COLOMBO,
Sri Lanka — Although organised Bible work on the island dates back 190
years, the Ceylon Bible Society (CBS), as it is
still known, is young and energetic in spirit. The day after I arrived in Colombo,
I had to get up at 4.45 a.m. because the distribution team was leaving for a
grand round-the-island Bible promotion trip.
After a quick cup of coffee and a prayer, we headed northeast to Kurunegala Diocese Church. Located at a strategic road junction in west central Sri Lanka, in former times Kurunegala was the capital of a Sinhalese kingdom. Today it is a town of about 30,000 people and the administrative and commercial centre of an area where coconuts, rice, and rubber are grown.
By 10 a.m. the CBS team had set up a complete bookstall at the entrance to the church, ready to provide worshippers with a wide range of Christian literature and Bibles, New Testaments, cassette tapes and children’s material.
Meanwhile,
in an independent church nearby, the ‘Faith Comes By Hearing’ audio
cassette programme was being presented to the congregation and a sample from
the Book of Matthew played. The dramatised recordings of the New Testament in
both Sinhala and Tamil have quickly become so successful that members of the
congregation are asking if they may make their own copies of the cassettes.
After lunch we took to the road again, heading for Anuradhapura, a city which dates back to the fifth century BC and is famous for its enormous Buddhist ruins. At a Roman Catholic Bible school there that evening, CBS was due to host an outdoor film show, using the large church doors as a screen. As the team set up the projector, the neatly dressed students began to gather on the dewy grass in front of the church to watch a modern version of the story of the Prodigal Son.
“When we show these movies,” said Bible Promoter Marshall Anthony, “the students want to know more and buy more books.” (WR 357/12 - 1/2.01)