reedster

my goodbye party

cake break

aumar ready to rock while i mentally imagine my next bowl

caleb and grandpa playing

janna & sara - bff

the party crew

posted by reedster @ 00:37 0 comments

family time

our jungle survival trainer...

podium finishers

manila bay cruise

our story is so much better than titanic's

designated baby sitters

sailing is soooooo much fun!

caleb w/ uncle ben

posted by reedster @ 00:29 0 comments

more pi

american war memorial - makati

walking among the dead that are still missing

a small glimpse of the sacrifice paid by the greatest generation

matt & erin castagna going out for dessert

matt & erin, jeff & candy, sara & i

old friends w/ some great stories...matt & i

posted by reedster @ 00:22 0 comments

philippine scenes

faith alumni breakfast - some of my high school alumni

prayer/bike trip into the hills behind our house

dad & i w/ our machines

street scene from manila - that kid is wind surfing pinoy style

posted by reedster @ 23:44 0 comments

pictures from the philippines 3

after one year...



we're still in love w/ each other...

& more to come

posted by reedster @ 05:38 0 comments

pictures from the philippines 2

this is how we do it...pinoy style...

New Years '07


small portion of manila...and the fireworks

candy, candy & jeff, sara & i - friends from high school

sister, janna & caroyln

my bros and pinoy sister

janna, caroyln and sara - asian beauties

bottle rocket danger

one of thousands that night...picture and fireworks

sara is nervous & i'm rockin out...naw, we're in our element

our own big firework display...dragon master

party people

natural high, i swear...'07 is gonna rock

posted by reedster @ 05:24 0 comments

pictures from the philippines

Christmas '06 Philippines

mom & grandson

caleb & his incisors

dazled by the camera

toys, toys & more toys

watching the little guy

teaching him early...

christmas morning

ccf's christmas service

either we're tiny or the tree is enormous

posted by reedster @ 05:09 0 comments

updates coming soon

updates sooooon.... i'm not lying, i'm just lazy.

i have countless photos and updates to put up on my blogs from these last couple months. there is christmas and new years in the philippines, the end of sri lanka, and a couple other things i have yet to think about. but once i get home from sri lanka i hope to catch everyone up. just forewarning all of you that hopelessly gave up checking them long ago. there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

soon, very soon. i just have to wait for a steady internet connection. haha seriously...

posted by reedster @ 15:58 0 comments

Sri Lanka 2007

As Sri Lanka enters the new year after a year that was believed to be the bloodiest in recent memory, there is a collective sense that the nations population is holding its breath to see what this new year brings. In the midst of this I prepare for my impending departure which comes ever quickly on February 20th. Unfortunately for many of the citizens of Sri Lanka they are offered no escape from the violence which adds increasing pressure to the already fragile situation.

Chris Morris, a BBC News correspondent writes a good article summarizing this coming year and how it might reflect upon this tropical island. If you have time, take a look at "Civil War Haunts Sri Lanka Again". Of course I don't agree in his alluding to the stars and how they might contain the answer to Sri Lanka's future but it is the drastic reality that much of the nation is desperately looking for answers where ever they may lie.

It is my prayer that the Church might arise during the midst of this humanitarian crisis, one where countless lives have been taken, to provide answers that lie with the Prince of Peace and the Gospel that He brings. Like many of my former posts, please pray with me for the island of Sri Lanka so that the gates of hell might not prevail and that the Lord's will may poured out upon the land.

posted by reedster @ 12:05 0 comments

crash and burn

most of you have noticed the poor effort that i have put into keeping this blog up-to-date. its now about to get worse.

after a wonderful holiday vacation in the philippines with my family and gf, Sara, my computer decided to all but quit on me. i say all but because the data is all still there but windows doesnt want to cooperate anymore. not sure if this is a virus, filled that flipped out and corrupted or if when i was compressing my disk space deleted a very important file. i dont think its my fault because i dont remember deleting anything...then again i hardly ever think its my fault.

this can also be considered a blessing in disguise because it forces me to stay on the computer as little as possible because its such a pain in the you know what. i have no sound, video, internet, picture or file modification ability. all i can do is use the microsoft office applications. joy! now i can get all my work done.

for those of you that spend way to much time on the internet or dinking around your computer this is a suggested route to fixing your habit. not saying that i have that problem. haha this is more of a lame excuse of why you dont see any sweet looking pix on my blog from my holidays. till next time or when my computer finally decides it will crash and burn.

excuse to buy a new one! yes...wait, after i get a job that pays.

:)

posted by reedster @ 19:25 0 comments

exit strategy

i'm back in trincomalee for the next two weeks. its been good to be back even though the monsoon season has just started which makes everything muddy. at the moment i'm working on preparing my exit plan/strategy from my departure from sri lanka in feb '07.

it seems strange to be planning this in nov after being here on and off for the last two years. i have to admit that i'm going to miss many things about sri lanka but i do recognize that its time for me to leave. until then its crazy, i have seven major projects to make sure get transfered over completely to local responsibilities with half of them in the understaffed trincomalee region. at the moment we have three staff and two of them are quiting when i leave so it gives me the daunting task of replacing them, training their replacements and transferring all responsibilities. at least i know that if any of this is successful is sure wont be my work that accomplished it but a miracle from the Lord. so thats a quick little prayer request.

one funny side note before i sign off. one funny thing about trincomalee is that they started major road construction/repair just before monsoon season. now the roads, drainage and the whole works are half complete and the rains have come. that means no work can be done on them until the rain stops and that there is flooding and mud everywhere. its especially fun when you drive a motorbike to work.

