Mob Stormed a Church in Koswatta (Sri Lanka)

Last Thursday (06/09/2009) a mob, including Buddhist monks posing to have a peaceful demonstration, raided a Church in Koswatta (Colombo) and destroy the much of the church. This started as a demonstration over death of two women, who were participating at that gospel rally at the Viharamahadevi Park and later revealed that these two have died on natural causes. Many have attended for these gospel rallies, where some people were known to be healed. The recent reports indicate this church has been a catalyst in many Buddhist conversions. Several national newspapers are carrying a reports that aggravate the extreme factions for attacts on churches and urging the Sri Lankan Government to enact the Anti Conversion Bill immediately.

Today (07/09/2009) a parliamentarian and a former Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police, Hon H.M.G.B. Kotakadeniya publically threatened the church leadership with death, arson and closing the church down. Please pray that the members of that church may have strength to stand and witness for Christ. Many Christian leaders are shaken by this incident—Ask God to bless the ministry of Christian workers spreading the Gospel in Sri Lanka amid opposition. See the attack on the church:

Ask God to bless the ministry of Christian workers spreading the Gospel in Sri Lanka amid opposition.

The Church website:Jesus Never Fails Good News Centre

New Developments:

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Reported by my friend Rev. Yohan Heenatigala on November 08, 2009.

He sated:

I spoke with Pastor Joseph's wife today. Following is for the information of those interested in the matter.

1. The 2 persons who died did not die at the meeting as reported by some media.

2. The Church in Koswatte was attacked by a mob led by Buddhist priests - petrol bottles (liquid Gasoline Bombs) thrown in to the church did not ignite.

3. The police requested Pastor Joseph not to hold the church service on Sunday (today), he complied.

4. Thousands of believers turned up, knelt by the side of the road and prayed.

5. Pastor Joseph will be meeting with a Christian lawyer to do things within the law.

Please continue to pray as the Spirit leads. Your prayers are very important in this crucial time of confusion and unpredictability.

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Updated on November 9, 2009

Today I received news that several other churches are also stoned, threaten and destructed by organized Buddhist mobs, while the Sunday worship-services. They shout and disturbed the services and vowed to close them down. The congregations were courageous and continued to worship the Lord in-midst of the disturbance. However, some Pastors are expecting organized mob violence throughout the week and especially on upcoming Sunday.

The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JUH), extreme Buddhist nationalistic political party, who were behind the Koswatta attack are trying to make disturbance and push the president to pass the Anti-Conversion Bill. This Bill has been lodge and lobby by this political party and they came to power by promising to implement it. The bill has been just stuck in the parliament because of the fundamental right violations by some clauses. Next year, the ruling party is preparing for a presidential election. It seems, these fanatics are pushing the president to act on legislation before his nominations for the upcoming election.

Your prayers are appreciated!!!

Picture shows part of the leadership of JUH: Ellawela Medhananda Thero, Athuraliye Ratana Thero and few others who participated in the Koswatta Church attack. They claim that they are having a peaceful demonstration, and were law abiding, peaceful citizens, who are using non-violence (ahimsa) methods to gain the right of the Buddhists. Ironic isn't it?

ජනතාවට වැදගත් වන ප්‍රශ්නය කුමක්‌ද?

[This article is in Sinhalese unicode typescript]
සටහන:දිවයින පුවත්පතේ කර්තෘ විසින් ඉතා වැදගත් කතුවැකියක් ලියා තිබිණ. එය කෙතරම් වටිනා සටහනක් වී ද, මා විසින් එය මෙහි පළ කරන්නට කැමැත්තෙමි. එයින් දැනට ලංකාව ජනතාව විසින් කල්පනාවට ගත යුතු කරුණු කිහිපයක් දක්වයි. දැන් ලංකාවට අවශ්‍යවනුයේ තවත් ඡන්දයක් නො ව, සංවර්ධනයයි; ජනතාවට ජීවත් විය හැකි ජීවන බරකි. එහෙත් දේශපාලකයන් විසින් එවැනි ඡන්දයක් ජනතා දුක් නොසලකා, ඔවුන්ගේ වාසිය තකා ගෙනෙන්නට සූදානම් වන්නේ ‍නම් පවතින ආණ්ඩුව පරදවා (හෝ සුළුතර ආසන ප්‍රමාණයක් දී) පාඩමක් ඉගැන් විය යුතු ය. එවි‍ට ඡන්ද සෙල්ලම අත්හැර, ඔව්හූ වැඩට බසින්නා හ. බලයේ සිටින්නන්ට දැක්මක් ඇති කරලීම ඡන්ද දායකයා ගේ ශුද්ධ අයිතියකි. එසේ කටයුතු කිරීමට ලාංකියන්ට ප්‍රඥාව ලැබේ වා!

