Worthy Christian News » Tamil And Sinhalese Christians Unite To Overcome Aftermath Of Sri Lanka War

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By Worthy News Asia Service

COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (Worthy News) — At least a quarter of a million civilians, including Christians, remained displaced Wednesday, May 27, in Sri Lanka following the government's final military crackdown on independence seeking Tamil rebels, but Tamil and Sinhalese Christians said they have united to overcome the crisis and show reconciliation is possible.

Sinhalese and Tamil Christians said it remains difficult for hundreds of thousands of people to rebuild their shattered lives and added they have united and work closely with the Evangelical Alliance United Kingdom “to call on [UK] Christians to pray for Sri Lanka and donate to agencies working on the ground.”

Several local and international Christians groups are already in Sri Lanka, including organizations  such as a   Tearfund, World Vision and The Barnabus Fund which works with the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka.

Ram Gidoomal, Chair of the South Asian Concern group and a member of the Evangelical Alliance’s Council said in a statement obtained by BosNewsLife that “The only encouragement is that God’s people in Sri Lanka” and elsewhere are seen to be “working together to respond, across all the ethnic and religious barriers.”

REBEL KILLED

Last week the government said Sri Lankan soldiers killed Velupillai Prabhakaran, the man who founded the Tamil Tigers rebel movement, led it through Asia's longest civil war and was believed to have pioneered terrorist tactics from suicide vests to sea and air attacks.

The death of Prabhakaran effectively ended the 26-year war has cost about 100,000 lives and ravaged parts of the idyllic South Asian island of 20 million, analysts and officials said.

However the Evangelical Alliance estimated there over “250,000 civilians displaced in government camps across Sri Lanka” and described them as “traumatised” while “their needs are overwhelming…” More people were killed in the war than “those who died in the last humanitarian disaster in Sri Lanka , the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, which killed nearly 31,000 people,” the group explained.

The war added to difficulties of Sri Lanka's minority Christians, who comprise just over six percent of the country's mainly Buddhist population of over 21 million people. Christians were in the cross fire during the civil war and often their churches were the target of attacks by militants, apparently on both sides of the conflict.

PRACTICAL NEEDS

Pastor Antonypillai Caesar, co-ordinator of Churches Together, a network of Tamil and Sinhalese pastors, told Worthy News in a statement that, “The people in the camps have immediate practical needs, which we are trying to meet. We are also praying for peace [as] people have suffered so much on both sides.”

Pastor Caesar said he is one of several Britain-based based church leaders who are going to Sri Lanka in the coming weeks to be with people in the camps, “praying, comforting, cooking meals and doing whatever” they can to help. One Christian group has reportedly been supplying 8,000 meals a day to one of the camps for the last few weeks.

Churches leaders have also suggested that Christians can play a role in reconciliation talks. “It is the hour for the Church to demonstrate the true love, unity and oneness in Christ across every possible barrier, said Pastor Surekha Hulugalle of Living Waters Foursquare Church in London , who is involved in sending aid to the troubled nation.

"The whole country has suffered and the Church has the responsibility to demonstrate the way towards a lasting peace. Working and supporting each other through collective prayer and immediate practical support for those affected in the Wanni area would be the immediate priority."

The Evangelical Alliance General Director, Steve Clifford, stressed that British churches already gave “very generously to relieve suffering in Sri Lanka after the tsunami” and that had no doubts  about “ similar generosity to all those suffering and displaced by the recent conflict,” despite the current economic crisis.

"After 25 years of civil war, feelings are intense on all sides and there are deep and complex issues to be addressed in the search for lasting peace. I would urge churches and individuals to pray for the situation, particularly on the Global Day of Prayer on 31st May 2009."

Related News Stories:

  1. Four Christians Missing In Sri Lanka As Fighting Intensifies
  2. Hundreds Of Sri Lanka Christians Escape Rebel Kidnappers, Government Says
  3. Sri Lanka: Christians Arrested for Destruction of Statues
  4. Sri Lanka Christians Fear Persecution As Fighting Continues
  5. Pastor Shot Dead In Sri Lanka
  6. Anti-Christian Violence Escalates in Sri Lanka
  7. Sri Lanka Christians Face Massive Attacks, Investigators say

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  • FresnoJoe

    Praying!

    "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."
    Mark 16:15

    "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,"
    Luke 4:18

  • FridrihLop

    Good article, the advertisment is sold?

  • FokusLopss

    Good article, Thanks. Thanks.

  • annor

    Thank you for calling Tamils rebels and not terrorists.
    However I fear that as long as the government does not treat ALL its citizens with equal rights and respect, peace shall not return to the island. 'Peace' built on injustice is not peace.
    Today the Tamils in Switzerland start a March for Peace in Sri Lanka in Geneva to the United Nations and from there to the seat of the Swiss government in Berne, planned to arrive in mid-june.

  • dmitri stefanopoulos

    This writing was the truth when the church began about two thousand years ago. For those that believed, and showed their faith by their love and good deeds, there were many miracles, no fear of man or life or death, and a joyful anticipation of the world to come, world without end. If you read this, every word, believe it with all your heart, nothing doubting, do it as much as lies within you, and share it with those able to receive it, and who want to hear what you have to say, then, for you, the best is yet to come!

