Today was one of the best days of my life…

Today was beautiful. Today was filled with joy and celebration. Today was hope animated in full color.

Today was a day that I will likely remember for the rest of my life.

And yet today was also uncomfortable, a grandiose experience that pushed me further out of my Americanized comfort zone and into a place where I was forced to let grace ferment.

Even now, as the day nears its end here in Sri Lanka, my soul is filled with unrest, unspeakable joy-filled unrest. I struggle to sleep. I’d rather be singing. I’d rather go back into today and encounter the uncomfortable one more time.

Because it was good. So good.

This morning, as the sun rose up behind me, I stood alone at the edge of an angry Indian ocean and prayed aloud, “God, I believe you exist in every detail. Help me to see a glimpse of you today.” With those words on my lips, I boarded a van for a 90-minute drive to the Willuwa ADP (area development project).

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What I experienced today actually started back in 1997, the year that World Vision (along with a whole bunch of Americans and Canadians willing to sacrifice monthly funds for a child sponsorship) set up the Willuwa ADP in Sri Lanka. At the time, on the busy streets and rural backroads that crisscross this ADP, poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, poor hygiene, and un-childlike living conditions flourished in this community. And those concerns alone were a big enough hurdle to overcome. But the great seemingly insurmountable need of the time was just the beginning of what ailed this community of people. The biggest obstacle (as often is the case) was this community’s culture, a hodgepodge of people from various backgrounds of Buddhist (the majority), Hindus (about 15 percent of the population), Muslim (10-15 percent of the population), and Christian (less than 10 percent) faiths.

Living peaceably was difficult enough. But working together for the common good? Was that possible?

Today answered that question loud and clear. I’m sure that many days between that first one in 1997 and today answered that question loud & clear. But unfortunately I wasn’t there to hear, see, feel, and experience those answers. But I was here today.

Sudesh, Sri Lankan native and the director of this ADP, invited us (a group of writers and bloggers from the United States) to be special guests at today’s festivities. I know it sounds silly and perhaps a bit pretentious (you know, a little too “American”) but today I had the privilege of being a part of a group of white Westerners who represented the multitude of American and Canadian sponsors who by-and-large helped make today’s celebration possible. Because without their sacrifice and loyal giving, today wouldn’t have happened.

What was today?

The community is throwing World Vision a going away party! It’s not a sad party. It’s a happy occasion, a day that that this community has been dreaming about and aiming toward for 15 years, an occasion that has special significance for the World Vision staff. “In the beginning, those first celebrations were 100 percent organized by World Vision and today THIS party is 100 percent organized the community!” Sudesh smiles when he says that. And with good reason! Today is a long time coming, a day that showcases the fruit of the community a la World Vision’s dedication.

It was always World Vision’s plan to hand the wheel (so to speak) over to the community (when it was ready). Sometimes that day happens in 13 years. Sometimes 18 years. But here, in this coastline community of Sri Lanka, it happened in just few days short of 15 years. Today is the “handover”, a ceremonial celebration of an action that’s been in the works for several years. You see, once World Vision begins to believe that a community is capable of living and breathing and thriving on its own, they begin to slowly handover the reins of program responsibility to the community. That looks different in each country. But here the “community” is a unified group of Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Christian leaders, men and women with varied beliefs and worldly understandings who decided to work together for the good of their community’s children.

Which sounds like an awfully good reason to come together and a wonderful accomplishment to celebrate.

And celebrate they did. And it was huge, a community-wide celebration that began at 9:30 in the morning with a parade, a parade that we (the Americans, me holding a camera) got to be a part of. And this wasn’t just any parade. This was a parade that lasted for more than four hours, one that included a host of motorcyclists, a caravan of World Vision cars and vans, busloads after busloads of people, ordinary people who on some level had been affected by World Vision’s work over the last 15 years. And then led by a band of 15-20 motorcycles (many of them donning Sri Lankan and World Vision flags on their rides), this caravan of 15 cars, trucks, vans, and buses motorcaded throughout the community, hitting at least 50 miles of streets and backroads, stopping no less than 15 times at various locations throughout to celebrate a variety of accomplishments or to be greeted by various members of the community, groups of people whose members revere the World Vision staff as family.