ජනරාල් සරත් ෆොන්සේකා දේශපාලනයට එනු ඇතැයි අයෙක්‌ කියති. තමා එසේ කරන බවක්‌ කිසිවකුට කියා නැතැයි එවිට ජනරාල් කියයි. ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ස්‌ථාවරත්වය බිඳ දැමීමට හේතු විය හැකි ඕනෑම කුමන්ත්‍රණයකදී ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට උපකාර කරන බව ඉන්දියාව කියයි. මේ සියලු කරුණු අතර මීළඟට පවත්වන්නේ ජනාධිපතිවරණයද නැතහොත් මහ මැතිවරණයද යන්න විසඳාගත නොහැකිව ආණ්‌ඩුව ලතැවෙයි. ඒ අතර උදේට කෑවොත් දවල්ට කන්නේ කොහොමද, දවල්ට කෑවොත් රෑට කන්නේ කොහොමද යනාදී වශයෙන් කල්පනා කරමින් මහජනයා ලතැවෙයි.

මේ රටේ ජනයාගේ ආදායමින් හරි අඩක්‌ම වැයවන්නේ ආහාර සඳහා බව හෙළිවී ඇතැයි ඉරිදා (18 දා) "දිවයිනේ" මුල් පිටුවේ පළ වී තිබේ. මේ ප්‍රතිඵලය නියෑඳියක්‌ වශයෙන් තෝරාගත් පිරිසකගේ වියහියදම්වල සාමාන්‍යයකි. සැබෑ තත්ත්වය නම් මාසයේ මුළු වැටුපම ආහාර පිණිස වැය කර එයත්a මදි බැවින් තවත් ණය වන පවුල් දහස්‌ ගණනක්‌ මේ රටේ සිටින බව ය. උදාහරණයක්‌ වශයෙන් මසකට රුපියල් 12000 ක වැටුපක්‌ ලබන ගෘහමූලිකයකු සිටින පස්‌දෙනකුගෙන් යුතු පවුලක්‌ ගනිමු. රුපියල් 12000 දින 30 න් බෙදූ විට දිනක ආදායම රුපියල් 400 කි. පස්‌දෙනකුගෙන් යුතු පවුලකට දිනකට ආහාර වේල් 15 ක්‌ අවශ්‍ය ය. උදේ ආහාර වේල් 5 ට රුපියල් 100 ක්‌ද දිවා ආහාර වේල් 5 ට රුපියල් 200 ක්‌ ද රාත්‍රි ආහාර වේල් 5 ට රුපියල් 150 ක්‌ ද වැය කළ විට දවසේ වියදම රුපියල් 450 කි. එතැනම මේ පවුල දිනකට රුපියල් 50 බැගින් මසකට රුපියල් 1500 ක්‌ ණය වෙයි. මේ මිනිසුන්ට බස්‌වල ගමන් කිරීමටද ඇඳුම් පැළඳුම් සඳහා ද, ලයිට්‌ බිල් ගෙවීමට ද මුදල් ඉතිරි නොවේ. එ බැවින් තර්කයක්‌ වශයෙන් ගතහොත් මේ පවුල කරුවලේ නිරුවතින් ගෙතුලට වී කල් ගෙවිය යුතු ය. ගෙහිsමියා පමණක්‌ යන්තමින් විලි වසාගෙන වැඩට යා යුතු ය. එහෙත් රුපියල් 12000 ක ආදායමක්‌ කළමනාකරණය කිරීම සඳහා වෙනත් ක්‍රම ඇති බැවින් මේ මිනිස්‌සු ද අනෙක්‌ මිනිසුන් මෙන් ලයිට්‌ බිල්/ ගෙවල් කුලී/ වතුර බිල් ගෙවමින් තුන් වේලෙන් දෙවේලක්‌ හෝ ආහාර ගෙන දිවි ගැටගසා ගනිති.

