Good day, all the way from Sri-Lanka!
We had an amazing week here in the very humid Sri-Lanka. We stayed with Pieter and Luise Ter Haar. They are missionary “social” workers in Sri-Lanka and have been serving here for more than 20 years. They are South Africans and it was great to have a few braai’s with them! We stayed with them on their farm near Kandi. There they have a children’s home on their coconut farm. They take care of round about 20 girls between the ages of 4 to 20 years old. These girls are sent to them because all of them have been raped and physically abused by their fathers or brothers or uncles. These girls then stay at the house until the court cases are done. It can take up to 10 years before the cases are settled. During the girls stay at the house they are taught about the love of Jesus and the girls are giving the chance to accept Him as their savoir as well.
Peter and Luise also has a family of their own, they have 2 beautiful daughters, Chantelle and Sonja. They taught us a lot about serving and searching for your calling in the Kingdom of God, and then being obedient when you receive you’re calling. They are great examples of true religion according to James 1:27 “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.”
We went to the girl’s house and painted the different rooms and we painted the outside of the house as well. It was great fun and we also had the opportunity to play with the girls in the afternoons and have fellowship with them during the nights. The girls really opened up to us because of the physical work we done at their house. They loved the newly painted house. I also realized like one of my friends Johannes said, that love is really all you need!
During one of the nights of worship the Holy Spirit fell upon some of the girls while we were standing in a circle around them. We were praying and worshipping the Lord and He responded with His Holy Fire! The demons that still possessed some of the girls because of the Buddhist back-round started to manifest. We stood up in our authority that we have in Christ and we prayed for the girls and rebuked some of the demons to the throne room of God for their judgement. We also laid hands upon the girls for the Holy Spirit to fill them. We prayed for almost 2 hours and then we had to stop because it was getting late and it was quite a noisy affair and we didn’t want the neighbours to complain about the noise.
This was a divine appointment by the Lord and it was an awesome privilege to be part of it. Pieter also taught us a bit more about the back-round of some of the girls which explained some of the demonic manifestation.
The following day we had a very nice braai with Pieter and his girls and all the girls of the house also joined us. We had a lot of fun and played with them until dusk. We then said our sad goodbyes and the following morning we left for Colombo by train. In Colombo we met up with Luise’s father, Cristo and his wife Luise. We served with them for the next 3 days. We visited 2 old aged homes and joined one of the churches for prayer meetings and youth meetings as well. It was really a lot of fun to get to know some of the people and to experience their culture as well.
The people in Sri-Lanka are very friendly and we had a great time in their country. We really appreciate everything that Pieter and his family has done for us and we are sure that this will not be the last time that a team of Global Challenge will visit them.
We are on our way to Cambodia at the moment and I have a big expectation in my spirit about serving in Cambodia. I thank you for all your prayers and ask you to please continue with it.
Blessings and love in Jesus’ name.
Fran