Each stop the groups presented Sudesh with some special token of their appreciation. Because I’m the photographer on this trip, the American holding a camera, I’m given full access to the front of the line. And at the front of the line, the joy expressed was palpable.

The parade of celebration included dancing, singing, gift-giving, long embraces, ceremonial expressions of honor, and so much more.

I watched Sri Lankan dancers perform a cultural dance.
I watched Buddhist priests cover Sudesh in flowers of thanksgiving.
I watched joy-filled Muslim women put gifts around Sudesh’s neck.

And then we came to a Hindu temple. When he arrived, Sudesh followed the Hindu monk into one of the temple’s rooms. I stood at the edge of the temple, waiting in anticipation, my camera in tow, for what was to come.

And then Haas, our World Vision tour guide and translator, looked at me (she must have seen the wonder on my face) because she said, “You can go in if you want. Just take off your shoes.”

I slipped off my shoes and my hat because I was standing on somebody else’s holy ground. A few moments later, the Hindu monk, a young man who might have been twenty-years-old, dipped his thumb into scented ash, wiped it across my forehead, offering me his faith’s blessing.

Four hours later the parade ended. And then we ate lunch. And then, joining thousands of people (children and adults), Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Christians, we partied some more. Sri Lankans know how to party.

When we left at 5:00, today’s celebration was just getting started.

What an honor it was to be strangers and yet invited to participate. What an honor it was to stand there alongside Sudesh and other World Vision staff and watch them get lavished with love, praise, and thanksgiving. What an honor it was to see the fruit of so many American’s and Canadian’s sacrifice. What an honor to see Muslims holding hands with Hindus, Hindus holding hands with Christians, Christians holding hands with Buddhists, people with varied understandings and faiths having found a way to work together on behalf their children, their children’s future.

I got see firsthand the power of God working through World Vision.

At times, unity was uncomfortable to watch. Am I so unused to seeing and experiencing unity that I’m uncomfortable with it? Am I still so caught up in my American Christianity that while the idea of Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Christians working together sounds wonderful, seeing it occur frightens me on some level.

When I was standing in that Hindu temple, I took my hat off out of respect. But I also felt compelled to take my hat off. As I watched the monk offer his ceremonial blessing to Sudesh, I welled up with this longing to experience that blessing to. I was nervous. I was scared. And I swore I felt the nudge of God telling me to take my hat off and be still. Maybe I needed to be pushed out of my comfort zone. Maybe I needed to be reminded how much God loves people–all people. Maybe I needed to be reminded that God’s grace sometimes smells and feels and looks differently than what we’ve become accustom to it being.

When I closed my eyes and felt that man’s thumbprint swipe across my sweaty brow, tears of thanksgiving to God, the God I worship, filled my eyes.

Today I believe I saw a glimpse of the kingdom of God. It was a powerful sight. A sight that was a long time in the making. A sight shook me off my pedestal. A sight that World Vision sponsors helped to make happen. A sight that seemed miraculous at times. A sight that I will see in my mind’s eye for many years to come.

Indeed, today was one of the best days of my life…

A sight that we all can help each other see again. When you sponsor a child through World Vision, you’re giving a gift that will long outlast the life of your child. You’re helping to affect an entire family’s future, a community’s future, and also a country’s future. That area of Sri Lanka is better because of the work of World Vision. It’s BETTER! Isn’t that what being the hands and feet of Christ is all about? To leave things better than they were…

Today I visit an ADP that started last year. A journey ends. A new one begins.

Help us get this one started. Because World Vision and the people of Sri Lanka can’t do this without you.

Sponsor a child from Sri Lanka today.

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