I did play at the company a couple of years ago but a shambolic happened and we all got locked down so I'm unable to be with you. I'm Gary Goldstone, I'm the owner from Gordon Road Evangelical Church in Belsham, just outside Eastbourne. If you think it's warm here tonight, this is nothing compared to Sri Lanka. Especially because you're preaching in a tin shed and the tin roof is just about the top of your head. You can feel yourself frying. One thing we covet from you, it's not your money, it's your prayer. This work does not prosper, God's work doesn't progress without God's people praying. And we find that to be true. So what I'm going to present to you tonight is two works, Lankan Evangelical Fellowship of Churches. So that is the spiritual aspect of our work. So that's with church planting. Christian literature, which we have translated, supporting evangelists, Sunday schools, and Sunday school material. Care Sri Lanka is a UK-based charity. That's the social aspect of our work. So that would be like small social housing projects, wells, providing materials for fishing, boats, nets, farming, etc, home gardens, goats, cattle, chickens, so those sort of projects come under the social aspect of Keshavank. So Keshavank is registered, UK charity, that's our charity After my presentation, any questions? I'm happy to take questions at the end. So the youngest one here tonight is that young lady over there, I believe. Where is Sri Lanka? Any idea where Sri Lanka is? I'm putting you on the spot tonight. It's right there, look. This is the island of Sri Lanka. It's known as the tip drop in the Indian Ocean. This is the Bay of Bengal. This is the southern tip of India's Tamil Nadu. This is the Pallat Strait Bridge. It's literally 20 miles distant from southern India. There was a land bridge there. There are plans to rebuild a railway connection between Tamil Nadu and North of Sri Lanka. It's a population of roughly 22 million people. It's divided into three major people groups. Single East, by faith and conviction, they are in the majority. Then you have the Hindus, and Tamil, by conviction. Then you have a very strong Muslim population, also in Sri Lanka, and a tightly-weaned Christian population as well, which is scattered all over the island. So, like up here, this part, this part of the island here, this manor, all this area is very strong Roman Catholic. What's the difference between a Roman Catholic and a Hindu? Doesn't matter. They all worship idols. They are pagans, as we know. So, the Sinhalese and the Terals live on the same island, but they don't speak the same language. They don't experience the same culture. Their food, dress, everything about them is totally different. 35 years ago, there was a war, a civil war between the Tango Tigers and the Sinhalese government. That started right up here in Jaffna. So, a lot of our soldiers were ambushed. That's a very long story, which we haven't had time to go into, but a civil war raged for 30 years. My first trip in 2004, there was a ceasefire, and it was regenerated from Trinley, which is here. up to Lake Tudor, the fishing village here. And this whole district here was controlled by the Seven Tigers in the southernmost part of the East Coast. I've been to Australia probably six times since 2004, so I know just a little bit about the culture and the people. I'm always learning. It's a fascinating country, very friendly to Westerners, but not so friendly to one another. That's a ten and a half hour flight from Heathrow and on top of that we've got an eight hour journey across the Trincomalee where we have our offices and our work is based. Labour Church is currently supporting in some degree or another henceforth. So Sri Lanka is constituted as a Buddhist nation. You see this brilliant statue all over the island. People's homes, no matter where you go, there's a Buddha. You see him high on mountain tops in Kandy. He looks over Kandy and he's protecting Kandy from evil spirits, etc. Buddhism in Sri Lanka is militant, it's aggressive, it's not the Western Buddhism. We've been fed a lie. It's not peace and harmony. A Buddhist monk was interviewed on the Crossing Continents of BBC, several years ago now, during the wartime, and the Buddhist monk said that the Sinhalese army is a Buddhist army. It's there to defend the Buddhist faith. think of Buddhism. Buddhists are very strong in Shuranga, they have great power in Parliament, and it is a dark religion. That said, Hinduism is even darker if that could be possible. Many many gods in the Hindu pantheon may encourage you to love is a very very dark nation. Christians are 0.1% and that percentage we're talking of Pentecostals, Prosperity, Methodists, Brethren, every shade you think of and we represent a very small minority of intimated about showing benefits bankrupt. Why are you showing bankrupt? The brothers here, a man in a red sash, that's the Hindu Rajapaksa. He was a former president. A man in a red shirt, that's his brother, Governor Rajapaksa. He was president until his appointment last year when he fled the country. The presidential palace was invaded by people Government is extremely corrupt, as in most governments in Asia, and I dare say here as well. Let's not point the finger, we are just as bad, I believe. So these two brothers and their family members were running So he's been entrusted with bringing Sri Lanka out of economic disaster. He thinks he can do that within two years. I think he's very optimistic. But we don't pray. We need to pray for this man. For this terrible and as a nation, to