Greetings from Sri Lanka and welcome to our first quarterly Newsletter.

We have been warmly welcomed at the Theological College of Lanka (TCL) and, after nearly six weeks in Sri Lanka, are settling in well. Our bungalow is fast becoming a home and we’re very grateful to all those who have sent us cards. An unknown but very kind woman in Canada even sent us some flowers. Is this the power of prayer cards?

We began our life in Sri Lanka by staying in Colombo for the annual Methodist Conference. This provided us with an excellent opportunity to meet people and gain a small insight into how things work in the Methodist Church here. The new President, Rev’d Ebenezer Joseph, was inducted, his post being a five year executive one.

We cannot proceed to tell you about our life at TCL without first acknowledging the great kindness and generosity of David and Sue Palmer, recent Mission Partners in Jaffna, who delivered a houseful of furniture and household items to our bungalow as they made their way home to UK. They even left a World Church vehicle for us in Colombo. Have mission partners ever had such a gentle landing?

We live on the TCL campus above the main Kandy / Colombo road and railway line. We are getting used to the noise of the old diesel locomotives and the buses’ horns, but an amplified keyboard player who repeats the same phrases over and over again is harder to ignore. Other local noises include the barking of dogs and the croaking of geckos and frogs outside at night, and tree squirrels scampering on the roof and the beating of metal plates as street sellers mix the ingredients of Kothu Rotti, a local dish. Sometimes we also hear the local Buddhists chanting across the ether.

The new term started on Friday Sept. 23^rd and Rosemary has begun her lectures. She is teaching New Testament to final year BTh (Bachelor of Theology) students beginning this term with the First Letter to Timothy and ending with the Book of Revelation. All but one of her students are able to understand her without translation. After over three years of learning English here most of the final year students’ English is quite good. One of their English textbooks is specially designed for theology students.

Rosemary is expected to play a full part in the life of the College and will lead worship and do all the other things tutors do, including assisting in the ministerial formation of students, in particular, in their roles as pastors. Some of the students want her to teach them how to read music.

As for James, he has been asked to oversee the small off-line computer network. This means maintenance of the system in very dusty and quite humid conditions, and also basic computer training for students many of whom have never touched a computer before. The aim is for James to replace the Principal’s very skilful 18 year old son on whom it is unfair to depend. James will also teach "Practical" English to the students as an experiment. Quite what this means has not yet been decided but the emphasis is likely to be on listening and speaking. Christianity is the only religion that spans the Sinhalese / Tamil divide so it is essential that its ministers are able to speak a common language – and preferably the other indigenous language too. To this end, the Principal, Rev’d Dr. Jebanesan, has decreed that on Thursdays everything is done in English. James also hopes to be able to use the knowledge from his recent course in Development Studies in some way. But things need to settle at TCL first.

As a Faculty couple we lead a fellowship group once a fortnight. Ours consists of the College Senior Student, who is a 4^th and thus final year Methodist, who speaks all 3 languages fluently, his wife, daughter (aged 5) and son (2) whom his father described as "differently abled". He can’t walk or talk and has chest problems, as well as requiring frequent hospital visits to check the shunt that has been put in his brain to alleviate pressure. Then there is a 2^nd year Anglican student, a 2^nd year Methodist and a first year who is a member of a celibate order affiliated to the Ashram Community in Jaffna. There are a number of student families on campus who have their own small accommodation. The single men and women live in hostels on campus.

 The college has its own wells and also takes water from the mains. Even so, water supply and quality is an anxiety especially in the dry season (May / June). The rainy season came late, shortly after we arrived at TCL, and, although there was some very heavy rain to begin with, we have had very little since September 16^th. A new well is now being dug.

Waste disposal is also an interesting problem. There is no rubbish collection for TCL; locals leave their rubbish in concrete bunkers on the street for lorries to pick up. But there are very few of these bunkers so the college policy is to burn paper based rubbish and try to recycle plastic and glass. We have burned our paper but have not yet managed to minimise our plastic bag intake and have accumulated rather a lot of it. We now understand why Bangladesh has banned plastic bags. Any ideas on recycling etc would be very welcome.

The nearest town is Pilimatalawa where we do our shopping. We have a 3 ring gas burner (no oven). We love the fresh fruits (pineapples are superb) and the variety of vegetables. We get milk delivered to us straight from the college cows, and also buy avocadoes and bananas from the college.

There is a Presidential Election in November and the streets are being decorated with the colours of the main parties. The President, Mrs Kumaratunga, is stepping aside after her permitted 2 term (12 year) incumbency. The Prime Minister, Mr. Rajapakse, is standing against the opposition leader, Mr. Wickremasinghe.

The nearest city is Kandy, home of the holiest Buddhist shrine in Sri Lanka, the Temple of the (Buddha’s) Tooth. This is a tourist destination and most things can be obtained there. You can see pictures of Kandy on www.kandycity.org.

We now go to the Methodist Church in the heart of downtown Kandy. James has his membership here and Rosemary is on the Circuit Plan. The building, services and organisation are similar to those in Britain although there are three congregations, speaking Sinhala, Tamil and English. Joint services take place every month. We have also worshipped at the Anglican Church of St Paul's and will go to the Baptist and Presbyterian churches too sometimes.

We end with our sincere thanks to Janet Bull for facilitating our communications with friends and family since we left the UK.

You can find out more about TCL from its website www.tclsl.org

In addition to the prayers on our prayer card please consider the following prayer points: