On an island where guerrilla warfare and political uncertainty continues, and Christianity is struggling, there is a positive side, says Mike Ryan, director of the Seventh-day Adventist Church's Global Mission program, just back from a week-long visit to
On an island where guerrilla warfare and political uncertainty continues, and Christianity is struggling, there is a positive side, says Mike Ryan, director of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s Global Mission program, just back from a week-long visit to Sri Lanka in late November.
“Church workers are going forward with the mission [of the church] but with increased efforts,” Ryan says. He explains that church workers and Global Mission pioneers, volunteers who move to so-called “un-entered areas,” often face difficult situations as they hold Bible studies and begin organizing new groups of believers. “They don’t know who’s going to walk in there and create a lot of trouble.”
Though the country’s troubles occupy media attention, it has not been widely reported that Adventist church members and other Christians have been killed, while others have narrowly escaped death. “However, we’re grateful for the Sri Lankan government’s efforts to maintain freedom of religion,” says Ryan. “As in many countries, it’s often the work of a few extremists who try to infringe on the rights to freedom of worship.”
Because of the war in certain parts of the country, building and maintaining churches is another area of concern. Tensions between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil separatists have been ongoing for two decades, costing nearly 100,000 lives. Ryan tells of one church that had saved enough money to put up a roof, but bullet holes are scattered throughout it now. After patching it, they plan to save money—some US$700 that they are hopeful to raise in three to four years—to put up walls around the church. “If it rains, they have to find somewhere else to hold worship services,” Ryan says.
The Adventist Church, which first entered Sri Lanka in the early 1900s, has about 3,700 members worshipping in 31 churches and congregations. Global Mission has the goal of establishing 50 new groups of believers in the next five years.
