PASTORS VISITS TSUNAMI DAMAGE
IN SRI LANKA
FEBRUARY 1, 2005
Doug Brown, lead pastor of Lee’s Summit Community Church, recently returned from a tour of tsunami-ravaged Sri Lanka.
Brown was already in Asia and extended his trip when local church leaders in Taiwan invited him to accompany them on the Sri Lanka fact-finding mission. Brown and an international group of pastors visited the damage and met with Christian leaders in Sri Lanka. The nation of 20 million is sharply divided between the majority Sinhalese population and Tamil separatists.
Brown visited leaders and damage in areas controlled by both factions. His group surprisingly received access to Tamil areas that are usually off-limits to foreign visitors.
The damage was overwhelming, but glimmers of hope were also evident. Brown noticed one building standing among the wreckage of others nearby. He learned that it was a house dedicated to prayer. When he entered, a calendar on a wall displayed a verse from the book of Psalms in the Bible: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.”
Brown’s trip to Sri Lanka and other parts of Asia is in line with the church’s mission of developing global partnerships to plant new churches and to support relief efforts. Members of the church recently donated about $10,000 in tsunami aid.
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Please contact Roy Harryman, director of communications, for more information at 816.524.6786 x104.