Convicting.
As the three South Carolinians one by one described their experiences, their feelings, and the lessons they learned during their volunteer trip, the word “convicting” seemed to be the adjective that best summed up their time in Sri Lanka.
Three volunteers from South Carolina pray for a Sri Lankan pastor and the churches he leads.They had come to prayerwalk at Satan’s strongholds, to share the Good News of Jesus with the lost, and to train and encourage the Sri Lankan church. Yet in doing each, with some surprise, they encountered the Lord speaking to their own hearts.
Convicting.
“When you walk around, there are hundreds of people, and very few of them know about Christ,” 71-year-old volunteer Mamie Barnhart* said. “The first day, we went to the Hindu temple. You read in the Bible about worship of false gods, false images, and I thought, ‘Here we are right in the middle of it, just like it was in the Bible, with people all around us worshipping false gods.’
“When I saw this lady walking around with a candle and coconut worshipping a god that was nothing but a piece of wood, I just came unglued. Most of them don’t know anything different,” she said. “They are happy worshipping these gods, but at the end of their lives, they’re going to hell.”
Convicting.
A Sri Lankan woman prays to gods of wood inside a Hindu temple in Sri Lanka.This was Mamie Barnhart’s first trip to Sri Lanka, but her husband’s fourth.
“The reason I come back is I love sharing the love of Jesus Christ with people who do not know him or have not heard of him,” Ike Barnhart,* 73, said.
During this trip, among those with whom Ike Barnhart shared the gospel were a young pregnant woman, a proud grandfather, and a baseball player in his prime.
“I share all the time there (in the States), but I need to do more,” Ike Barnhart said. “I don’t do it to the extent that they are teaching the nationals to do here, and that’s a shame. It’s a total shame, because I don’t get persecuted like, say, Jinendra* does, where I get beaten on my head, get beaten up, threatened, with my wife pouring water on me and burning my books – nothing like that.
“I’m going to start a group that tries to do what they try to get them to do here – to be accountable for my prayers, my Bible reading, my sharing, all those things. I will walk the talk.”
Convicting.
Volunteer Timmy Brodnex,* 42, was on his ninth overseas mission trip, but this was his first to Sri Lanka. He said the spiritual walk of the Sri Lankan Christians impacted him greatly.
This Sri Lankan grandmother watches over her baby granddaughter who is asleep in a makeshift swing. As South Carolina volunteers visited her community, she heard the gospel clearly, but she will not let go of her Buddhist faith because she believes it would dishonor her deceased parents.“These people here have a love. I love the Lord, don’t get me wrong, but I think they have more of a passion,” he said. “I mean, I don’t get up at 4 o’clock in the morning and pray for two hours like Ranuga* does. And the dedication that they have to want to get out there and just really see their people won for Christ, I wish that’s what we had for our own people.
“It’s been a great experience, different from any other trip I’ve been on,” Brodnex said. “Just personally, you know in my walk with Christ, just seeing how committed the brothers in Sri Lanka are and how committed I am; it’s just been a real eye-opener. When I get home, I’m going to do my best to stay just as I am now.”
Convicting.
*Names changed for security reasons. Frances serves as a writer in South Asia. To learn about the South Carolina Baptist Convention’s service opportunities planned for South Asia in 2009, visit http://www.scbaptist.org/international/article158733c1594414.htm.