She took services in Bath (3), Goudhurst, Sherborne, Wokingham, Caversham, and Watford.

A highlight was two days with former student Shelton, who was in England in June/July representing Sri Lanka at a conference in Canterbury for recently ordained priests. They had a day in London together, (28/6). Then she took him for a meeting with the Church Mission Society (CMS) in Oxford (13/7), after which they wandered around the city on an afternoon much reminiscent of a bad day in Nuwara Eliya. However, until that week Rosemary had been very fortunate, with weather more akin to a good day in Kandy.

Rosemary also went to Methodist Church HQ in London for the regulation debrief. The other Methodist Mission partner from Sri Lanka on furlough, our friend Maggie Mudalige, kindly came up to Reading for a day, (June 25^th) shortly before she flew back to her home in Sri Lanka.

Rosemary also attended a helpful Conference for Mission Partners in Sheffield. Picture on website.

Rosemary caught up with some friends, but was also very tired and glad of free days in the peace of the Convent – where we stayed for the 2008 furlough – although the free days were often filled up with preparations for the above visits. She saw most of her family and took her parents away for a few days 27^th to 30^th July. Her last preaching engagement on her furlough was fittingly at their Church, Trinity Methodist Church Watford , where we were commissioned for our work in Sri Lanka 5 years ago.

So what’s happening now and what happens next? James came back on 2^nd August. As you read this we will be with Paul and Ina Watson, Abi and Hannah in Aberdeen. We saw Ina in February when she visited SL, but have not seen the rest of the family since December 2008. As we are all former mission partners in Kandy, we have much to talk about. We are very much looking forward to seeing them all again.

We have a weekend 13-16 August collecting our belongings and furniture from Birmingham and Reading. Then on Tuesday August 17^th, with the help of a removal van, we move into the North Lambeth manse at 16, Wincott Street, London SE11 4NT – and a new life in central London that could hardly be more different than the semi-rural village life at Pilimatalawa. No car for a start! Rosemary’s welcome service is on Thursday 2^nd Sept. at 7:30pm at Lambeth Mission St. Mary’s, 3-5 Lambeth Road, SE1 7DQ.

Finally, we would like to thank all those who have taken an interest in our life and work in Sri Lanka and especially to Janet Bull who has so ably facilitated our communications across the world.

James will be happy to give talks about our work in Sri Lanka if asked.

Newsletter back copies are on our website together with a large number of pictures of our life in Sri Lanka: see www.rosemaryandjames.methodistchurch.co.uk.