show that Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam are made up religions, like a nation. He was appointed within a week. It took us several weeks for points. So that's one reason corruption in Sri Lanka was in the background. Second reason, Covid. Initially Sri Lanka did really well with the Covid pandemic. They kept it out of the country. It was brought in by fishermen from India and once it landed in Sri Lanka, Hospitals, people were dying of lack of oxygen. So COVID also scratched the tourist industry, that's their main income as a nation. My last flight to Sri Lanka was about eight white people on that flight. Normally it's rammed full of white people. So the industry's collapsed, not what effect it is. Hotels are empty, people aren't housemates in the hotels, chefs, everything which is associated with tourism has collapsed. That's all due to COVID. In another crazy policy, the government decided, well, there are other facts that sign the match. China will be the first nation in the world to go organic, to go green, overnight. All artificial fertilizer banned, cut off. It just skyrocketed in price. It's coming down a little bit, but artificial fertiliser is very, very expensive. That disastrous policy has been reversed, but due to it, 50% of the rice crop failed, and other crops that don't produce it. So you have this perfect storm, which has nabled, shrank, and become bankrupt. They are currently enjoying a loan from the IMF. That's come with strings and regulations they've come dear to. Income tax is probably about, I think, the last time I looked, inflation has shrunk to 64%. It's a nation in deep, deep distress. Consequence of that? like bees running around trying to fill up their tanks. People were queuing here for three to four days to get diesel. People died, literally died in the heat. People would employ others to queue in their place so they could get diesel. Not so bad when I was there in January this year, this was the longest queue I could find, most filling stations had to and petrol and diesel, but you're rationed, so if you've got a smart phone, you're okay. You have a QR code, you go, they scan it, and they tell you how much you can have. You're limited. Once you hit that ceiling, no more phone number. So, if you've got a paddy field, no diesel-free tractor, no diesel-free fishing boat. So again, this is not non-electrical type. Our effect is that there's no medication, medication is in very short supply, there's no paper, there's no ink, government officials aren't being paid their wages, they don't have any money to pay. So it is a bleak, bleak situation. And those people are not immune to that, they're in it, in the midst of it. And the people we work with, they're poor anyway, they're day workers. You don't eat. No social service in Sri Lanka. There's no merchant service coming to your rescue. You can't go to the government for a handout. So, what do they do? They go hungry. They feed their children. And they go hungry. You go, don't you? In the city, in the country, it's all over Sri Lanka. So that's a bit of the economic background. I'm speaking to one young man who's a lecturer at the University of Trinidad. He's a very popular young man, he's 29. He said to me that 70% of his friends have left Sri Lanka. They've gone abroad to study or to work. In January last year, 700 doctors left Sri Lanka because of the situation. And that's just ongoing. So that 2 million estimate on population has got lower now because a lot of young people have left the country and have no intention of coming back. Once they get to Europe, America, Canada, they don't know how to shrink in one state again. So it's a brain drain. The professionals, it's what we saw during the war time. Those who had means to escape, those who were poor, were left to fight. That's quite impressive, really, isn't it? But there is a possible work in Sri Lanka, supporting 50 churches plus. These are some of those workers. So every year, three times a year, we have a workers' conference. And these are some of our brothers who are able to be there for the photo shoot. A lot of them have already gone home because they had long journeys to travel back to their churches. So there's a mixture of Tamils here and Sinhalese. So when we are lecturing to them, they're translating the Sinhalese and Tamil. The Sinhalese will sit in a room to one side. And they'll spend the weekend studying, praying together, Christian fellowship. On his last trip, he was passing by St. Robertson from Stallgate City, I think that's in America, I believe, yeah. He was there, he went to India for two weeks, speaking in a conference like the North of India, then he flew down into Sri Lanka and spent just over a week with me like this. So, again, going through the doctrines of grace, talking about church discipline, And then, second week of each month, through this year and last year, we have a Zoom conference for the workers. So they will meet in their individual churches, and some of the brothers will come together to a certain area, and they will be taught through Zoom. Zoom has its place, hasn't it? It's not perfect. which is a way to emphasize that we are a gospel-based mission. We believe that the gospel is the answer to every human condition, every heart of need. I'm taking for those in Sri Lanka as it is for us here. So the gospel drives this work. And we've got to teach them the doctrines of grace, so they understand. But in some of these rallies are first-generation Christians. They've been converted out of, mainly from Hinduism, And