i'm reading in Prov 4-8 and was reflecting on the fact that wisdom brings life. that is my prayer for you all, that you might seek after wisdom so that you can live and walk in justice and righteousness. i pray that the same thing happens in the us midterm elections, that men who choose wisdom, integrity and the fear of God are elected by the people instead of politicians who stand for party lines, political reasonings and personal gains.

i'm off to finish my mountain of paper work and then out for some more rice and curry. yum yum

posted by reedster @ 11:09 0 comments

colombo arrest

i was going to say house arrest but i'm not limited to my house. under colombo arrest...because of the situation.

its ridiculous. another day, another suicide attack, except this one was down south on a navy base in Galle. the rebels attacked the navy base down south, which is largely a singhalese area, which set off a series of riots in the town. sinhalese were attacking tamils and targeting their shops. another depiction of how this problem never ends. there were also riots in habarana where yesterdays suicide bombing took place. it was here that groups of people, rumors have it that police and military were supporting them, attacked vehicles by throwing rocks and beating people up.

its sad because news like this steals the headlines and people dont realize that there have been killings nationwide daily. last night two more civilians were killed in trincomalee by the armed forces, some of these have explanations but many of them go without any investigations or answers. sad really when you are living in the midst of state & rebel sponsored terrorism where people are controlled by their hatred.

this whole situation has the potential of becoming really ugly and very quickly. i pray that this doesnt happen.

***pictures of the truck bomb***

truck bomb - whats left of it

investigation

aftermath...
***pictures thanks to bbc news***

posted by reedster @ 18:19 0 comments

two months till...

october already and i have to admit, i'm looking forward to december. christmas in the philippines! Lord willing sara and i will be there for christmas to celebrate with my parents, and paul & jen [caleb + 1]. its about time i get to see my nephew, he's going to think that i'm the estranged uncle. besides i miss the pi and i look being reunited to that lovely island. strange fact...actually the philippines has over 7000 islands...anyone want to go in on an investment with me?

but...back to the subject

until christmas time i've got my hands full with sri lanka. i'll be slowly bowing out of my responsibilities and hopefully in a semi-graceful fashion. simply put, i'll be handing over all responsibility and management to the local staff in all the projects. that will be a good evaluation of how well things went there and if i made a lasting sustainable difference. fingers crossed. haha

the thing that sucks is that i still have the physical project implementation/management to do in trincomalee but i also have to train a national water & sanitation coordinator in colombo plus get the children's program running [its a psycho-social program that was suppose to start in nov '05, things are sorta slow out here]. that means i'll be going up and down, up and down. again this was further complicated and delayed today when the rebels drove a suicide truck into a military convoy killing 90+ and wounding 130+ navy soldiers. this took place on the one road into trinco from colombo, the one that i've driven literally hundreds of times. for those of you that have visited me in sri lanka and have gone to trinco, it was after habarana but before kantale...close to the turn off for sigiriya. for more info check out bbc's report. this just adds to the already fragile situation. last week over 120 soldiers were killed and 300 wounded in the fighting up in jaffna. and people complain and focus on iraq?!? we live in interesting times...

for now i'm on hold and restricted from traveling to trinco until things calm down or open up. not like you haven't heard that one before...seems like that has become a regular occurrence. rumor has it that the road to batticaloa and trinco will be shut down for certain parts of the day. anyway, besides driving, buses and road usage there is always the train which i think i will use. that is of course, until the rebels start to bomb the tracks or target the trains. this is funny because i did go to the train station to get a ticket to trinco today [i was scheduled to leave for trinco] but i was told that the trains werent running because there was an 'obstruction'. i found out later that it was actually a derailment which caused this 'obstruction'. i gotta admit, sri lanka is great because you never know what is going to happen tomorrow. literally, this country can be bi-polar at times...full support peace talks and working towards resolutions and then engaging in bitter fighting which is not defensive as both sides claim it to be.

thats about it...i'll be staying in colombo and will be working at the head office and from home. on the bright side of things it will allow me to pour into some relationships that i started with guys here at the methodist and four square churches. i'm praying that we can get a bible study/prayer meeting/accountability group going. so, your prayers would be greatly appreciate too! it also allows me to talk to sara joelle alot more now that we're hooked up with skype. seriously, thats the ice cream sundae of my day and for those of you that know me, i love ice cream! alright, i'm outta here.

more additions to the sri lanka saga...

posted by reedster @ 22:28 0 comments

tea country

tea...yipee! for all you english out there, what it means to be the real tea-totaler - the truth!


going native - dont worry i didnt sell them into slavery

check out that form - the natural tea picker

mother like daughter - the brawn of tea

the factory - the brains of tea

tea masher...i dared sara to stick her finger in there and now there is some special tea out there

refining my palate - master tea-totaler in-the-making? doubt it

what women do after tea? relax on the lawn and smile...gorgeous!

what men do after tea? run the rapids! ok, i was kidding

*special note*
tea is mentioned a total of sixteen times in this blog...thats almost enough to make me sick of tea

this was actually really cool. i didnt know so much stuff went into making tea, well i guess i always figured it would, but didnt get to see it until now. i sure have to say that tea-picker gets the short end of the stick. they work hard all day walking up hills picking tea and they live in shanty towns. it would sorta be like in the south and cotton picking cept it aint that hot up in the hills.

overall, an awesome trip to upcountry. we got some cool weather, new experiences, good company, and an education in tea. besides found a sweet river that is totally kayakable...anyone interested? dont worry the falls arent that big. gnar thats what sri lanka could use a little more of - good clean fun adventure, no more of this violent war adventure.

posted by reedster @ 11:20 0 comments