Ministry among refugees

A couple who work with us - Freddy & Asha - want to eventually start 'Kerygma Teams' in the war-torn Tamil section of Sri Lanka. A lot of the Tamils are Catholics; so the K.T. approach of YWAM will work well there. We are helping Freddy & Asha take short-term steps towards their long-term goal. With this in mind, we spent a week in December, at a Sri Lankan Tamil refugee camp in the state of Tamil Nadu, visiting the people and ministering to them. This gave Freddy & Asha valuable experience and contact with the people as well as some contacts in Sri Lanka and further contacts in other camps (there are 131 refugee camps in Tamil Nadu for these people, who are sometimes living in very difficult conditions) It was also excellent training in spiritual warfare and listening to God, as well as learning to be flexible and live in stretching circumstances. Please pray with us for the next steps as we develop this ministry. If any of you are interested in partnering with us or helping us pioneer in Sri Lanka, please do let us know. Freddy will soon be starting a forum with information, prayer points etc related to situation of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
 

Ministry in schools

We had our first all-day program with a Catholic school in mid-October with kids from Year 8. We were expecting 70-80 kids and 102 showed up! Out of these, 46 were Christian and the rest were Hindu or Muslim. The kids from other religions all came with notes from their parents, giving them permission to attend this program about Jesus. The program was optional; so kids who didn't attend had a holiday from school that day. Yet these 102 chose to come for the program. They had a great hunger for God, as many of them are from broken families or orphans. When we had an opportunity for counseling & prayer, we had a long line of boys & girls, waiting for a turn to pour out their hearts. When we offered prayer to receive the Holy Spirit in small groups, all of
them came forward for prayer. We are now following up with a 'Jesus Club' in the school for the same kids, which will meet every 2 weeks if possible. The school authorities have been very helpful, giving us 1 hour for each of the three Year 8 classes, during the 'Jesus Club'; so we can give them individual attention. We had our first Jesus Club at the end of November, with a focus on false images of God that we ofen have, which hinder us in relating to God as a loving Father.Please pray for us and for these kids. We believe that this is an
important investment we are making in their lives and the vision that God has given us, to see a movement of lay Catholics in missions. We're learning a lot as we go along. We have had 2 'Jesus Club' sessions, since our all-day session in October. The kids continue to come in big numbers and many are responding to the Lord. One of the things we are frustrated by, is the time limitation and not being able to spend enough time personally with each child to talk to & pray with them. From this month, we're going to go over at lunch times and simply be availabe - with no program - to be available to spend time with the kids. Many of them want more time & prayer, which is not possible during the regular program - because of the time factor and the number of kids.