The Good News of Easter in Sri Lanka
What is Easter?
If you were to ask this question along the streets of Colombo, Sri Lanka, a few people may be able to give you the right answer.
But if you move away from the busy towns and suburbs, you will likely get blank looks or vague responses. The reason is that in a nation where Christianity is a religious minority, Easter is just another day.
The day the Christian world celebrates the Risen God is celebrated quietly in churches here is Sri Lanka. And in our Child Development Centers (CDC) with our church partners, Easter isn’t celebrated on a large scale.
Approximately 80% to 85% of children in our program in Sri Lanka are non-Christians.
Some of the centers give children a short vacation during this time, due to school holidays and the fact that little ones often go to their mothers’ or fathers’ villages. Easter also falls at the same time as the Sinhala and Tamil new year celebrations.
But that is not the end of this country’s Easter story. Since the start of the Child Sponsorship Program in 2011, many people in the CDC communities have heard the Good News.
“Children are turning to God,” shared Pastor Babu from Castlereigh, Hatton, where the local church ministers to the community through both the Child Survival Program (CSP) and the Child Sponsorship Program (CDSP).
Registered children are now a part of Sunday school classes, and families are part of the local church. This Easter, up to 10 families joined in their service last year.
Pastors from all over the country shared similar results last Easter season.
“We have children from our CDSP bringing their parents to church. At the Easter service, it was such a blessing to see our project children and their families,” Pastor Patrick, from another church partner, said.
In the Puttalam region, children in Puliyankadawara talked about what Good Friday and Easter meant.
“The children listened carefully as we shared the message of Good Friday and the good news of Easter,” shared Nimmi, a project manager.
“Many of the parents have had life-changing experiences thanks to their children being a part of the CDSP and the daily prayers of the pastor and staff. God is working in amazing ways. If you ask me to share about how many families have changed, just within the last weeks leading to Easter, I cannot tell you the stories in just one day,” she shared.
Child development centers start their times of learning with a prayer, and all the children and their parents and families know the basis of our program and the church.
This transparency has led to children starting to talk about God in the classes as well as in their homes.
Word spreads.
“Easter was a special week for us,” shared Pastor Susil from Dummalasooriya, Chilaw.
“Children and their families from the CDSP attended the service along with our parishioners. The community now knows about God. Yes, there are struggles, but this Good Friday and Easter, we had the opportunity to share about God. What a joy it is!”
This center has been instrumental in reaching out to the community through both word and deed.
The mothers who attend the CDSP with their children and wait for their classes to finish have a special time of sharing with the pastor’s wife. She shares lessons from the CSP curriculum with them and spends time in prayer with them.
A center in Mount Vernon lays hidden within the lush, green tea bush mountains of Hatton. The CDSP and CSP started here over 2 – 3 years ago, and the children now call the church their second home. Many of them were present during the holy week services.
Though some of them are not Christians, they still feel that the church is a place where they can go without any barriers of religion.
“I have heard about God, but I really learned who He is and what He has done for me during last week’s Easter services,” shared one of the fathers from the CDSP, who attended the Easter service.
A center in Arunodayapura, Colombo, also had its Easter services, as it does each year. This year, half of its congregation was made up of project families.
Christmas is celebrated by everyone in Sri Lanka, irrespective of religion, but Easter is not. Yet, that is now changing as our church partners have been able to bring it out to the hidden communities of this nation through the Child Development Program.
“One day we will see our village come to know God,” shared Pastor Rohitha from Sengaloya and Chilaw. “Then we will see the Chilaw Puttalam region — and then this nation — to God.”
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