After we landed at the Colombo International Airport, we drove a few hours at night to a small town. We went to bed at 2am and the facility was minimal.
The following morning, we drove to Kotagala in the central region at the elevation of 1,341 meters high. This place is well known for its tea plantations.
We first visited Pastor Mohan's house and a small church attached to the house. According to Joseph, he found him very independent and tried to stand on his own feet under significiant challenges he has faced. In fact, he is from a wealthy family in Battikaloa, where we visited later, and he could have lived a comfortable life, but he accepted the opportunity to serve people in Kotagala as God's calling and his family has been serving in this area for the past 15 years or so. What a commitment!
We had lunch together and I could sense the peace and joy in the faces of Pastor Mohan's family members, including two sons and his wife. Particularly, their older son Hoshan, 19 years old, was amazingly mature and cool in dealing with life challenges. He wanted to start an IT business, and he was assembling a computer with parts he has been purchasing here and there. He was trying to buy the mother board and processor. I was impressed by his firm and cool attitude for going through the process without any outside help. I asked for the opportunity to invest in his first computer and gave him $100. I will see how he progresses.
Pasator Mohan was leading the church at his house and also a satelite church he started at someone else's house. We attended the worship service at the satelite church. I was asked at the last minute to share the message. Oh well... At the church, Hoshan was leading the praise time at a satelite church and also translated my message into Singali and his mother to Tamil. It was entirely a family ministry.
We visited a waterfall that appeared to have little water due to continuing drought.
We visited a Tea Castle and enjoyed tea with some snacks. The view was panoramic.
We slept at a lodging close to the church. A lot more comfortable than the first night lodging. - Jeffrey
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