some of these guys have been Christians since they were young, young children, but they've been involved in prosperity gospel ministry and Pentecostal ministry, Assemblies of God, and South Indian churches, big influence in Sri Lanka. So each region is divided. They don't like elders. So these brothers are responsible for overseeing a certain number of churches in a particular district. So, Leslie here, he looks after churches on the East Coast in Maxwellow. Brother Summerfield here is the East Pastor who oversees the St. Pete's work in the centre of the Isles. Brother Ambrose here, he looks after the Jack in the region. So they come together once a month to pray, to share their difficulties, their joys. And so each church has an overseer. We would love them all to be independent. Every single one. But that's pretty much impossible, particularly at this economic situation we're in now. So these are some workers. And the man down here is a deacon. And this brother here, Ranjeev, another deacon from the church, born very well here. Very poor district on the East Coast, just south of Trinidad and Tobago. Lots of problems, no money, there's no work, and again, they're sharing their burdens with Pastor Jay Pat. So there's a network of support for these individual churches. So the first week was taken at a conference. The second week, Pastor Russ flew back to the States, and I stayed on and visited some churches. So I visited a church. It was early in the morning. time of preaching, praying and sharing their concerns and that was the routine for the next couple of days. This is another church where my mother actually visited. I've been to another church for many years now, but mainly women because the men are away working abroad and gone to that in a way, women and children defending for themselves, it's really difficult. We went to another church, the first church I visited in 2004. Again, it's a church that's celebrating their 25th anniversary this year. But no pastor, no deacons, no elders. So they stayed together. Get around the word of God. Pray for pastors. And we train men up, but they leave us because we're offering more money. Money's a big incentive to drag people away. If you're poor, but you want to feed your family, don't you? And if you have the money and you get a little offer, you'll go. Pray for stability, for integrity. This is a church which we built a few years back. So these are local brothers again in that district who have come together to share. He was a political correspondent for the Tampa Tigers. This is the head. She was in the Sea Tigers. Soldiers of Christ now, I call them. Soldiers of Christ. They were fighting for their liberty, for their freedom, but now they're fighting for the gospel. Amidst extreme persecution, violence, and hatred, Sister Mara here, I ask the question to all of them. Again, how many of you can become independent as churches? Because that's one of the problems we've been accused of in this country, that we are controlling. We don't want to control. We want them to be independent. She said to me, there is no chance that you will ever be independent, particularly with the economic situation now. No chance. Anyone says they can. They are a liar. By independent, I mean you finance yourselves. You don't get money coming from abroad. You are self-supported. You are independent. There's only one church that's reached that stage, and that's Pastor Jacob's church, which he started 35 years ago plus. Mine's at 10 inches. So I think challenges for us as Right in the middle of the island, he said to me about his compound, Brother Gary must do a church building. I've known him since 2004. Why can't he do a church building? Because it's a very strong Buddhist area. And every time he buys the land and starts to build, they start to build a temple. Once they start to build a temple, you can't carry on. Buddhism takes priority. So he's still on the trees, and he's getting old now. But he's doing great work amongst lots of single things there. That's a work which is prostrate. He took us to a work which has just come under our umbrella. This is a single-use church. This was a church that belonged to the Church of Nazarenes. The Church of Nazarenes is an American mace group. They pulled all funding for shamanic. So it was a very hot and very long day. Recently, one of the workers from the Church of Latter-day Saints has had a work amongst the Veda people. So this is a Veda headman. The Veda are like the aboriginal people of Sri Lanka. And they live in the jungle. They keep away from the Western society as much as they can. And they live in long houses like this. It's very basic living. some of whom introduced this handbook at the Department of General Health. The bottles there are not bottles of beer or wine or spirit. They are bottles of wild honey. They collect honey from the forest. That's one of the ways they make an income for their society, for their people. They are a protective people. They are very rarely seen in Vietnam. So I'm quite excited to think that later next year, So some of that people group have come together. There's a conference down on the right now in Sri Lanka, Ukraine on that. And some in England. There's two guys here, particularly holding to a tradition of the sarong. These are just wonderful, you know, work to see that the Con is working amongst this people group. They're the ones we have to contact with. So we have a You know me, who's supported by our sponsor program. So currently Keshe Relief has sponsored 150 children. That provides