The monkeys are coming!

(Stacie post) This morning, before church began, there was an hour long prayer meeting.  About 15 minutes into our time, I felt a tap on my shoulder.  It was Angel.  "I am so sorry to disturb you, but THE MONKEYS ARE AT OUR HOUSE AND YOU MUST COME TO SEE!"  So out the door we bolted ... feeling bad for disturbing the prayer time (but also laughing pretty hard at the entire situation that was unfolding).  Unfortunately, once I rounded up my camera, the little guys had escaped down a telephone wire.  Rats!  We'll see them again soon, I am assured.

But backing up ... yesterday was "very much fun", as they say here.  After the women's retreat ended (so powerful, I cannot find the words!), we went to another hotel, where Bandu baptised 19 new believers in the hotel pool.  We felt very honored to be part of this moment.  Here, one child will come to the Lord.  Then the church will begin to pray like nobody's business - and then before you know it, the entire family comes to Christ and the numbers continue to multiply.  The testimonies here are unlike anything I've ever heard. 

After the baptisms (and tea, of course), we got the opportunity to take all the boys from the church orphanage to Pizza Hut.  It's their favorite place in the world.  I know this may not sound like a big deal to many in our country.  But for these boys, an event  like this happens about once every 2 years.  They didn't even know what to do with the menu, so I just ordered for everyone.  We had everything from a chicken tandoori pizza to Hawaiian pizza (which is actually chicken and pineapple here - they called it "chicken ham and pineapple").  We had  milkshakes (more the consistency of strawberry milk) afterward, as I taught the younger boys to play "Guess Who" (one of many board game we brought with us) while the older boys watched a game of cricket on TV. Did you know Sri Lanka has one of the top cricket teams in the world?

When we came home, I had the honor of teaching Tibni how to make chocolate chip cookies.  We had to buy a ginormous chocolate bar and break it into pieces because chocolate chips here cost about $8 for one cup!  You can buy a very nice new shirt for $5, so I wasn't about to fork over $50 on chocolate chips!  Needless to say, licking beaters is a hit no matter where you live and the cookies turned out great!  As we licked our beaters, we settled down to the finale of "Super Star", Sri Lanka's version of "American Idol."  One of the 2 finalists was actually from Kandy (where we are staying), so that was fun to cheer him on, even though he lost.  I actually met this guy at Kandy Lake and snapped a picture with him.  A local celeb! 

Well, I am going to attempt to put some pictures on here.  I've taken nearly 1000 so far!  But before I stop typing, I want to thank you again for your prayers.  My sickness is gone and I finally slept last night!  So other than a little heat rash, some mosquito bites and the constant dripping of sweat, we're doing very well - praise God!

Love to you all and we'll try to post again soon.  Tomorrow, we're off to see a famous waterfall and then we'll take some cookies to the orphanage.