All articles in category Sri Lanka
By K. Muraleetharan (Muralee)
Article
April 2010
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka We thank God for the recent teaching and training programmes in Trincomalee taken by Dr Gareth Crossley, from Derbyshire in England. Dr Crossley’s subjects included Christology, commitment and the sovereignty of God. It was a blessed programme, with many brothers re-kindled, motivated and encouraged to get more involved in preaching the gospel and making disciples. We were challenged too with regard to personal holiness and righteousness. Dr Crossley also taught in a local Bible college, with 35-40 people from Sri Lanka’s north, east, and hill country participating. The Lord sustained me in translating 35 sessions, while suffering toothache and backache....
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By Paul Fountain
Article
July 2009
Sri Lanka
Missionary Spotlight – Sri Lanka’s painful aftermath
Sri Lanka’s painful aftermath On 19 May the President of Sri Lanka declared the 25-year-old civil war between the Sinhalese government forces and LTTE (Tamil Tigers) officially ended. The Tamil Tigers were defeated after a conflict in which more than 80,000 lives were lost and 1.2 million people displaced. Now a major humanitarian crisis is unfolding in north-east Sri Lanka. Many who had fled to government camps are in urgent need of aid, and Jeyakanth has been trying to help. He is the senior pastor of over twenty Tamil and two Sinhalese Reformed churches that he planted or linked together as the Lanka...
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By K. Muraleetharan
Article
September 2007
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka’s perils
Sri Lanka’s perils by K. Muraleetharan The Lord reigns in Sri Lanka – in spite of the chaos and poverty! Not a single day goes by without violence and abductions, and the churches face all this and other issues. In this article we review some of the problems confronting believers in Sri Lanka and ask for your prayers. The civil war Civil war rages in the northeast of the island and the precarious situation often forces believers to recast their plans. Worship services and Bible camps have to be cancelled or postponed. Those worst affected are the Tamils recently evicted from their homes in Colombo. Sometimes...
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By K. Muraleetharan
Article
October 2005
Sri Lanka
Missionary Spotlight – Sri Lanka – a pastor reflects on blessings and failures
26 December 2004 was another Lord’s Day morning and we were gathering for worship. I heard my daughter cry out ‘the sea is coming’. At first I didn’t believe her; until I heard the cries of others and witnessed the sea rushing up to the compound gate. Two or three times it came and went. The tsunami had struck, killing believers at worship and many others besides, tearing through churches and houses. One pastor in the north told me his wife and son were swept away before his eyes. As a Calvinist I totally trust in a sovereign and loving God who doesn’t allow even...
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By K. Muraleetharan
Article
November 2000
Sri Lanka
Missionary Spotlight – Sri Lanka
Kept by the power of God The civil war continues here in Sri Lanka. Amidst fighting between Tamil Tigers and government forces we are being kept by the power of God. Indiscriminate searches and arrests are the order of the day, along with exploding land mines, claymore mines, grenades (yesterday, two were killed in Trincomalee), bombs, and direct fighting. There is no sign of reconciliation in our nation. Life is cheap in Sri Lanka. It is only by the grace of God that we have been able to continue our ministry. Travelling to other parts of the country has become tedious and precarious. People...
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By K. Muraleetharan
Article
December 1998
Sri Lanka
God’s grace in an island of graves
Sri Lanka has a multi-ethnic society, comprised of Sinhalese, Tamils, Burghers and Malays. Protestant evangelical Christians amount to less than 1% of the total population. Serious ethnic conflict between the (mainly Buddhist) Sinhalese and (mainly Hindu) Tamil communities has continued for the past fifteen years. It has affected all areas of life. The continuing bloodshed, atrocities and injustices on the island have made people think seriously about the real meaning of life. ‘Is God really in control?’ is the question uppermost in many people’s minds. Yes! He is in control and, through all its troubles, has been doing in this ‘paradise-island’ all that he intends...
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Article
February 1998
Sri Lanka
Missionary Spotlight – Sri Lanka
‘Pearl’ or ‘tear drop’ of the Indian Ocean? History Aboriginal Vedda inhabiting the island were conquered by Sinhalese, who came from north India during the 500’s B.C. In the third century B.C. the island became a major centre of Buddhism. Tamils arrived from south India from 100 B.C. onwards. Conflict between Sinhalese and Tamils resulted in Tamils controlling the northern half of the island and Sinhalese the south. Europeans were attracted to the island by the spice trade. The Portuguese first colonized it in A.D. 1505, to be followed a century later by the Dutch, and then in 1796 by the British. Britain declared Ceylon...
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Article
February 1998
Sri Lanka
Missionary Spotlight – Sri Lanka – Features
Physical: An island 25,328 square miles in area, 50 miles south-east of India. Hilly in the south. Adam’s Peak, standing 2243 metres high, is sacred to Buddhists. Population: 18 million. Sinhalese – 74%; Tamils 17%; Moors – 7% (partly descended from Arab seafarers); others – 2%. Population density – 622 persons per square mile. One quarter are urban dwellers. Life expectancy – about 65 years. Capital (and chief port): Colombo (nearly 2 million); town: Kandy; ports: Jaffna, Galle, Negombo, Trincomalee. Languages: Sinhala and Tamil (official languages); English. Literacy – 85%. Economy: Mainly agricultural, rice being the staple crop and tea the chief export; also light...
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By John Hall
Article
February 1998
Sri Lanka
Monsoon for a tired pastor
In 1977 I was in Sri Lanka, visiting a Bible college and three Reformed Baptist churches. They worked me hard! I spoke forty-four times in fifteen days, including seven lectures a day for four days at the Bible college, where my task was to teach the prison epistles (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon) to sixteen final-year BTh. students. This meant that I had to teach the very heart of my theology – how God, in sovereign grace, unites dead sinners to Christ and, in so doing, showers them with blessings, lavishes on them his grace and is rich in mercy and love towards them. This...
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