ප්‍රශ්නය මේ මිනිසුන් කෙසේ හෝ ජීවත් වන බව කල්පනාවට ගෙන හිත හදා ගැනීම නොවේ. කෙසේ ජීවත්වේද යන්න සිතා බැලීම ය. දිනෙන් දින ඉහළ නගින උද්ධමනය හමුවේ බඩු මිල පහළ දැමිය නොහැක. ඒ ප්‍රශ්නයට විසඳුම ජනයාගේ ආදායම ඉහළ දැමීම ය. තිස්‌ අවුරුදු යුද්ධයක්‌ පැවැති රටේ යුද්ධය දිනූ ඇසිල්ලෙහි ජනයාගේ ආදායම ඉහළ දැමිය නොහැක. යුද්ධය නැවැතී ඇති නිසා යුද්ධයට වැය කළ සල්ලිත් ඉතිරි නොවේදැයි සමහරු ප්‍රශ්න කරති. එහෙත් අප යුද කළේ ද ණයට ය. ඒ නිසා තවත් අවුරුදු කිහිපයක්‌ම යුද ණය ගෙවීමට තිබේ. එසේ නම් කළ යුත්තේ කුමක්‌ද? මේ වළෙන් ගොඩ එන්නේ කෙසේද?

මුලින්ම බොරු වියදම් නැවැත්විය යුතුය. ජනාධිපතිතුමා ඇතුළු රටේ පැවැත්මට තීරණාත්මක ලෙස බලපාන දේශපාලනඥයන්ගේ සහ නිලධාරීන්ගේ හැර අන් සියලු දේශපාලනඥයන්ගේ විය හියදම් අඩු කළ යුතු ය. දැනට සිටින කරකබල් වැනි දේශපාලනඥයෝ පවා තමන් වෙනුවෙන් ආණ්‌ඩුවේ මුදල් විශාල ලෙස වියදම් කර ගනිති. ඇතැම් සුළු දේශපාලනඥයකු වුව පාරේ යන විට ඉදිරියෙන් වාහන තුන හතරක්‌ ද පස්‌සෙන් වාහන තුන හතරක්‌ ද ගමන් කරති. ඔවුන් එකතුවන තැන්වල පරිභෝජනය සහ පරිභෝජන වියදම නිතැතින්ම නගී. කළ යුත්තේ මේ වැය කපා හැර එම ඉතිරිය රටේ ජාතික ධනයට පොම්ප කිරීම ය. එසේ නැතුව ජෙනරාල් 
ෆොන්සේකා දේශපාලනයට එනවාද නැද්ද යන්න ගැන ලතවීම නොවේ.

Martin Quèrè

My first visit to the National Seminary of Ampitiya, I met Martin Quèrè, a renowned scholar of Church History. He was greatly respected for his work in Catholic Church of Sri Lanka. As I waited anxiously, with feeble gait and gloomy face, this French priest approached us. He pleasantly greeted us with a smile. At the introduction the Dean said, "Reverend father has two PhDs!" At that moment, swiftly and in a melancholic weak voice, Quèrè replied, "All that is useless, now I can't remember much!" I was astonished. This great man strived his whole life to gain knowledge. Now he is unable to retrieve it clearly. After our brief meeting, he retired to his old room, where he resides for about fifty years. He walked morosely; his face was tainted with a deep sadness.

 "Whence then comes wisdom? And where is the place of understanding?"  Job 28:20

Oh Wretched War, Where is Thy Glory!

Yesterday I watch a movie titled 'Nanking' and my friend next door watched 'Schindler's List'. The Nanking is a documentary about the three years of Japanese occupations of China. I saw the horror of Japanese soldiers killing men, women, children, and babies, looting even the poor and senseless raping of women. It is a great unleashed of degeneracy. Why do people do such atrocities? The first month of occupation itself, they killed all the Chinese unarmed soldiers. A singel day Japanese killed 30,000 Chinese soldiers unarmed (POW) and some suspected as soldiers in civilian clothes. They tied their hands back, and shot them near a river with heavy machine guns, some Japanese men kill by just for bayonet practice. Some of the officers tested their swords by beheading hundreds—two officers competes each other to kill the first hundred by their official sword. The bayonets fixed on guns were stained with fresh blood all times. Every day soldiers come and take girls at their will, some of the girls return raped brutally and some may not.
End of the occupation they estimated 20,000 or more so women were raped and 250,000 people killed. I am glad that the war in Sri Lanka is over—no war is justifiable.

I bitterly, disgustingly hate war— I hate it!
No good come out of it; just only expose the crude depravity of a sinful man. I have seen much of the brutality by my own eyes, the ruthless massacres of youth in 1989-1990. Bodies floating on rivers, dead bodies with hand tied behind and decapitated, tortured or half burned cremations of killed in public places, smoking body parts, dried blood on the cloths of the killed. I have seen it all. I'v heard of walking, living bombs exploding themselves among the innocent civilians. Ruthless killings, hacking to death a whole village by LTTE carders—not to mentioned the killing and raping of our own military.

