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Colombo FloodingWe’ve just received word from our model church in Colombo, Sri Lanka, that they are experiencing serious flooding. A devastating cyclone hit the island one week ago and so far, 36 people have lost their lives. More that 400,000 people have been affected by the rains and floods. Among those are many of our church people. Sadly, our church office is also under water. I thank God for our local church in Colombo that is under the leadership of Pastor Dishan DeSilva. This church is now over 700 believers strong. Just as they responded to the aid of those who were left homeless in the Tsunami of 2004, they are now helping those suffering in this recent disaster. Following are excerpts from messages I have received from Pastor Dishan: May 20, 2010 Dear Sister Bev, The Social minister asked us to help out as there are more than 400000 affected. The minister will be meeting me on Friday (May 21) again as we are preparing to go out and provide food for about 2000 people. I think it will take at least another 02 weeks before people can get back to their normal life style (so we need to provide food for minimum 14 days, if the rain stops today). May 21, 2010 Sis Bev We were working today with the flood victims and served food items for more than 3000 people and also served 300 cooked lunch packets and served 03 police stations by providing food items for them. I worked with the Social minister today from 2 p.m. - 9 p.m. distributing food items and meeting the needy people. The people are really desperate. Some people have lost almost everything. Also there are around 600 police officers who have been affected and they made a personal request if we could help them too. We had almost 40 people from Bethany (our model church) walk in the mud and rain to serve the people and it was great. Blessings - Dishan The funds that we receive will be sent directly to Pastor Dishan and the local church in Sri Lanka. There will be no government red tape and the people will immediately be able to receive the assistance they need. That’s the beauty of doing the work of Compassion thru the local church! The needs that will be met are food (to feed 1000 people cost $750/per day), building supplies to rebuild/repair homes, building common toilets, books for school children, shoes, clothing, and cooking utensils. Rick and I are sending $750 today to feed 1,000 people. That’s only seventy five cents per person! We have learned that our response of compassion opens a door to people’s hearts. Though we help people out of compassion, the added benefit is credibility to our message and growth in our churches. If you would like to help on this project you may send a check to the P.O. Box below. Because of the urgency of this need, please send me an email to let me know that you are sending a contribution and let me know the amount. We can cover a contribution out of our ministry account until your donation is received. This will allow us to go ahead and send these funds immediately. The need is literally day to day at this point. You may also make a contribution through PayPal at the following link. Thank you for all your prayers as we walk through this trying time with our Sri Lankan brothers and sisters. Bev Zachary rick@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 |
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