Bev and I are in Colombo Sri Lanka where we just finished a leadership conference in our Colombo model church. The congregation celebrates their ten year anniversary in May, and it has been an amazing decade.

Our pastor, Larry Stockstill from Bethany World Prayer Center, joined us for this conference, and we so enjoyed his ministry.  It was his first visit to Sri Lanka, and the church greatly benefited from his word to us.  The Colombo congregation is maturing nicely and beginning to expand in a national mandate to Sri Lanka.  I felt that it was spiritually significant to have Pastor Larry stand in our pulpit at the time when we are strategizing for a broader influence in the nation.

We now hold three Sunday services and are about to add a Saturday night service.  Our building seats 500, and we have a total of about 800 adults attending the three services.  Our Sinhala language service is the largest with about 450 adults, but the Tamil congregation is growing fast.  The Sunday night English language service is also showing steady increase.

The building sits on a major thoroughfare in the city and is becoming something of a landmark in our area.  I found out last night that the property value has appreciated dramatically over the past ten years.  It is now worth about $800,000 U.S. dollars.  This is from an original investment of $130,000 which Bev and I made eight years ago, and the congregation invested about $200,000 which went into building renovation.

We had a fantastic Sunday service yesterday.  I taught on husband and wife (Love & Respect), and I was amazed at the response.  I received the following email from another Sri Lankan business professional:

Many thanks Rick. We were touched by the Holy Spirit for the amazing things you shared with us on Sunday.  I, being a Catholic, and my wife a Buddhist, came to know of Bethany church only recently.  The conversion that is taking place in us is immense. My only daughter, Senara, was sick for 2 1/2 years and no medication could cure her.  We were directed to Bethany by a miraculous hand and she was healed.

I have no words to thank you and your lovely wife and all the leaders of the Bethany church, for making us worthy to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

May God's choicest blessings be with you & your family. – Senaka

Rick, Bev and Shane