them with food, education, materials, books, pencils, school uniform, shoes. Education in general is free, but you must have time, and you must have shoes. So Keshe Relief will provide that for them. We are funding 10 resorts, And that's a great way for us to reach into a new area of the gospel through children's work. We're supporting 10 after-school tradition classes, 390 students. A lot of their parents cannot read or write. Education has interrupted for them because of the Civil War. And a lot of circumstances put them in shock. So you'll find children read the Bible to their parents. You find children, you know, leading that family devotion, that they agree to work hard. So we provide teachers to help them with their homework and to push them through for their exams. A daily food program for 2,850 children and we're supporting 192 widows currently. Lots of widows in Chile. providing 4,550 families with food and relief. That's not weekly, that's as and when we have the means and the funding to do so. Large Sunday schools for their works. As you can see in the hand-paintings behind us, where your tea is brewed. This is Hapiteni Sunday School. We were two hours late for this meeting and they were sitting there waiting to hear you preach. I wonder if I was two hours late for this meeting, would you still be here? You'd all gone home, yeah? There's a real hunger and thirst for the Word of God, even amongst children, that they value God's Word. They see it as important and needful for their souls, even young children. They're so respectful, there's no knocking on their bell. You can't get one or two who will stop messing around, but that's very, very rare. There's great respect for teachers, for pastors, great respect for those in authority. They respect authority, unlike children in our nation. So do pray for some of these schools. There's a new service, this is work, right down in the valley, there's no transport, no buses going down there, you might have a walk, or you might have a tuk-tuk if you're unfortunate enough to have that sort of money. But these are the children from teeping vans. They get paid £1.50 a day for picking leaves, for a 12-hour day, and they're getting breakfast for these children, support, we can go in with financial support, pay the wages for the preschool teachers, then we can introduce the gospel through children's work. That's a good, legitimate way to bring the gospel to children. Peds have been, not that we just can't say, what are you doing here? Been invited. The local committee invited Headmistress of Lieutenant General Julius Scott, always been very supportive of Pastor Jay Campbell. He was a Hindu, who was converted as a young man. His family had no electricity in their home, no running water, and to do his homework, A man would come there to read the Bible. They tell you about Jesus. I'm not interested. This man was persistent. He kept pestering me. I had to shut him up and say, I'll come to your church one day. He went to church. God spoke to him. Boom. God spoke to him. And he's now in a ministry full time. And he's God's servant. God's blessed him. He's under great attack, personal attack. So praise for Jacob, Pastor Jacob. God above all. So you get people supporting, you get people criticizing. This is the sort of invitation you get invited to. Pretty small event. Look at these children. Look at their mothers. They're Muslim. Where would you get an opportunity to bring the gospel to Muslims? And you've got him on here, you've got the local Hindu priest here, you've got the former Baptist pastor here. You've got him, this guy here is the head of the pre-school department in the Trinco district. What an opportunity, and there's the same amount of people on this side of the room as well. The word of God was preached, the seed has been sown. We call upon you to walk with your prayers. and God will bring forth fruit from these young lives. Children are the future of our church. I've seen little ones who come through Sunday school, they become religionists, they become pastors, they become Christian workers, all from Sunday school. It's a vital aspect of our ministry. All our preschool teachers undergo government training, They're all checked by the political chaplain to see if they're suitable. They go through safeguarding courses as well. It's very important for our school work. group of children as well. So do come and get prayer support for our children. There is a sponsored programme if you want to be part of that, you can speak to me afterwards. We also have a sponsored programme for the widows. So these are some widows from Badr Chedi down on the east coast of Sri Lanka. These two ladies here, they're doing a compound in the church in a tin shed. They've got a tin shed each. They listen to God's word in the morning, during the day, in the evening. They have a little business. They sell fancy boots, or hair clips, plastic hair clips and combs. They knock on the doors. Listen to God's word. As I say, listen to God's word. They use that as a majestic tool. Pray for that as well, as they share the gospel. Others may comment, last time I went to this church, it's got bigger. Every church I went to, there's more people there. So we're seeing growth in our churches. Despite the opposition from the locals, just across that boundary wall there, it's a Hindu temple, they cranked up the Hindu music just to disturb them. But God's blessing worked, I've got a tune. from Sri Lanka, all the widows in the hill country, this is where, it's quite cold on the hill country, so