Day 15
Sri Lanka
James warns us that with the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Heavenly Father, we lift up to You the Christian Believers in Sri Lanka. We ask that You guard their hearts and their tongues. In a nation that is divided along ethnic and religious lines, and the current financial crisis makes life very hard, we pray that Christian Believers will not turn against or speak evil of people of other faiths. Instead, may their patience and grace be evident, and may the words of their mouths be pleasing to God and to man. May they be peacemakers and bridge builders (The Bible, James 3:9).
Twenty-six years of civil war pitted Sri Lanka’s government forces, representing the Buddhist Sinhala majority, against Hindu Tamil separatists. The conflict resulted in upwards of 100,000 deaths. Although the conflict ended in 2009, tensions and accusations remain, and promised truth and reconciliation commissions have never been forthcoming. Sri Lanka has the longest continuous history of Buddhism of any predominately Buddhist nation. This, combined with nationalism, results in the ongoing violent persecution of all who are not Buddhist. This year the nation was plunged into bankruptcy, with major food and fuel shortages bringing people onto the street in widespread protests that forced the president to resign and flee.
