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New Look
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Colombo, Sri LankaBev and I are in Colombo, Sri Lanka, holding a conference with leaders from the villages where we have launched churches in the past four years. Our model church here continues to grow steadily. In this Sunday’s service our 500 seat building was packed for the main service. I counted ten empty seats! We have a total of about 650 attending three Sunday services and another 120 children in Children’s Church. The evening English service is growing steadily and is reaching an influential group of Sri Lankan business leaders. Two branch congregations, one in Colombo north and one in Colombo south, are growing steadily and we are looking into the possibility of purchasing property for the north campus on this trip. I am deeply touched every time we visit this work. Now in its ninth year, the main congregation is fully self-supporting and beginning to generate sufficient income to make major improvements on the property. It is one of the few air-conditioned churches in the city. They recently covered the outside of the building with a silver metallic sheeting that is stunning. The city busses stop right at our door and the bus drivers are now referring to the “Church Stop” as they call out their route. When we launched this work nine years ago and later purchased property along the main road leading into the new parliament complex, we felt that it would eventually become a congregation that would influence the nation. Step by step we are witnessing the realization of that dream. Our leaders’ conference was a great success. We had over 150 leaders attending, representing 25 churches. In the past four years we have launched thirty churches in the villages and now have about 3,000 people who look to our model church for spiritual oversight and leadership. Bev has begun to help me in some of the teaching sessions and it’s been deeply satisfying to watch her grow in confidence and in teaching ability. Thanks for all you have done to help us make a difference in Sri Lanka. Rick & Bevrick@rickzachary.com - bev.zachary@gmail.com - shane.zachary@gmail.comChurchAsia - P.O. Box 82080 - Baton Rouge, LA 70884changing the world...one congregation at a time |