the tea has grown, they all come down, there's about 200 of them, these are the group from the hill country, they come down to the coast, they've never seen the sea before, never seen the beach, never walked on sand, it's the first time. So there's a conference for them, they went out in the evening, lectures and praying together, doing some craft work together, so just a time of Christian fellowship and Christian enjoyment. So, do pray for our members. Again, if you're interested in that prayer, go speak to me because the lady Our widow is somewhere living in very poor conditions. This lady lives in a Christian nursing home. There's four ladies in this particular nursing home. The milk will be sold in the market. We provide milking cows again for milk. Chickens we provide so they can lay eggs, et cetera. So it's selling in the markets. It's a small income, but we don't want to produce rice for all Christians. We want them to work. We believe that's a personal principle, to work. So that's what we seek to do for these projects. We're going to have Kaliya here. bombed his journey, his truck, his Hell Tigers, severely disabled. And he was sitting under a sawdust on the roadside, still shot, waiting to sell the goods. We baptized him several years ago in his wheelchair. Four of his friends, four of his strong brothers, picked him up, carried him into the ocean, and he was baptized. What a test day. He said, now I'm ready to die. What a tremendous testimony. And he's still walking with the Lord. What doth hinder you? He was paralysed. It's just like the Lord, you know, when he's in that room and they smash the ceiling and they lowered him down to the Lord's feet. Just a beautiful picture. And he speaks much of God. What's your greatest need? Now, if you ask that question, what do you think the answer would be? Oh, I need a toilet, I need running water, I need electricity. If you ask them that question, we want a church. A place where we can come together, not in someone's home, but we can come together to worship, have the sun, have the rain, So, we saw a lady earlier on who was very supportive of Jacob. This man was very anti-Jacob. So, in the early days, when the pastor set up this work amongst the ten-year-old gypsies. So, they are a group of people which groups from three different spots in Sri Lanka. Down by Colombo, up to Trinco, and up towards Jaffna. And then, the surrogate. Fortune-tellers. Palm readers. who was invited by a village member there, sharing the gospel. He said, come again next week. He came next week, a few more people there, a few more people, a few more people. And the work just grew and grew. There was about 150 in that church. Until last year, when they had a split. But Sunday School there is still about 100 plus. When I was there in January this year, there was still about 80 there. So I was encouraged to see that. This man here, he'd made posters in the village. Picture of Pastor Jacob. This man is dangerous. He's collecting children's eyes. Harvesting children's eyes. That's a problem in Sri Lanka. Again, this very month, children are being kidnapped in Sri Lanka and their body parts are being taken. I've seen your pictures and you might believe I did it. That's what happens. They make money. This man, again, a very strong Hindu. We have another man, he's got this gold mark on his forehead here. He's the head of the Hindu Young Man's Youth Association. So many Christians and the Jews, they copy each other. The Buddhists. to teach the children that this seemed how important that is. This man is still anti-Christian, but he's softened. This probably won't break into his heart when they come to faith. So we're gospel-based. free bathroom services in the beach. It's a good blessed time as these Hindu converts from very poor and confused backgrounds confess the Lord as their Saviour. These are a group from the British called Nina Kenney, right in the middle of nowhere. No one knows about Nina Kenney, but the Lord does. until they re-convert, until they come back to mother. So they see Hinduism as mother. And you do not abandon your mother. So until you come back to mother, you are excluded. They, some of you, possibly don't, be persecuted for where they work, for their colleagues at work, for the management, et cetera. So do pray for them to stand, and to withstand. There are great temptations. At the end of the baptism, we have a family meal together, and it's at Pastor Jacob's home, and singing and preaching the Word of God. And then people are descending with the Word of God. Now that Bible there is a month's wages. A month's wages. They can't afford a Bible. So, we get good rates from the Bible Society in Sri Lanka, and we purchase in bulk, and we present those being baptised with the Word of God. That's what's going to feed their souls. As they meditate upon it, as they ponder on it, as they share the Word of God, it will be a blessing to them. So that is akin to our William James version, our new version's coming out from Southern India. We stick to his old version. It was translated by a German mystery back in the 1700s. So we are very thankful that the word of God is in our language, it's in Sinhalese and in Italian. At the end of the service, two boys came up to the pastor. Pastor, we want a Bible, please. Because we're spares, give them a Bible. So let's pray that as they read it, we've got to speak to them through it. And that it may be a blessing to their societies, and their families, and to the church itself. There's a lot more I could say, but I'll give you time.