A year ago, a year from now

It was the first Saturday in December, 2003. Thirty of us crowded into Kenny and Theresa Bryant’s living room to dream about Christ’s entry into Brussels through us in 2004.

A year later, eight of us are here and another eight are on their way. We marked the anniversary of our gathering by hosting our first “Open House” in Brussels.

The setting was a café in the center of Brussels, a short walk from the European institutions we came to impact. The café is a ministry of Youth With a Mission (YWAM), and is in the same building as the accommodations for three of our interns, arriving mid-January. We are very enthusiastic about partnership possibilities with YWAM and continue to marvel at the opportunity to experiment with a café ministry so early in our time here.

We invited about 50 people to the event and considered this a success regardless of who came. The invitations were designed by one of our prospective team members and communicated that we’re here, we’re committed, we’re creative, we’re enthusiastic, and we’re going to make a difference, by the grace of God.

13 people came and we shared what we believe God has given us as a vision for Brussels. Many of these people had not met each other and we all sensed the presence of God’s Spirit, starting small, but working powerfully. Nations represented included the U.S., Canada, Japan, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, and Finland.

The next step is now a weekly worship gathering that we’re beginning on Sunday evenings, staring January 9. This is not our public weekly worship gathering – we will wait until September to start that. This is a rehearsal of sorts; we are gathering the actors, working on the script, building sets, and designing the program. We are praying this group would grow to 30 or 40 in three months time.

Mark your calendar now for the first weekend of December 2005! What will God have accomplished in Brussels by then?!

Prayer for Sri Lanka

From Ajith Fernando, National Director of Youth for Christ in Sri Lanka

31 Dec, 2004

1. Pray for proper planning and co-ordination of the relief efforts. At the moment some who have are getting more and others who don't have are not getting anything. Pray for wisdom for leaders in the Government and non-Government Organisation (NGO) communities.

2. Medicine and clean water are in short supply. Pray that the right people who are able to distribute properly would get this and distribute it to the right places. Also there is a need for tents as temporary homes for displaced people.

3. Disease could cause huge problems. Pray for proper preventive measures.

4. Christian relief groups like LEADS, World Vision and the Evangelical Alliance are doing good work. Pray that God would give them the necessary wisdom and human and material resources to do this work well.

5. Pray for the personal lives and the families of those doing relief. Usually during these crises huge tensions emerge in families and sometimes moral failures too. Pray that the workers would guard their spiritual lives and maintain their personal spiritual accountability with their spiritual brothers or sisters.

6. Pray for the meetings of coordination committees of individual groups and of umbrella organisations which bring groups together. YFC's leadership team meets on Monday 3rd.

7. Pray for the thousands of people who are devastated through the loss of loved ones and possessions. Pray that Christians would be a healing balm here. Pray that they would go out of their way to comfort and counsel such people.

8. The Sri Lankan church has received a lot of bad and false press in the past few years. Pray that our work these days would bring glory to the name of Christ even among those hostile to them. Pray that Christians would truly reach out to all in love irrespective of race, class and religion.

9. While we should not use this crisis in any unethical way to further the cause of evangelism, pray that this crisis may cause people to turn to the God who alone can meet their deepest needs. Pray that Christians would be wise and bold in witnessing about the Saviour's love.

10. Pray that during these initial days God would guide his people and government authorities to take the right steps in prioritising what needs to be done long term to rehabilitate those who have been affected.

11. Pray for an unprecedented uniting of the body of Christ. That we would appreciate what each other is doing and that we would not compete with each other, but unite to present a combined witness to the gospel.


4 Jan, 2005

Dear friends,

This is a note to say that a massive relief operation is under way. Indeed there is a lot of disorganisation, and therefore resources are not been sent to the most needy people as soon as they should be. Some experts who have come from abroad are frustrated because the infrastructure is not set up for their expertise to be used. There is some looting, some misappropriation of relief supplies. But such things always happen in situations like this, because of the selfishness and sin of us humans.

One thing requires special prayer. There has been some (I hope very little) rape of women and sexual abuse of children among the survivors, especially in camps. Please pray about these people.

But we can say that the people by-and-large are working. Christians are doing very good work. Large and effective work is being done by groups like World Vision, LEADS, the Evangelical Alliance, the Assemblies of God, the Methodist and Anglican churches etc. YFC is working in partnership with some of these groups in different areas. We have many staff and volunteers who have pitched in with their services. An earlier estimate of 200 YFCers at the job may have been a bit inflated. I am sorry about that.

Personally, I am working on a biblical reflection on what Christians in Sri Lanka should be thinking and doing now. There is a lot of confusion in the church in these areas. This document may be signed by several Christian leaders and sent out to the Churches. Please pray that I will have wisdom as I write. I want to finish it tomorrow (Wednesday).

Some are saying that this is God's judgment because Christians were persecuted. But the waves came when churches were meeting for worship on Sunday. I know that one church in the East lost all but three of those who had come for worship, and another lost all but one-the pastor who managed to cling to something. I keep hearing of more and more wonderful Christians who have died. Several of them are close to the YFC family. Please say a prayer for these people who have suffered.

Also please say a prayer for those who are working. Several of our staff are showing signs of the strain of several days of really, really hard work, little sleep and hours and hours of travel in trucks carrying supplies to affected areas. Some spouses are upset. They all need to be ministered to.

Thanks again for standing with us.

Ajith