From the Mission Field in Sri Lanka

It’s 5:00 AM and there are people everywhere! If I didn”t know better, I could almost think I was at the Mall of America on the day after Thanksgiving!!! And the loading zone is curb to wall people, luggage and vans, all unloading and loading more people. And HEAT! It sure isn’t the cold and snowy Minnesota that I woke up in this morning. But wait a minute. That was 2 days ago! That praise ‘We’re not in Kansas anymore’ takes on a whole new meaning.


Then I see it and it’s defiantly heading my way. White and broadly curved upward at the corner. The smile I had come to know in Massachusetts. It greets me with “Jesu Piti” (God’s Blessing), a hug and “welcome to Sri Lanka”.

That was the beginning of my first foreign mission trip. One filled with so many blessings for both Carl and me. Blessings 1 and 2 met us at the airport in Colombo. Pastor Lynton Sylva ( Mr. ‘Smile’) and his wife Iona. I didn’t know it at the time, but blessing #3 was just a van ride away. And what a ride it was.


I want you to picture something in your mind. A small town main street with one lane of traffic in both directions and some parallel parking. Now on this street there are cars, vans, pickups, delivery trucks, motor cycles, bicycles, 3 wheeled taxies, hand carts and buses that stop for anyone who puts their hand out. Oh yeh, I forgot something. Dogs, cats, chickens, mongoose, monkeys and COWS! Not the sacred ones. And remember all those people I saw at 5 in the morning, well they are fallowing me and meeting up with family, friends and strangers or just walking to work. Can’t forget the armed guards and check points along the way. And they drive on the wrong side of the road! It’s kind of like rush hour traffic in a zoo while running Grandma’s Marathon! This is in the capital city. The country roads are narrower and almost as much traffic. We got into the habit of saying a prayer for safe passage before leaving home and a prayer of thanks each time we made it safely back, especially when traveling up into the mountains. Thus, blessing #3.

It’s time to leave the big city and travel up into the central part of the country into the lower mountains to Badulla where Lynton and Iona live. The countryside was beautiful. The rainy season had just ended and everything was green and lush. The only thing to mar it’s beauty are all the Buddhist temples and statues and Hindu shrines. But I thank God that there are people like Lynton and his team that are bringing light into those dark places of idol worship. BLESSINGS BLESSINGS BLESSINGS BLESSINGS


It will take us all day to get there. The distance isn’t that great, the country is about the size of Rhode Island, but the roads are so bad the average speed is 20 MPH. Remember, the rush hour traffic in a zoo while running a marathon will be with us all the way. And a lot more COWS!

In Sri Lanka, it is against the law to build any new Christian churches. That’s why they are all houses were church is held. There are no marques or names written on the outside walls. Through the generosity of a man here in the States, Lynton was able to purchase a house and with help from others here, an addition was built onto the house and this addition became the church and Sunday school. The property has been deeded as ‘NO SALE’ meaning it can never be sold. It will always be a House Church, passing from one generation to the next. A BLESSING for all the Christians.

On the wall inside the church at Pastor Lynton’s is a poster representing the ministry in Sri Lanka. Currently there eight House Churches. Of these, six are Sinhalese and in mostly Buddhist areas and two are Tamil; one in a Buddhist area the other in Batticaloa in the tsunami Hindu area. SPECIAL NOTE: Just before we were to leave Sri Lanka, an outreach Church destroyed four years ago was being reestablished. Praise GOD!!!!!


Sunday services are always at Pastor Lynton’s home church even if he is traveling to other areas. There were about 150 people in attendance the Sunday we were there. Church starts at 10:30, but people start arriving around 8:00. Bus service you take when it’s available and for those walking, they want to do it in the coolest part of the day. Some of those arriving early that day brought vegetables, rice, tea or fruit as an offering or to share with those in need. Thanks were given for these gifts during the service. Each week a person or family is chosen to receive these BLESSED gifts.


They have six Sunday school classes, preschool thru New Life in Christ (40-45 children and young adults), a women’s prayer group and an adult study class. There are eight active couples in the ministerial team helping Lynton and Iona to share the gospel of Christ. Each couple has a job within the team; hospital ministry, seniors and elders, administrator, housekeeper and handyman, errand runner and bill payer, evangelists in remote villages, family counseling and accountant. These dedicated men and women leave their children with grandparents or other family members to travel to the seven other house churches or to homes for prayer services. Almost everyone in the congregation has some part in the running or maintenance of the church or the service.


During any church service or home service, anyone led by the Spirit to pray does. It might be a member of the team (male or female) or other person attending. At the close of all gatherings, people come forward with prayer requests. They have seen the power of prayer. When Lynton and Iona’s son Lewllyn was in the hospital with cancer and told there was nothing else that could be done, God heard the prayers of his people and he walked out of the hospital the next day cancer free! When George’s wife Rizmih, formerly a Muslim, was poisoned by her mother because she became a Christian, the congregation prayed over her and God took the poison from her body! Nateeka was going blind and received her sight. They truly live by faith believing if they ask in prayer, God will answer.

Every week on Sunday, house services for the fallowing week are posted. Locations, days and times are never the same two weeks in a row. This is done to protect the people. Don’t let anyone tell you Buddhist are a peace loving people. They rule the country and declared “emergency law” when the war ended. They can arrest you without charging you for 90 days.


Everyday we traveled to at least one House Church or had a prayer service. Going to and from these we would stop for home visits. One of these home visits was high up in the tea hills. The mother (a tea picker making $1.00 a day), her daughter and grandchild (husband kicked her out when she became a Christian) and another child (found by the mother after someone had thrown him away in the tea plants) live in a two room house with dirt floors. They carry water from a spring down the hill. The mother’s prayer was that her son-in-law would come to know the Lord and be reunited with the family.

Our trip to the tsunami area was two fold. We had a service on the sands in front of the house there that evening. After a night sleeping on the service sight sands, we went to the lagoon behind the house to celebrate a baptism! Little Nadeeka openly confessed her faith and was baptized. They do practice infant baptism but for older converts they wait until they complete counseling classes so they are aware of the persecution they will face. The classes don’t make them Christians, they already are.

There would be so many more blessed stories to relate about our trip, but let these be written so that you might know that our brothers and sisters in Sri Lanka walk by faith in The Lord Jesus Christ.

Lynton and Iona will be traveling in the States before the convention and will be at the Foreign Mission presentation on Saturday of the convention. If you have the opportunity to visit with him, do so.

Unforgettably Blessed, Carl & Carol Lamppa