Sri Lanka and Bhutan
I think that the theme of my recent visit to Sri Lanka should be “fruit that remains” based on John 15:16. This was my seventh mission to the island nation, with my first visit dating back to 1978. In those early years, I made several trips in a fairly close proximity; however, as I started raising my family and pursuing my career as a college dean, I lost contact with the ministry on the island for a number of years. My recent involvement with Every Home for Christ brought me back in touch with what the Lord is doing there and actually with one gentleman I met on my very first visit--Sam Thevabalasingham, the national director of the EHC ministry in Sri Lanka. It was his invitation for me to take part in the fortieth anniversary celebration of EHC in Sri Lanka that initiated my recent visit.
The week that I spent in Sri Lanka was a very busy time with a two-day pastors’ conference on the days leading up to the EHC celebration. In fact, the conference ended just in time for me to get back to the hotel and dress for the opening banquet. The next day was a full-day event with approximately 1,400 participants who came in from all over the island to rejoice together for the work that EHC has done in the country over the past four decades. Many of the celebrants were the actual fruit of the ministry in this predominantly Buddhist country. I had the privilege of being one of the featured speakers at this event and shared the platform with a number of other international guests, including Every Home for Christ’s international president Dr. Dick Eastman. The next day could best be described as “grueling” in that a busload of the EHC guests traveled to the mountain town of Norton Bridge to take part in the graduation ceremony of a Bible school which is associated with Sri Lanka’s EHC ministry. I had taught a week-long intensive course at the school a couple years ago and was glad to get back to the campus to see some of my acquaintances from that visit. The college is located about a three-hour drive from the capital city of Colombo where the rest of the events were taking place. The twisty road, was curvy enough that I’m sure a snake would need Dramamine to make the trip. We arrived just in time for a quick lunch before the four-hour ceremony began. Again, I was honored to be one of the speakers and, again, I shared the podium with other distinguished guests such as Dr. Eastman. As part of my presentation, I noted my longstanding association with Dr. Sam by presenting him with a memento of our first meeting--a magazine that he had given me when we were first introduced thirty-two year ago. This was a tangible example of fruit that remains. As soon as the meeting was dismissed, we had some light refreshments and made the long trek down the mountain, arriving in Colombo in the late evening. The next day was the closing celebration which began in the early morning and ended in the mid afternoon. Once we said our final “amen”s, my host and I headed for the beach for a quick swim to refresh ourselves after the long week. But my work wasn’t over yet.
Before I share about the rest of my week, I need to introduce you to my host. Again, my relationship with him goes back more than three decades. In fact, he was the first person I met in Sri Lanka on my initial visit in 1978. My coming to the island had been prompted by letters from a college student who had recently converted to Christianity from Buddhism. In his quest to understand his new faith, he had written to all the evangelists around the world whose addresses he could obtain. One was Nicky Cruz who was serving on the board of directors of a college ministry I was associated with. When Nicky received the letter, he passed it along to me since the young man was a college student and I was active in college ministry. We maintained correspondence for a few months until I was able to arrange to actually visit Sri Lanka. In an unusual turn of events, the student had transferred to a college in India by the time I actually came to Sri Lanka. He asked someone to host me on my visit, but that gentleman was too busy so he asked a third person to take care of me. That person turned out to be Victor George, who became a close friend and a co-worker in the college ministry as we opened a division in Sri Lanka. As the years rolled by Victor and I lost contact, and Victor actually dropped out of the ministry. It was only after my association with Every Home for Christ that I was able to make renewed contact with Victor through Sam who was a mutual friend of both of us. Through the contact that was made when I was in Sri Lanka two years ago, Victor was restored into ministry and actually became one of the most active leaders in the EHC celebration. So you see, Victor was another example of fruit that remains. In preparing for this visit, I searched through my old files and was able to find some newsletters and brochures from the early days of my association with Victor. What a blessing it was to be able to share with him some thirty-plus-year-old memories of our time together. One of the documents I found was the notes from a seminar I did with him in 1979. The concluding verse in the notes was John 15:16, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.”
