GROWING UP IN CEYLON

As soon as we had a school holiday, we had to go to the ship – it was the only way for us to be together as a family. It was not easy to arrange. We needed someone to come and watch our house while we were gone. It was not possible to go away and leave the house empty. There was always a risk of robbers coming to a vacant house. Dad had moved Ebeneser from Colombo to Trincomalee. There he did not have to pay expensive port charges. It was also much cleaner in every way as there were not many ships that emitted soot and oil all the time. One could swim in the harbor around the boat without getting dirty from the oil from other ships. The first few times it was fun to go to the boat during school holidays. We traveled north and northeast from Kandy through a lush landscape with all imaginable shades of green.  Dogs, hens, ox carriages and people along the road posed a traffic risk. Fruit vendors sat in palm-leaf sheds selling pineapple, bananas, mangos and m...

Is there any meaning in what happens to us in our life? How do we know whether the path we choose  will lead to the right destination?  Many people wonder whether there is a plan or a destination for their life at all. For I know what I have planned for you,’ says the  Lord .  ‘I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you.  I have plans to give you a future filled with hope. Jeremiah 29:11 When I was a child, I used to think that everyone else lived their lives like our family did. I thought everyone moved from place to place, country to country, town to town, house to house.  Maybe my rootlessness gave this story such an impact in my life. When I was seven, I found this Swedish book in a house we moved to. A Swedish family had lived there.   VILL DU LÄSA?  (DO YOU WANT TO READ?)  Of course, I wanted to read the book with such a title. I could read English books already when I was f...