Bud Centre – May Report

May 31, 2023

Missions, Sri Lanka

Greetings to our Westside Family!

We’ve just come through a very busy season and so this update is long overdue. Also, we have faced some personal, tough losses in the last months. It’s hard to put into words how many highlights and lowlights we have experienced but here it goes.

On March 15th a person we treasure deeply went to be with Jesus. Our Grandma Glenna Johnson left us in her 91st year. It’s hard to describe how special she was to our family. She was the most special grandma/great-grandma. She joined social media so she could keep up to date with our life. She fiddled her way around an iPad so she could message us, call us, receive updates from us and more. She prayed daily for us and sent us gifts every time a visitor came from Canada to be with us. There is a huge void in our life with her absence. But we rejoice in her going home to eternity where she no longer has any earthly struggle.

Our next hard news came very unexpectedly at with the passing of our Uncle Marlo just a few weeks ago. He suffered a massive heart attack and made his entrance to heaven much, much sooner than anyone expected. He spent time with us over Christmas and even left a bag of his clothes with us in anticipation of his next visit. We had an email from him the day before he died saying he would FaceTime us in the next couple days. He was a HUGE part of our life and equally huge supporter of our ministry in Sri Lanka. He played many roles (including volleyball coach) in my growing up years and was a pillar in all that we do here in Sri Lanka. He loved this nation and the people and served the Lord faithfully.

These losses have been hard to swallow – especially being so far away. We felt the loss of not being able to grieve together with everyone back in Canada. However, we have this amazing hope to be able to see both Grandma Glenna and Uncle Marlo when we enter into eternity. Also, so many events have happened in our ministry here that confirmed their was no mistake from God’s perspective as to why we were not in Canada.

Our plan to travel to Canada has been a long time in the making but has been restricted beyond our control. We have been in a busy season relating to both visitors and servants from Canada joining us at the Bud Centre. The main reason for our delay though is because Nishanthe has not been granted a document that will get him back into Canada. His his Permanent Resident Card has expired and still has not been processed by the Canadian government. It would normally be a simple process but I believe circumstances involving the Canada Revenue Agency have unfortunately caused us to be caught up in their backlog of work.

It is our hope and desire to be in Canada within the next month, maybe two in order to reunite with family, to step back on Canadian soil after four long years, and for a time to connect with our friends and supporters. We could certainly use your prayers for this to come to fruition.

The Bud Centre has had a couple of months filled with amazing times too! We had my (Kristin) parents with us in January and February. We made some wonderful family memories together. Mom and Dad also blessed the Bud Centre by helping to improve the Volleyball court, cooking and feeding kids, and made Valentines Day extra special with cards for every child at the Bud Centre on that day.

Then in March and April we had five weeks with our special supporters from Westside Academy serve at the Bud Centre. Group 1 was four Teachers & Parent support staff and ten students – Group 2 was three leaders who continued with us after the first group returned to Canada plus three University students who joined us for the second half of the time the visit. We had such an amazing time together with a lot of fun! They served in every area at the Bud Centre. Cleaning, bringing supplies from Canada, teaching classes, playing with kids, hosting a Canadian style campout and a Sri Lankan New Year festival for the community, leading a Moms group, giving out food hampers, visiting our outreach program, exploring the country and touring many unique places around our community. At the end there were any tearful goodbyes but next years plans are already in the works.

Mother’s Day was a huge highlight this year. We had 58 moms turn out and we are continually blown away at the response of how much joy our time together brings. These mom’s all have needs in their life and valuable life lessons to share and trust me some of them have really opened up their lives to us. We have learned so much from one another. I’m amazed at how God is using the Bud Centre for opportunities as special as this.

We also had a special visit from our two Regional Directors just last week. It was a special time of showing our Sri Lankan ministry to them and updating them on all that’s been happening in our family, ministry, and community. Our time with them was very encouraging.

The Bud Centre is currently in a season of transition due to the resignation of three staff members. We said goodbye to Sam, his wife Priscilla, and Kavishka as they decided to move on to other endeavors. We bless them in whatever God has in store for them. This leaves us facing the challenge of a staff shortage and we ask for your prayers for God to provide for us.

Well, this was a long and newsy update. I will close for now and I hope the next update from us will be with news of our visit to Canada. Trusting in God’s perfect timing.