I remember once, I was travelling to the north via train for ministry; It was in 1993. A soldier going to his duties in the same train confess to me, seeing several times, killing 300-500 youths round up by the Sri Lankan army. They were asked to dig a long trench and kill them by hitting back to their heads—then buried half alive. Few years latter human-rights organizations found those mass-graves of hundreds killed, mostly innocent civilians. He told me terrifying stories of his friends kidnapping beautiful girls, and gang-raped, then killed on the morning. He on one night released a girl of 16, who so charming and looks like his sister, brought by his friends to rape. At the next day girl's father took him inside the shop and gave him handful of gold as gratitude. He said, he refused (ironically, soldiers carrying gold could be convicted for theft), and urged the father to send the girl away for safety; "I have never seen that girl again," he told me. I shared the gospel with him—He was a wrong man for war, too compassionate! But now, I don't know whether, he still lives or not! I hate war—even the war-movies…which remind me of the past war time of Sri Lanka and the viciousness of times I disparately wanted to forget.
Where's thy glory, oh wretched war; where is thy victorious battle cry, where is thy proud children of heroism—in sum, all thy bring is suffering, death, destruction and depravity.
NOTE: August 25, Channel 4 revealed a video footage of a extra-judicious killing by the Sri Lankan Army. I could not verify the story but it is very closely related to my story. This piece has sensitive graphics; be warned.

Is this evidence for Sri Lankan 'war crimes'?

Prayer Request from War Zone

Senior Pastor of Zion Church, Jaffna sent us a email message saying their four workers have died in the resent conflict in Sri Lanka.

Names of the workers are—
Pastor. A.JACOB (Janson),
Bro.K.Karunakaran(David),
Bro.Thiruvarudselvam (Barnaba),
Bro.Uthayakumar

Following is his email:

Dear Friends,

It is with deep sadness that I write to inform you that four of our Workers ( Whose Photos appear below ) were struck down due to heavy shelling, and have gone to be with the Lord. They each leave behind their wife & one child. We earnestly covet your Prayers for these four Widows and four Fatherless children.

Thank you.

Josiah Philip.
Pastor, Zion Church - Jaffna

May God bless their precious souls, who lay down their live in mission field for the sake of Christ Great commission at war zone of Vanni-Mulathiv!

Rev. 6:9; 20:4; 14:13

A Fund has Established to Support Gunesh's Family

Colombo Theological Seminary has decided to established a fund to support Sebamalai Gunesh's family. If you are interested in helping them (even if it is in a small way [because of the exchange rate difference, your contribution multiplied by 100 times when they exchange back to Rupees]), following is the email I received from Combo Theological Seminary:

"Thank you to all those who responded with messages of comfort, reassurance and prayer to the news of the tragic death of Gunesh.

As there were several inquiries regarding the possibility of making a financial contribution towards assisting Gunesh’s family (through CTS), we will have a designated fund for this purpose and will accept contributions up to 30 November 2008. Any funds received by this date will be handed over to the family or invested in their name (depending on the amount received).

a) If you do make any direct remittances to the account below, please let me know via email, so that the remit can be tracked.

b) Please note that cheques should be drawn in favour of ‘Colombo Theological Seminary’ and directed to

The Principal

Colombo Theological Seminary

189 Dutugemunu Street

Kohuwela

Sri Lanka

*please include a note indicating that the contribution is for Gunesh’s family."

In midst of all this financial difficulties, I've started to save some money to remit for this fund. Hope that you will also do the same!

Hebrews 13:1-3

Horried Death of a dear friend and fellow worker!

Today I received horrid and shocking news of cruel death of my friend and alumna of Colombo Theological Seminary (CTS). It is the death of Pastor Sebamalai Gunesh, father of 2. Gunesh was ministering at the Elohim Gospel Church. He had humble beginnings; coming from a relatively poor family he gave his life to work and ministry. He had the opportunity of studying God’s word in-depth at Colombo Seminary, if I’m not mistaken in 2004-2006. He completed his diploma and commenced reading for B.Th.

I have known him as a student and fellow worker in Christ’s harvest field. Gunesh was meek and gentle in spirit and greatly loved the word of God, to which he dedicated his whole life. He gladly worked hard and always willing to go the second mile. He happily embraced poverty and hardship for the sake of the gospel. I remember him, always greeting and conversing with friendly smile.

He was reported missing on Monday 6th October and his body was found on Wednesday 8thOctober 2008.

Gunesh was 33 years old at his death.

I with the CTS community jointly ask for your prayers for Gunesh’s family.

