Diocesan Women's Conference

Thursday 22nd November - Sunday 25th November saw the 1st Diocese of Colombo's Women's Conference taking place. Here a few pics of the event...

Mission Partners Get-Together in Little England

Friday 16th November saw me heading off from Colombo Fort rail station clutching my 2nd class rail ticket and heading northwards on a stretch of track which steadily climbs further and further up into the hills of Kandy and the central region. Arriving 3 and a bit hours later I was planning to be a a tourist and visit the famous 'Temple of the Tooth' - a very well known Buddhist place of pilgrimage - it is believed that a tooth of Buddha himself, rescued from his funeral pyre and brought to Sri Lanka in the hair of a princess resides within a '6-box' casket in the Temple premises. Photos show the offerings of flowers that people bring to the Temple and some of the wall paintings. From Kandy I made my way to Peradeniya Botanical Gardens where I was absolutely stunned by this veritable Garden of Eden. Again have included some photos - loved the colours and was quite taken by a plant which had huge spherical translucent green -seed pods? From here I was transported in a van with Rosemary & James, British Methodist mission partners who are both working at the Theological College of Lanka in Pilimatalawa. TCL was inaugurated in 1963 by the Anglican, Methodist and Baptist churches, later being joined by the Presbyterian church. It's the only ecumenical training institute among the Protestant churches of Sri Lanka. See http://www.tclsl.org/ for more info.
Winding our way up through the tea plantations, there was a chill in the air and looking out of the van window I noticed many people now wearing jumpers, hats, gloves and coats. Was this what they meant by Little England? Our final destination was Nuwara Eliya- a modest little town whose numbers are swelled each April when the Colombo elite decide it is just too hot in the city and decamp into the up-lands. They can enjoy a round of golf, perhaps go to the horse-races or just sit and have a nice cup of tea. It was here that we meet up with the Watson family - CMS Mission Partners in Kandy and the Bakers- a Canadian family who run a fairly unique school - 'Beacon Hill' which offers vocational training to young people of the ages 18-24 , for free. http://www.beaconhillacademy.org/
We had arranged to meet and have some worship and an opportunity to get to know one another and the roles that we have. A chance to talk about our experiences and share the difficulties and joys of working here.
Using the Petworth bungalow as our base- we had a picnic, climbed the 10th highest mountain in Sri Lanka, worshiped at Holy Trinity Church and haggled for fresh vegetables - the best in Sri Lanka!

Bomb Blast In Nugegoda

Today there have been 2 suicide bomb attacks - the most recent one at 5.55pm this evening outside the NoLimit clothes store in Nugegoda. Early reports are saying that 18 people have died, but I suspect there will be more, as there is a busy bus stand outside the shop.
I often have to drive through Nugegoda on my way into Colombo city and was actually shopping at this clothes store last Thursday afternoon.
This week has been particularly bad - it was the LTTE's leader's birthday this week and the LTTE 'Heroes Day' when the LTTE leader makes an annual speech. Government forces attacked the LTTE radio station in order to try and stop the broadcast. The Government have vowed to kill Velupillai Prabhakaran the LTTE leader, please check out http://www.dailymirror.lk/. (28th November 2007 edition).
St John's Church, Nugegoda is a few hundred yards down the road, please pray for the priest Fr Devapriya and his congregation.
Pray for those who have died and those injured.

Prayer Requests

The Bishop of Colombo was taken ill a couple of weeks ago with chicken guyana which you get from infected mosquitos. It makes you feel very ill, high fever and gives you a lot of muscle pain. It takes several weeks to recover from.
Please pray for Bishop Duleep for his recovery and for Geetha his wife.

The 1st ever Diocesan women's conference was held this weekend - pray for those who have long journeys of 8 hours or more ahead of them to get back to their homes and families.
Give thanks that we have been able to meet up, praise and worship God and learn new things about ourselves and our faith.

Pray for the Junior clergy members this weeks as they meet together for 2 days of training.

Pray for the people of Sri Lanka - the budget was approved this week which means huge price rises in the new year.

God bless, Becky

Harvest Service pics

Here are a few pictures from the Harvest service itself:

• The Procession bowing at the altar - has Revd Becky dropped something???
• Kavishka reading the Gospel with Fr Sidney and Fr Emmanuel looking on,
• The Offertory Gifts of Harvest are presented,
• A flower garland is offered to the Chief Guest,
• Fr Sidney lights the lamp.

Greetings to St Peter's School, Fulwood

Isn't technology a wonderful thing? I'm over 5,500 miles away from Preston but I still get to do school assemblies!
Revd Becky coming to your screen soon!!!! Watch out pupils of St Peters, Fulwood!

Becky's Baubles!

Dear Friends,

As your thoughts are not doubt gearing towards Christmas and the Royal Mail announces the last posting dates for international mail I was hoping you might help me out.

I love anything sparkly and bright - particularly Christmas tree decorations. So I was wondering if you could send me just one bauble for my Christmas tree this year. It can be anything - angel, snowman, snowflake, nativity scene, star etc. Any colour, any material (excluding chocolate - sorry bout that!)! But just one - so that when I look at my tree I can think of all my friends and family this Christmas.

My mailing address is: The Revd Becky Hollis,
35/3 1/1 Old Kottawa Rd,
Mirihana,
Nugegoda,
Sri Lanka.

Thank you and God bless,
Becky

More tea Vicar?

Sorry couldn't resist this old joke!
We have a limited no of these very special 'Mirihana Mugs' for sale with all proceeds to the Vicarage rebuilding fund. Included in the price is some of the best tea in the world!

Please e-mail me at revdrebh@hotmail.com if you would to purchase one. I'm not too sure about the cost of postage at the moment - but if I say £5 plus the cost of post and packaging.

As they were donated by a local business - all proceeds will go straight into the fund!

Harvest Festival & Thanksgiving Service aka Spot the Thambili!

Well today was our big Harvest service followed by a Sale as we tried to raise funds for our Vicarage building project. We had a huge congregation packed into a smaller space then usual as stalls selling fruits and vegetables, garments, food items, crafts, books, Bible Society gift items and ice-cream. Our chief guest was Mrs Leony Seneviratne whose family were instrumental in bringing about the re-opening of Mirihana church. (For those interested in its history I will try to do a special post). We had a guest preacher the Very Revd Sidney Knight who trained in an Anglican theological college in Calcutta who worked alongside Mother Theresa. I have included some of the photos I managed to snap. There is a pic of the oil lamp decorated with strings of flowers which is lit by invited guests. You can see a pic of me enjoying my thambili - king coconut, kindly hacked open by one of my servers. You'll see Mr Sunil holding what looks like a pineapple, but is in fact a 'jack fruit' the biggest fruit in the world. Tragically people have been killed by being hit on the head by one of these monsters. Also featured is Mr Bertie, one of the choir members who always has a big friendly smile. I've also included a pic of the altar with the offertory gifts including the Sunday school's creative art work, fruits and vegetables, rice and dall, bread and milk, and rotti (flat bread) and wine. Standing on the right hand side (again with the thambili) is my right hand man - Mr Jeeva Abraham, my sexton/verger. Jeeva has 3 young sons and lives with his wife in a small flat adjoining the church building. He is always on site and is a great help and support - making sure the church is clean and tidy and cockroach free!
Our readings today were in Tamil, Sinhala and English - with a young boy of 10 reading the Gospel in English. The weather was good for us - no rain despite it being monsoon season!