Steve Goss writes: Yesterday I was handed a major opportunity to establish Freedom In Christ Ministries in Sri Lanka and need to raise £1,800 within the next 10 days to enable it to happen.
In 2010, shortly after the end of the bloody civil war, we held a conference in the capital city, Colombo, at which Neil Anderson was the speaker. The message was extremely well received. The outcome of the conference is that the Steps To Freedom was translated into the Sinhalese language and contact was made with many church leaders.
Subsequent to that, the Sri Lankan Evangelical Alliance (NCEASL) promoted my four Discipleship Series books amongst Sri Lankan churches where they were greatly appreciated (I didn’t even know about this at the time). Erwin Pereira, a Sri Lankan based in Northampton (pictured with me above), has been to visit NCEASL on our behalf and has been talking to them for the past year about the possibility of establishing FIC in Sri Lanka under their auspices and of getting that started by running conferences for leaders.
NCEASL have now formally invited me to come to Sri Lanka in March to run the conferences and to establish FIC there in association with them. This is a fantastic God-given opportunity, albeit at short notice. I need to confirm with them within 10 days.
Normally when Western organisations run events there, they are expected to pick up the tab, which can include paying expenses to those who attend. In this instance all we have to pay are our costs in getting there and some accommodation while we are there, hence the very low opportunity cost of £1,800.
I plan to meet one or two leaders who are possible candidates for heading up FIC over there.
I am also planning to take the opportunity to spend a day in Chennai, India, to train a whole new team of “Freedom Ambassadors” that FIC India has just established. They have recently taken a decision to adopt the strategy we use in the UK of equipping churches and have 8 ambassadors from all around the country eager to learn how to do that. Chennai is just a 90 minute flight away from Colombo.
By way of background on Sri Lanka, Operation World says, “Sri Lanka has suffered much in the past generation. From the constant threat of the Sinhala-Tamil conflict to the tsunami of 2004 to the civil war’s bloody conclusion in 2009, over 100,000 people have lost their lives, over 900,000 (mostly Tamils) emigrated or fled and over one million are displaced.”
I am hoping that a good number of our supporters will feel prompted to give small or larger amounts to enable this trip to take place. You can donate here (you will need to log in or register first) and your support will be greatly appreciated.