Dear Friends
I hear that things are rather apocalyptic in the UK at the moment. Welcome to the real world!

Returning to Scotland from Asia I was aware of both the economic power and the vulnerability of highly developed Western society. It was interesting to see how during the petrol strike of last year the whole country was endangered by the loss of one service for a short period of time.  Perhaps the 21st century will be plagued by viruses and bugs of various sorts that thrive on our very development - reminders that our well being is to be found in God not in goods which people take for granted? 

I have just returned from a situation that is as far removed from the normal stability and predictability of Scotland as it is possible to be. A group of students and lecturers from our College went to Jaffna for a period of 10 days. It was not easy for me as a foreigner to get permission to go there, but finally my transit visa came through. Jaffna is the principle city of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka, for almost 20 years it has been the focus of the armed struggle between the SL army and the Tigers. Getting there was not the most congenial experience that I have ever had. It is difficult to describe the inconvenience that everyone has to go through on the journey, the endless hours of waiting in the hot sun, the checking and re-checking of luggage by the police and army, the pushing and shoving of the crowd, the red tape and the 14 hour over night trip by Red Cross ferry. Fortunately my experiences on the 'Ola' going to Orkney helped me to avoid sea sickness and to settle down quickly on a less than totally uncomfortable spot on the deck. Ferry or military air transport is the only way to get to Jaffna; the road and rail links have been closed for over a decade.

Once you get to Jaffna you quickly realise that you have not arrived in Shangri La. The bus that took us from the port had its windows blacked out so that we could not see the lay out of the military base that we were going through. The town is surprising in that there are very few vehicles, only  ancient buses and old Morris Minors and Oxfords - they are the more modern exhibits! People go about principally on bicycles. They still use kerosene for their vehicles. For years Jaffna had virtually no petrol and no electricity.  In terms of population too Jaffna is quiet compared to the usual bustle of Sri Lankan towns. Hundreds of thousands of people have left - fled to Canada, Australia, Europe and elsewhere. Everywhere there are army checkpoints and armed soldiers. The town looks like something out of the aftermath of the second world war: buildings are pock marked with bullet holes, that is when they are still standing and have not been destroyed by shelling.  We saw the remains of the famous library, the pride of Jaffna, wantonly destroyed by the army to deprive the students of education. We saw churches shattered by bombing; one with only the foundation of the pulpit remaining.   Innumerable houses have been destroyed. Many areas are no go, red signs with a skull and crossbones warn of land mines. The dad of one of our Jaffna students had his leg blown off by a land mine while working on his land.

At the moment there is a limited peace and talks are going on - for the first time in ages there seems to be some hope of starting to talk about the possibility of a settlement.  In the mean time for the local people life after a fashion continues. The land is productive and the farmers hard working but they have a very limited market for their produce - once the garden of Sri Lanka - so profits are low.  The fishermen too are very limited in what they can catch, they are constantly subject to all sorts of restrictions on times and places where they can fish. Nevertheless we enjoyed some lovely sea food: meen, nandu and raal - that is fish, crabs and prawns. The prawns were fantastic and I bought a huge crab for about 50 pence.  It is ironic but I don't think that I can remember any time when I ate richer food than in Jaffna. We were invited to lots of meals in the homes of students and clergy. They did their very best to provide good Jaffna hospitality. We also travelled to the northern most point of Sri Lanka at Point Pedro. I have long wanted to visit the lighthouse there and finally my ambition was realised.

Our trip involved various meetings with the clergy, for myself  I'd rather wander about and see things and meet the people. In Jaffna that was not practicable because of my inability to speak Tamil - a real brain bender of a language - apart from the absolutely essential words such as the above!  It was part of our remit to meet in churches and discuss the 'Jaffna situation' and things invariably developed into a multi-lingual political discussion.  On one occasion we were in an RC seminary and I noticed the figure of the crucifix looking down on us all in Don Camillo fashion. Were we so busy discussing the 'reality' of the people that we had forgotten about the reality of God? Afterwards I asked a delightful priest who I happened to be sitting next if the  RC church was engaged in any mission and taking the message of the forgiveness of sins to the people. He said that no one was doing that. I said 'surely there must be some'. 'No' he replied 'none'. This is the danger of an over politicised church it forgets why it exists and replaces social concern for the Gospel.  This particular priest said that he did have a healing service and the people flocked to it.

There are many stories which I heard when I was in Jaffna of the tremendous hardships that the people had been through. We visited a hospital - there is one psychiatrist for half a million war traumatised people - he told us some heart breaking stories of 14 year old boys who had joined the 'movement' ie the Tigers, they had seen and done and suffered things that had driven them out of their minds.  The minister who I stayed with told me that as a boy he used to watch public executions. Most of the people there have been subjected to heavy shelling which is extremely frightening, most of them have had to flee from their houses with nothing - the clothes they were wearing, not just once but many times.  Most of them have lost loved ones, there are six girls for every boy of marriagable age. There are thousands of widows with no real means of support. There is very little freedom of movement and freedom of expression. There is little hope of decent jobs for graduates. Money comes from abroad to those who have contacts but not to those who don't.  I met with a group of Christian students, they said that the main problem was the lack of freedom - to pursue a career, to find a future, however they strongly maintained that their difficulties had brought them closer to God.  The faith of these fine young people was genuinely humbling. 

I don't know what the future holds for Jaffna. One of my students took me to visit the pastor of the 'Zion' church in which he grew up. Since then the student has joined the Anglicans - a major fall from grace in the Zion pastor's eyes. The pastor had some ideas that one would find it hard to subscribe to but on the other hand one could not but admire that he and his family had stuck it out since 1972 and his one congregation had grown to ten - now fifteen hundred people, of the poorest of the poor. I think that his work was a sign of the worthwhileness of the Gospel - which you better believe he preaches! Many of the people walk more than 10 kilometres to church every Sunday morning. I take him and people like him as a sign of hope.

Blessings

Tony Forman
Lecturer
Theological College of Lanka
Pilimatalawa
Sri Lanka.