Sri Lanka (MNN) — Conditions at some of the camps for
internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sri Lanka remain difficult. People are waiting to return home, if there
is still one standing.
Roads are still closed, and what were lush fields now are
riddled with mines. That will likely
mean a food shortage in the fall.
On top of that, humanitarian
groups are concerned that impending monsoon rains and inadequate sanitation
will place tens of thousands of people at risk from disease in the camps.
The 26-year-old civil war came to a violent
end with the government chasing Tamil rebels into the north and crushing them
there. Tamils are a minority group on
the island, and the Tigers were an armed militant group fighting for a separate
homeland.
Through partnerships with local churches, Faith Comes By Hearing is helping to respond to the overwhelming needs, says Doug Harstine (har-styne). "One
of the top priorities is to provide food of course, but also to find
out what regions have been the most damaged. Then our team can go in through
churches or ministries in those regions, helping them
get together and plant new fields."
IDPs urgently need a message of hope. As they return home, pastors
and other workers will continue helping them rebuild their lives. With that comes the rebuilding of faith.
Harstine
says their team is expanding their ministry in a region that hasn't been open
before. They're sending out a recording team and an outreach team to re-record
the Tamil Audio Bible using indigenous Tamil voices.
The new outreach team is made up of
Ceylon Bible Society staff. They will be
using the dramatized Audio Scriptures to reach out to the poor and illiterate
people in Sri Lanka in a format they can use: audio.
As
people listen to God's Word, they are evangelized, discipled, and
transformed. When listeners hear Scriptures about the New
Testament church, they take action planting churches in
response.
Harstine says their distribution has a lot of room for
growth. "Faith Comes By Hearing is
going to be supporting churches in Sri Lanka with audio Scriptures. We have 250 audio
Scriptures for them to start with."
As with any project, the scope of
growth is tied to funding. If you can
help, click here.