Revelation 14:13

Church Set on Fire in Puttam district of Sri Lanka

The Voice of Martyrs says:

More than 60 people set fire to a church building used for Sunday school in Puttlam district, the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka reported. Members of the church who live in the vicinity arrived at the scene and attempted to stop the arson attack and were assaulted by the mob. The attackers threatened children who had also gathered, but their parents took them away to safety. The p astor informed the police about the attack, however, they were not able to bring the large mob under control for some time, but eventually succeeded in dispersing them. Meanwhile on Aug. 17, another church in Puttlam district was set on fire and completely destroyed during the night. A group of people who visited the pastor’s house earlier that evening and threatened him are suspected of having carried out the arson attack. A police complaint has been made and three people have been arrested. Pray for the members of these two churches. Ask God to protect them and provide resources to rebuild the church building. Pray their testimonies will glorify God and draw their persecutors into fellowship with Him.

Note by Ravin: Puttlum distric is predominately Muslim (Islamic) in religious affiliation and culture with pocket-villages of Sinhala Buddhists and Catholics. Very few churches have survied upto now. Many church palnts are colsed or forced to close down. If I am not mistaken, there are less than 12-15 fuctioning churches for the whole of Puttlum district (2796 sq Km). Few of us have tried extrimely hard to reach this district. Please pray for starting of new church-plants and for the on going persicution.

1 Peter 3:14-17

Church Set on Fire in Puttam district of Sri Lanka

The Voice of Martyrs says:

More than 60 people set fire to a church building used for Sunday school in Puttlam district, the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka reported. Members of the church who live in the vicinity arrived at the scene and attempted to stop the arson attack and were assaulted by the mob. The attackers threatened children who had also gathered, but their parents took them away to safety. The p astor informed the police about the attack, however, they were not able to bring the large mob under control for some time, but eventually succeeded in dispersing them. Meanwhile on Aug. 17, another church in Puttlam district was set on fire and completely destroyed during the night. A group of people who visited the pastor’s house earlier that evening and threatened him are suspected of having carried out the arson attack. A police complaint has been made and three people have been arrested. Pray for the members of these two churches. Ask God to protect them and provide resources to rebuild the church building. Pray their testimonies will glorify God and draw their persecutors into fellowship with Him.

Note by Ravin: Puttlum distric is predominately Muslim (Islamic) in religious affiliation and culture with pocket-villages of Sinhala Buddhists and Catholics. Very few churches have survied upto now. Many church palnts are colsed or forced to close down. If I am not mistaken, there are less than 12-15 fuctioning churches for the whole of Puttlum district (2796 sq Km). Few of us have tried extrimely hard to reach this district. Please pray for starting of new church-plants and for the on going persicution.

1 Peter 3:14-17

How I long to go back to Sri Lanka!

Once Lord Buddha said, the wind coming from his birth place is comforting and smoothing to his soul. King David expressed his inner longings to drink water from the well near his birthplace of the Bethlehem gate: "David said longingly, "O that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate!" (2 Sam 23:15).

That inspired the heroism of three men, who broke the fearsome stronghold defenses of the Philistines, just to fulfill the longings of their friend and leader:

"Then the three warriors broke through the camp of the Philistines, drew water from the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and brought it to David. But he would not drink of it; he poured it out to the LORD, 17 for he said, "The LORD forbid that I should do this. Can I drink the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?" Therefore he would not drink it. The three warriors did these things" (2 Samuel 23:16-17).

This picture remind me of Sri Lanka and how I long to go back home. Once I wrote to a friend these words:

"I dream about Sri Lanka: In my dreams, I walk across paddy fields, jump and enjoy the water in the streams, I smell the wind that comes brushing through the fields, which have paddy just ripen for harvest. I feel walking on the green grass and gaze into the magnificent beauty of a lake [Wava] with abundance of dancing lotus flowers, glittering with sunrays and cool and refreshing breeze coming across the water's edge. I miss the sunshine falling across the trees, while the cool air touches gently on the face, blowing away the hair. I miss the blue and white seacoast and sunset at the horizon, just about to leave the light and let the night to take its turn. So you see, I am really home sick! I enjoy all these small things, while I was in Sri Lanka (Do you remember in my classes, how often I have told you all to enjoy these little things!). I traveled to and fro to different places like Anuradhapra, Mathara, Trinco etc., etc., Now, I am like in a prison, rather, a house arrest. But you see, I realize God has his own purposes for us. God has his prerogatives (a right or privilege exclusive to God, to do what ever he wants!). He has exclusive right to do what ever with our lives. Some times his purposes contradict with what is happening in our lives [we called reality]. Yet God is in control. Our God is a good God, loving Father, Saviour of our souls, close friend in need and he is indeed our dear Lord. This is what I have learned in past months."