Despite difficulties, TWR team faithfully ministering in Sri Lanka
In the face of a worsening economic crisis and civil unrest, our team in Sri Lanka continues to speak hope in the island nation.
TWR has been broadcasting from the island since 1978. In addition to daily medium-wave (AM) broadcasts for Indian audiences, we work with local partners who produce and broadcast programs in languages spoken by most Sri Lankans: Sinhala and Tamil.
Our personnel there are not exempt from the challenges facing the 23 million people in the teardrop-shaped country, which is slightly larger than the state of West Virginia. With its economy strapped by the pandemic and repercussions from the war in Ukraine, Sri Lanka last month declared bankruptcy for the first time in the history of the 74-year-old country. This week, the entire island was virtually out of fuel.
Discontent over the economic situation sparked demonstrations and violent clashes last week. Eight people died and more than 200 were injured, according to media reports.
God has provided for the TWR team there, said Jonathan Lee, TWR Asia communications director.
“Our co-workers in Sri Lanka are experiencing the same hardships as their fellow countrymen,” Lee said. “We thank God for keeping them safe and enabling them to faithfully continue ministering as best as they can in the face of such challenges – especially through the limitations of power outages and curfews.”
Our work in Sri Lanka is bearing fruit in South Asia. Here’s the unsolicited testimony of one listener in Sri Lanka, responding to the Tamil broadcast of the In Touch program:
I happened to tune in to this program by chance, and it was my first exposure to this type of programming. This is a fantastic program. The facts were well explained by the speaker, and they were simple to grasp. I had been dealing with a lot of issues, so listening to this program gave me a lot of energy and made me feel like I was mentally healed.
