In your weakness God will show his glory. I was sick for the entire trip of going to Sri Lanka. I got a cold the second day I was there. I would wake up unable to breathe and with a terrible cough. The cold stayed with me for about a week. While camping, I got about 300 ant bites all over my body. I obtained a heat rash on my stomach from sleeping in a tent. Then I cut my foot, which got infected, leaving me unable to go into the ocean or water. On top of that, the weather was about 41 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and 80% humidity. But from all this, I learned a big lesson. I was enough even when I couldn’t do anything. I was loved by God.

When I arrived in Sri Lanka, I had been traveling for 27 hours. Tired, confused and in a culture shock, not knowing what to do, I went outside. I was told inside by some consistent visitors of Sri Lanka not to trust the taxi people. Well I had two taxi men follow me and lead me to get a drink and then convinced me to let them drive me to find a hotel at 2am. I trusted these guys–they had tattoos of Jesus on their arms and they were friendly. They told me the price which I agreed on beforehand. We went off to find a hotel. Unfortunately, I happened to land there on the Hindu New Years, so everything was closed. We kept driving and driving, and after about 30 minutes and me started to yell at them to turn me around. They found a hotel–an odd-shaped building with stairs in odd places, clothing hanging from any place with exposed air. I got to my room, paid the hotel, and paid the driver. The driver had scammed me, he had lied and I trusted him. I realized the one thing I was told I didn’t listen to, so in a way it was my fault. At 4am I finally laid in my bed. I slept for about an hour, until the sun started to rise and the city came alive. In Sri Lanka the weather is so intense, that you have to work early in the morning to escape the heat. I woke up confused, tired and frustrated with what happened the night before. The next few hours were a battle of my mind. I was questioning why I was here in this country. Am I going to feel this gross the whole time? I decided to pray and nothing helped. Even reading the Word and even trying to go back to sleep didn’t help. I finally went to go get breakfast when it opened. I got eggs and juice which cost me $4. I went back to the hotel and passed out finally. I woke up to realizing the rest of the team would soon arrive. So I got an Uber and went back to the airport to meet them. I met up with one of the girls who had just landed. Then the whole team arrived several hours later. And I felt amazing to see these strangers. Not alone, less tired, and together as a team. Truly that makes the difference. Seeing the world is great, but if you’re alone it’s not fun or fulfilling. It’s about the people who you choose to spend the time with. It’s hard finding people willing to go and explore the world, but when you do it that makes the trip. We then got on a bus at midnight. In 8 hours, we would arrive at our final destination. 

I don’t think I slept at all during the bus ride. I was too excited, awake, and jetlagged. We drove through the tropical jungle of Sri Lanka, on dirt roads, then giant city centres with hundreds of people walking through them. Rice fields and farms. We arrived in Arugam Bay early in the morning. We went over a bridge to see the ocean with giant water buffalo. Arugam Bay was a small town with one main road. We stayed for the majority of the trip in this town– a tourist town with lots of restaurants and tut tuts as transportation. They are similar to a golf cart, but three-wheeled and brightly coloured.

We got familiar with the town quickly as we went off the first day. While walking, I saw a man throwing food into a ditch. I went up to him and he was feeding about 50 baby turtles. The stream was connected to the ocean, and the turtles were an endangered species there. I sat with him and he was quite friendly. He knew English, as I learned most people there did because of the tourism. He shared about his family and his son, who I met. His son was an incredible skateboarder. He only had a penny board which is a smaller board that is very difficult to do tricks on. He was barefooted and showing me all his moves on the main road. Cars and tut tut were passing by, but he had no fear. I showed him my skateboard I brought with me which I was going to give away near the end of the trip. He loved it. I ended up coming back to the man near the end of our time in Arugam Bay and gave his son the skateboard. He was overjoyed and his dad was even happier. The man was adamant that I come the next day for a meal to his house. The meal was great, all local food made by his wife. He was very friendly and said that anytime I come back I have a place to live and I can bring my family or whoever. For most of the locals, if you gave them something or were remotely interested in who they were, they would always reciprocate the feeling with hospitality, gifts or a good chat.

As we stayed in this place I saw the evil and lies that were feeding these people’s minds. The locals’ view of tourists showed a depth of evil that I hadn’t so openly interacted with ever before. The town had a lot of European tourism. The woman would wear bikinis and clothes that didn’t cover there bodies. Since the religions were Hinduism and Islam there, this wasn’t a practice they had of exposing this much skin for a lady. The men saw it as an open invitation from these women that they wanted to have sex with them. So they would rape them. They were obsessed with sex there. If a woman talked to a man there, they would assume they wanted to marry them or have sex with them. I was talking with store owners there and they would tell me in conversation that they watched porn throughout the day. The justice system was so faulted that all of the rapists would never get convicted. And the men had no shame in the actions they committed because they thought it was justified. Even though I saw this evil and understood what was happening, I knew these people needed Jesus. They were being fed lies from their religion and who they served. 

During our time in the town, we went to school and hung out with kids, skateboarded, surf contests, surfed with the locals and swam with the kids. The days were short as the heat of the day took away most of it. Even the locals couldn’t stand the heat. Years prior, the heat was the main cause of death in that town.

A day before we were to leave, the organization in our next location called us and canceled. The organization we were going to help with on the other side of the island was breached. We then went to the middle of the island in a city called Ella and Candy. It was in the middle of the tropical forest, 12 of us cramped in one room. We got connected with a man who owned a hotel and bar and we helped him with construction and manual labour all day. At the end of it, he invited some local families and we led worship and prayer for them. During that time a lady came struggling to walk because of pain in her knees. We prayed over her and she miraculously was healed. God healed her before our eyes! She was in shock walking around in a circle. She was not using the came anymore she had brought with her. She and her family were overjoyed in thankfulness.

The next day we had a 7-hour train ride on an old railroad built by the British in the 19th century. We got into Candy, a heavily populated city. The city had architecture built by the British and the majority of the foundation of Sri Lanka was built off what the British did when they occupied this nation. One of the days we met a man with one leg. We asked him if we could pray for him which he was happy to accept. He was a Christian and knew God. I was quite happy with what he knew. He was a very thankful man. He was wanting money, to pay for a prosthetic leg that he did not have that would help him walk. The next day I saw him walking through the town. He was in front of a buddhist statue praying. I was so confused about what he was doing. Why pray to that when you have the truth? I realized most of the people here didn’t give there full allegiance towards one god or religious way. They went to anyone that they thought could help them. There circumstances were so terrible that they were desperate for help. Money, medicine, food, relationships, whatever it may have been, they wanted it and would do what was needed. I couldn’t blame them though. I have a blessed life and haven’t lived their life. I thought, “Who am I to talk and get mad, but at the same time, why would they follow such a lie?” Buddha can’t help them, only Jesus can. 

The trip was long and hot, a lot happened and I could write for a while. If you want to hear more, contact me. At the end of the trip I was thankful to go. I had learned a lot about leading and expecting God to move.