God works where He is allowed to work – A mission trip to Sri Lanka

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This year, a group of young people embarked on a mission trip to Sri Lanka. The group consisted of 16 young people from various congregations within the brotherhood. It was a diverse mix of people who initially barely knew each other, but that changed over the next few days. The trip was led by Michael Akulenko and Reinhold Wall, along with Misanth, who accompanied us as our translator, his parents, Pastor Dharma, and Rebekka.

On June 20th of this year, our journey began with a long flight to Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. We were warmly welcomed by our local friends and had lunch. Afterwards, we went directly to our hotel, where we would be staying for the next few days. There, we gathered all the donated items, sorted them, and prepared small gift bags for the girls at the orphanage. The bags contained items such as handmade bookmarks, shower gel, shampoo, hand cream, lip balm, hair ties, clips, headbands, pens, toothbrushes and toothpaste, and sweets. The young people from Ramstein had done a tremendous amount of preparatory work, lovingly embroidering the jute bags with encouraging sayings over many hours. They also created coloring books in Tamil.

Every day, our translator, Misanth, gave us a verse about loving our neighbor. The verse for our first day was from Galatians 6:2: "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." With these words, our journey through Sri Lanka began, with the Bethel Arudpani girls' home being our first stop. The young girls living in this home have already experienced much abuse and suffering in their early years. The court places girls from troubled families in this home to provide them with protection, education, and care. The girls' home is designed for 30 girls; currently, 26 girls live there.

After a short bus ride, we arrived at the girls' home, where we were traditionally welcomed with music and dancing. We played games with the children at activity stations we had prepared and got to know them better and better throughout the day.

A girl named Sumitra told us the following about her life:

“My name is Sumitra, and I am 17 years old. Many problems and difficulties in my family led me here. I had never heard of a home like this before, and I am grateful to God that He led me here. I was raised Hindu and didn't know the Lord Jesus Christ, but it was His will that I should come here. Despite my Hindu upbringing, God had a different plan for me. I had many problems because of it, but He has blessed me so richly that I am here today and have been able to get to know Him. I went through a lot in my childhood and couldn't have imagined that the Lord would bless me so richly. When I try to describe how I survived it all, I always have to refer to Jesus, who made it possible, and my prayer is that He will also help my mother, no matter what situation she is in, that she too will find the Lord, and that He will save her too. Even though there are many problems in my family—I don't want to go into detail—I pray for my family every day. My family doesn't know that I am converting to Jesus Christ.” I have, but I ask the Lord Jesus Christ to save my family and that they too may experience the love of the Lord.”

The girl Kaduja also told stories from her life:

“My name is Kaduja and I am 15 years old. I don't have a father. Because of poverty, I can't go to school, and I've had to endure many hardships, I'm here today. I grew up with my grandmother, but now she no longer has the strength or health to care for me. Before that, I was in another orphanage, but it closed down. I used to be Hindu and never knew the Lord Jesus Christ until I came here and was told about God. I had never heard of such a wonderful God before, and I immediately recognized Him as my Father. On the one hand, it makes me deeply sad that I recognized Him so late and missed out on so much time with Him. If I had recognized Him earlier, my parents would surely have met Him too, because my father has sadly passed away. Perhaps my father wouldn't have died at all, because God could have healed him through our prayers. I pray every day that He protects my family and makes them rich through me.” Bless you. I even pray for you every day. Now that I've seen you, I will continue to pray for you so abundantly, because your help is a tremendous blessing to us, and I'm sure my prayers will be answered. I also believe that my grandmother will soon be saved through my prayers; I'm 100% certain of that. I want to thank you again profusely for what you do for us girls and hope that you will continue to keep us in your prayers and support us. May God bless you.

We spent the following day with the girls at a nearby beach, where we had prepared various games. Through conversations with the home's management, we learned that the monthly costs for the home had risen drastically due to inflation, but this had been offset by donations. Later, back at the home, we visited the church on the grounds and were invited to a farewell service. The girls sang a song that was very familiar to us. We joined in, singing in German: "This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be thankful to him." Despite the different languages, we were united by the same thought: to give God glory and praise.

After a restful night, we continued our journey by bus for four hours to visit a community in Vavuniya that faces considerable hostility from the Hindus living there. However, by God's grace, many converted Christians now also live in the village. We were privileged to serve with songs during the service, and at Brother Michael's call, many souls stepped forward, repented, and were prayed for. We witnessed a Hindu woman repent and be freed from her demons. After the service, we distributed food parcels and small gifts for the children, such as balloons and sweets. The pastor's mother-in-law had lovingly prepared a lunch, which we were able to share with others from the community.

The next day, we visited another parish in Kandy and distributed aid supplies there as well. Our next stop was Hatton, where unfortunately we were unable to distribute food parcels, but we were able to present a monetary donation to 50 pastors and widows from the region who had gathered in Hatton. The rain was to blame, as it had delayed transport in the mountains. Here, too, we were able to minister with songs and offer our support in prayer, which helped deliver people from their demons. Unfortunately, the rain also prevented us from visiting people in their homes. The poverty of the people living in the mountains is very high, as they mostly work in the tea harvest, which is very poorly paid and barely provides enough to survive.

On our way to our next hotel, we met some people picking tea leaves. Our group unanimously decided to give them a small donation. We were allowed to talk to them briefly, pray with them, and distribute sweets.

We spent our last day in Sri Lanka in the capital Colombo, before starting our journey home after a total of eight days.

God has blessed and protected us greatly on this journey. Every day we saw His hand and guidance. We are grateful to God for all the prayers that have risen to heaven. Let us continue to remember the country, the churches, and the girls' home in our prayers.

CDH-Stephanus Speyer

Gina-Maria Peters

 

 

More information about the project and the opportunity to donate:

https://cdh-stephanus.org/sri-lanka/