Church and Religion - 13 April 2001

Rev. Jeyanesan wants to stay in the battle-zone of Sri Lanka

A calling filled with deadly danger

by A. Muller

Jerusalem - Rev. S. Jeyanesan from Sri Lanka believes that the church has the task to care for the poor, the orphans and the widows. More than sixty thousand people were killed in the bloody conflict between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan army, that has been devastating the island now for twenty years. The 51 year old pastor has had the opportunity to escape to Canada, just like his six brothers and sisters. "But I stay in Sri Lanka in order to help the church and the poor. I am enormously privileged that I may execute this task.

It is an extremely dangerous area where the Tamil pastor works. He has seen how a jeep went over a land mine. Seven soldiers were killed instantly. The Sri Lankan Secret Service arrested one of his co-pastors. He did not come back: seventeen days later, his body and that of two others were found. A shell hit the wife of another colleague. Also she was killed.

He supervises the work of the St. John's Church in the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India. His work area is situated in the eastern part of Sri Lanka, around the city of Batticaloa. This is partially under control of the government troops that are almost exclusively manned by Singhalese, and is partially under control of the Tamil rebels. Travelling from one part to the other is dangerous. The authorities have to give special permission for it. In the evening, after six o'clock, there is curfew, which lasts for twelve hours.

Full of danger
"I always say: the call that the church has is a call full of danger. The church has to be prepared to be wounded. The disciples and the early fathers of the church were prepared to give their lives. Missionaries came from America, England and the Netherlands to Sri Lanka to give us the Gospels. Through the offers that they gave, there is now a church. Now the church has to be prepared to pay the price for the sake of the task that Christ gives.

Rev. Jeyanesan believes that the church has as task to help the very poor of the world. His church has in the mean time been empowered by Christians from abroad to put up a big work. Together with his 160 co-workers, they have built four homes, where they absorbed 468 children aged three to eighteen years old. In three day-care centers they teach 180 children.

They run also eight food-banks, where 400 children receive nutrition. When the orphans have finished High School, they can find a place in vocational training. There are also home projects for widows. The widows receive loans in order to start small enterprises by themselves.

Destitute children
The help that the church gives is more than a drop in the bucket. Still, his people would be able to do much more if there were more resources. Hundreds of children are still wandering the streets and many of them are not going to school, but are in danger of becoming involved with drugs and crime. "In the battle zone, you will see children without hands", he says, "Blind children. The medical care is abominable. There is a government hospital in Batticaloa, but the doctors and medicines are missing. In the area under control by the Tamil rebels, there is no hospital and no medicines can be had. The main cause of death there is by snake bite. Sick people cannot be transported to hospitals because there are no ambulances."

The church is only small and the need is great." he says. "The main problem is the lack of expert knowledge. In the orphanages, for instance, the children are coping with tremendous trauma's. They have seen their parents being killed. This will never leave them. Our care-takers are not trained to deal with this kind of problems."

He cannot attract missionaries and helpers from abroad, as they may only stay for three months. What is more, they need special permission from the Ministry of Defense in order to travel to the battle zone, where Rev. Jeyanesan is doing his work. The pastor visited Israel in order to speak to the "Good News for the Poor" conference, that was organized by the Dutchman Joseph Vos. "This is an opportunity to make new friends", he says, "I also travelled through the Holy Land, learned about the Jewish people and the rabbinical literature, and also about the Lord Jesus himself." He is thinking about sending pastors under his supervision to Israel in order to study Hebrew and to learn about the Jewish backgrounds of the Christian faith.

Conflict areas
He, himself, studied theology in India and the United States. He is currently busy with a thesis on the subject of "Mission of the Church in Conflict Areas". The Church of South India, to which he belongs, is a protestant church that was formed in 1947 by a fusion of the Anglicans, Presbyters, Reformed, Congregationalists and Methodists. The church counts 3.8 million members, 14,000 congregations and 21 dioceses.

Sri Lanka received independence from the British in 1948. Until 1972, the island was known as Ceylon. Currently, there are 18 million inhabitants. The government in Colombo said this week to want to start peace talks with the Tamil Tigers, that have unilaterally called a ceize fire since the beginning of this year, after having had great losses in the Jaffna area. He believes that the international community must put more pressure on the Tamils and Singhalese to stop the ethnic and religious conflict. "They should also stop the arms supplies."

"Let the church worldwide pray for us, please." he says. Christians in Sri Lanka are forming a minority of five percent. (for more information: http://orphanage.org/stjohns). Ninety-eight percent of the Tamil children that Rev. Jeyanesan absorbs are Hindu. A fifth of the children will take on the protestant beliefs. In his district, four new congregations have been founded. "In spite of the war, the danger and the poverty, the church grows.", Rev. Jeyanesan says, "In Sri Lanka there is legally freedom of religion. In practice, there is much persecution from the side of the Buddhist Singhalese. The church is suffering. Two of our churches were burnt down, but we rebuild them."