Image: Happy family who can now support themselves after receiving animals from the Help for Self Help project.
Photo: Anders Kjærsgaard in Sri Lanka. He is a student at Vestjysk Gymnasium in Tarm.
We distributed Bibles to Christians who were so poor that they could not afford their own Bible and gave them self-help. The self-help help was given to the pastors of four churches and consisted of chickens, goats and a cow. It is a great help for the pastors that they can now earn money and provide for their families.
One of the pastors got a cow. He has started his own church, which so far has 5-6 members. The pastor prays a lot that more will come. He visits houses and if someone wants prayer, he prays for them.
Incidentally, this is one of the ways in which many people in Sri Lanka are converted - the pastor visits houses and prays for people. For the pastor we visited, the fact that he now has a steady income has had a huge impact. Now he can better find peace to provide for his family. He will also focus more on the church now, so the cow we gave has an impact not only on his own and his family's life, but also on the whole village, which he now has more time to serve.
Fact: Sri Lanka is still affected by the 26-year civil war that ended in 2009 and the tsunami in 2004. Despite some economic growth since the end of the civil war, there are still poor areas of Sri Lanka where churches cannot afford to pay their pastors.
