After almost 2 months, I managed to goto church today as I was doing the night shift and was free (to sleep!) in the morning. Today was special as it was the church’s anniversary service (15 years). It was an amazing service! The worship was good and the sermon was so encouraging.And to top it all, there was lunch served for all! AmazingI felt encouraged (and fattened) and went back…. and crashed out to sleep for a couple of hours before going back to work.

After the tiring night, the best part was that I got 1 night off! That left me free the whole day and the next morning. After breakfast, I decided to watch a movie. One of my friends had ‘Sahara’ and I popped it onto my laptop and enjoyed it. The movie was OK – not too great, but entertaining! After that I slept till 11 PM!! I wojke up for a late dinner and then surfed the net, etc etc,… slept off, woke at 10 AM. Now….. back to work!

Tonight started off with a bang. I walked into work at 5.15 PM and found out that a child needed mechanical ventilation. Well that took an hour to set, including putting in the lines, etc. After 9 PM all hell broke loose. Jesinth had just come back from dinner and she waas reintubating a child when I got called to the Labour Room – a set of twins delivering! That started the ball rolling. Within an hour anothe premie popped out. Dr. Manishh, the consultant, started to get busy. Then there was another set of twins. Busily we started poking them, putting in lines and giving thenm the injections. XRays were taken. And one baby was started on CPAP. By…

As I started my night shift, I learnt that one of the staff nurse’s son had gone missing and was probably kidnapped. We felt terrible – she was a very nice, senior nurse who balanced her home and work perfectly and this would devastate her. Although each of us continued to work, we were all praying that things go on OK.By morning we rejoiced – theboy had been traced and had been returned! It was a family problem because of which a relative had forcibly abducted him!!We all felt relieved – our unspoken prayers answered!!

Had a very eventful sunday. I was on duty saturday night and it was very relaxed! Sunday kinda became eventful.First off we did a peritoneal dialysis for a child with renal failure. Dr. Indira allowed me to do the procedure and I was thrilled! It was my first and it went on fairly uneventfully.I managed to grab some sleep in the afternoon.After 6 PM things changed. I bought a 25 liter water can for drinking water. I carefully placed it on an inverted bucket and it seemed stable. 5 minutes later…. crash!! It slipped, fell off… the top popped open and within 5 seconds 15 liters of water gushed onto my room floor. I kinda mopped it but there was…

Just wanted to let ya all know that I’m back and safe. We had an amazing time with the relief camps and plenty of health, medical, physical and spiritual needs were fulfilled.

After attending a church service where Ravi gave the sermon, we took a ride and then a stroll down the beach. We could almost see the waves hitting! The seashore was devoid of the houses and trees that once lined it. A graveyard was burried by sand and some graves had apparently been thrown open (we discovered a skull). At the seashore we met Veerasingham (literally translated to ‘Brave Lion’). His house was or rather had been at the seaside. On the 26th of December, he sat to watch a TV serial and looked out to see his grandchild play. A few minutes later he looked out to see his grandchild running away and then saw the wave coming. He…

We reached a guesthouse and after a quick shower and change we had breakfast together. Over breakfast is when we had this amazing conversation with Dr. James. He’s a 64-year old Forensic Head-of-Department who is one of the most sought after and famous one in South Africa. We would have expected him to keep a distance from us – but no! He enthralled us with stories about his life – wondrous stories of faith and miracles and trust and a heart for God and people! He put across so simply that his faith amazed us! Our tiredness flew away and we felt encouraged!

After lunch we started off with the health camps. Lots of people. The health needs were mostly simple and none were seriously sick. What they needed was someone to speak to – with their stories of loss, bereavement….. maybe I’ll compile some stories together and put them online. A lot are very moving . It’s impossible to try and understand the depth of their loss. God’s comfort is needed… lots of it. Mr. Raja ound a cheap place to stay for us. Felt relieved. A family agreed to having Mona staying with them. So that sorted out most of the arrangements.

We reached Colombo around 4 PM pretty tired. Mr. Raja John and Dr. James met us. We loaded our stuff onto the van and we set off immediately on the 12 hour drive to kalmunai. After brief stops for food we reached a standstill at 11 PM – a bridge was closed and would open only at 5 AM. Yaaawn… so we parked our van on the side under a tree (with jungle all around) and dozed off in the van. Our driver kept vigil – we were touched by his refusal to sleep! God kept us safe – no mosquitoes, rain or wild elephants. 3:30 AM the bridge was opened and we were on our way again – we…