    These are the words of God:

    To live forever = everlasting life in the kingdom of God and Christ = with Christ in his throne as Christ is with the Father in His throne = heaven = paradise in a new and glorious body with everlasting joy, and to have the love and joy and peace and mercy and grace of God Almighty, our heavenly Father, that is in His only begotten and beloved Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, while in this present world = this present time = this present body = this present life, you must be truly "born again" = truly "saved". In other words, read all of this, believe every word with all your heart, and do it diligently:

    Repent of your sins . Apologize sincerely, in all humility, with a broken spirit and a contrite heart, to those you sinned against (even sins done in secret) and to God and Lord Jesus for sins against others, against yourself, and against all of heaven. Pray for strength so as not to do it again, and to always be pleasing to God. In other words, have a perfect heart – try your best, and say you're sorry and really mean it when you don't. If you don't come to God with a clean and pure heart, He will not hear your prayers, will withhold blessings, and may even curse you with a curse.

    Believe with all your heart, and confess with your mouth, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (He is not God. He is not both the Father and the Son. Actually, the Word of God is the Son of God. God spoke everything into existence by, through, and for His Son, but not "spoke" as man understands. His Word was put into a body and called Jesus. Jesus Christ is the living Word of God, and we should be living the word of God as is contained in the written word of God, the Holy Bible. The only English-language Holy Bible wholly inspired of God and correctly translated from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts is the King James Version = KJV = Authorized Version. All other versions, including the New King James Version = NKJV, are from the devil, who tempted man to write them. The devil changed the English language, and continues to do so, and now claims that the KJV is outdated and hard to understand, and that other versions have their good points.), born of the virgin Mary (we were made of a man and a woman, but Jesus was begotten of God, and not made), never sinned, nor was there any deceit in his mouth (If he were of a man and a woman, then he would have the sin of the flesh, but he was not. When Jesus said, "Before Abraham, I am", he was not saying that he was God: all he was saying was that he was from heaven. When God referred to Himself as "I AM", He used all capital letters.), suffered, shed his pure and precious blood and died on the cross to conquer death and destroy him that had power over death (that is, the devil), and so that our sins be forgiven, we be reconciled to God, redeemed and puchased back by the precious blood of the Lamb, that after three days and three nights, God the Father raised him from the dead, that after forty days, he ascended up to heaven in a cloud to be seated at the right hand of the Father, all angels, authorities, and powers being made subject unto him, that he will return in like manner to judge the dead and the living (no man knows of that time, neither the angels which are in heaven, not even the Son, but only the Father), and deliver those that are his at his coming up to God the Father, that he must reign until he makes his enemies his footstool, and then the Son also himself will be subject to Him that put all things under him that God may be all in all.

    Be baptized exactly once, completely under the water (that is to say, exactly one immersion, and it must be water) in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost (not the "Holy Spirit") when you are old enough to understand, old enough to know to refuse the evil and choose the good, and old enough to know that this is absolutely necessary for eternal life, for the forgiveness of past sins (but, for future sins, we have an intercessor = a mediator in Jesus), to receive the Holy Ghost (The Holy Ghost is not God. God, Lord Jesus, and the Holy Ghost are a team, three of a kind, one in Spirit, will, and holiness, but each with a separate identity and a separate life. Do not use devil words, such as "trinity" or "triune", which are not in the KJV. "Godhead" IS in the KJV: God (Father) is the head, and Lord Jesus and the Holy Ghost the other two) and gifts of the Holy Ghost to have spiritual understanding (that is to say, understanding of the things of the Spirit of God) and to resist the devil, baptized into one Spirit as one of many members of the body of Christ, called his church, of which Christ is the head, buried and resurrected with Christ, dead to (no longer justified by) the law given to Moses, and completely justified (and, by the way, it is God who justifies, and not any man) before God by your faith in Christ and in Christ's righteousness (there is no righteousness in a man). Now, you are "born again" = "saved".

    Now that you are "born again" = "saved", here is your duty in this present world = this present time = this present body = this present life:

    Fear God and Lord Jesus (but, do not fear man), and do = keep His commandments.
    His commandments were spoken by His Word = His Son, and are briefly comprehended by these two great commandments:

    Love God (Father) and Lord Jesus (Son) first, most, and always, even more than your life in the flesh, and the life of your loved ones, and love your neighbor as yourself. Treat others the way you want others to treat you, and the way you want to be treated on judgment day = the day of Jesus Christ = the day of vengeance of the Lord. Your faith is shown by your love. If you have no love, no good works, no compassion, and show no mercy, then your faith is false, and was never written in your heart.

    Some other needful things:

    Meditate on the word of God. Submit to God. Be humble. Thank your heavenly Father and your Lord, and pray to them, for everything, always. Grow in Christ. Endure to the end. Preach THIS gospel !!! Walk after the Spirit, and not after the flesh. Walk and talk with God and Lord Jesus : they are alive !! and they ARE your faith !!

  • epheiarm

    I love my lord jesus every time and he knows what we do and supply our needs

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