On Sunday morning, I ministered in two different churches. The early service was in a church which is pastored by a gentleman who was a high school student when we first met at the 1979 conference where I spoke from the notes that I gave to Victor. When Eraj saw an article of mine which was published in a local magazine several months ago, he contacted Sam who serves as editor of the publication to find out how he had come by my writings. As a result, he invited me to his church where I was able to present him with a flier from that youth conference so many years ago. Again, Eraj was fruit that has remained. My final assignment in Sri Lanka was to preach in a church which is pastored by the gentleman who accompanied Victor when he met me at the airport on that first visit. Dr. Chandy was director of a Bible college at the time, and--you guessed it--I was able to find an old brochure from the school in my archives. It was a blessing to both of us to present him with that memento of our long and enduring relationship--fruit that remains. One really interesting blessing of the day was to learn that the very day I ministered in his church was to be the inaugural date for a satellite broadcast that he was beginning on LeSEA Broadcasting Network--the ministry of Dr. Lester Sumrall where I served for twenty-five years!
Throughout the trip, I distributed copies of my recent book, Tread Marks, as a way for planting seed for a future harvest of fruit that I expect to see remain throughout upcoming decades.
After leaving Sri Lanka, I made a one-day stopover in Bangkok, Thailand, where I met our son Jeremy who joined me for the trip into Bhutan. This portion of the journey was the culmination of many years of prayer and believing. I have had a desire to be part of the frontline team to bring the gospel to this remote and restricted corner of the world. Finally, the connection was made so that I could go in and minister to the emerging church in this Himalayan kingdom. Known as the “Land of the Thunder Dragon” and also labeled as the “Kingdom in the Clouds,” Bhutan is a tiny Buddhist country of less than seven hundred thousand population nestled between the two giants of India and China. Until recently, the country practiced total isolationism from the outside and even forced all the citizens to wear the traditional dress--gho for men and kira for ladies. Today, the government is promoting tourism which has become one of the major revenue sources. They have also dropped the dress restrictions and only require government employees, tourist workers, and school children to wear the national dress. The nation recently celebrated one hundred years of continuous peaceful rule under the dynasty of one royal family with the fifth family member as the present king. He was educated in the US and England and has instituted a new era in moving the country toward democratic rule with the first ever democratic elections a couple years ago. With tourism and democracy come a new openness to new ideas and more access to Western culture. With this open door, it is easier for Christians to enter the country and for the nationals to meet together for Christian worship. However, the church is still an underground movement numbering only a few thousand. I have heard and read estimates which range for as low as three thousand to as high as twelve thousand. Although there is technically freedom of religion, all the believers still fear repercussions if they practice their faith openly. This caution was always evident in the way I was asked nor to bring my camera with me when I met with believers, how we always held quiet discussions in corners, and the ladies covered their faces when a stranger entered the room.
One symbolic event during my visit was the hike I took to the top of a mountain overlooking the capital city of Thimpu. Standing among tens of thousands or possibly even hundreds of thousands of Buddhist prayer flags that had been stung around the peak, I noticed that many of them had collapsed due to weathering. As I walked among the fallen flags, my heart was quickened with the words of I Samuel 3:19 which says that God did not let any of the prophet’s words fall to the ground. No matter how many of their flags wind up in the mud, the words of our God will never fail. There are many exciting things that I’d love to share, but let me simply say that what I witnessed during my few days in Bhutan confirmed that we are to soon see a fulfillment of Isaiah’s promise that the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea (verse 11:9), and that the Revelator’s vision of the dragon being cast down (verse 12:9) is already beginning to take place in the Land of the Thunder Dragon and the Kingdom in the Clouds is on its way to becoming the kingdom of our Lord (Revelation 11:15).