Helping Churches Respond to War

As Viva’s International Prayer Co-ordinator, I get to travel around to conferences and events worldwide, as well as helping local children get involved in prayer right here in Oxford and throughout England. I’ve recently come back from Sri Lanka, where I was a keynote speaker for a conference on intercessory prayer for Asia. Needless to say it was exciting!


Viva doesn’t have an official network in Sri Lanka, but we’re building relationships with projects and churches around this beautiful island that want to work together to address the enormous needs facing Sri Lankan children in the aftermath of decades of war and ever-present poverty. After my speaking engagement in Colombo I did two days of workshops with children’s workers (and children!) to help the adults learn to involve children in prayer, teaching them to hear God for themselves from a young age.



After my time in Colombo I was whisked up to the northern city of Jaffna by Ministry of Defence plane – as I said, exciting! Jaffna is where the majority of the recent war took place, with Tamil Tiger rebels facing off against government forces. I spent time here in Palaam Children’s Home, which started as a local church’s response to the needs of children in the community who were affected by the war. Now it’s filled with children who were orphaned during the war or by the tsunami. An African saying applies well here: when two elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers most. Children are often hit hardest in times of war, as I was reminded in Jaffna.


The war officially ended two years ago, but many children are still suffering the impact of just being born while it went on: thousands of children born during the war have no birth certificates, because their parents were unable to get to government offices to register their births. While this may not sound as dire as losing family members or being physically hurt, it does mean the children have no legal status. They’re not recognised by the government, which means they miss out on school – the one opportunity they have to climb out of poverty. Even worse, many of these unregistered children actually did lose their parents, so they’re now completely destitute.


One girl I met had lost both parents and ended up in a camp for internally displaced people. She had met a family in the camp and attached herself to them. When they left, she tagged along. They weren’t able to give her long-term support, but helped her get out of the horrible camp conditions. As they drove down the road, they saw a signpost to the Palaam Children’s Home and took the chance to make sure this little girl got proper help. Now she’s a permanent member of the Palaam family and is on her way to getting registration and a birth certificate.


In fact, Palaam Children’s Home has its hands full caring for these children and trying to get each orphaned child legally registered. From my years of experience at Viva, I know how desperately they could use the help of other projects and churches in Jaffna that are doing the same work or can offer other support. Right now Viva is trying to get familiar with some projects doing significant work, and sharing about the benefits of working together. We’re also encouraging churches to get involved in caring for children at risk.


It’s amazingly difficult to get anything done at the moment, as the government is clamping down on non-governmental organisations and small projects have many levels of bureaucracy to climb through. Aside from that, many churches are suspicious of reaching out and working together. Years of violence and mistrust can undermine people’s faith in one another, and the church needs to overcome this obstacle before it can really set about helping Sri Lankan children.


But we’ve seen churches do it before, and I know God is big enough to break down human barriers! We’re definitely watching and praying with anticipation for this hurting but amazing country.




~ C, International Prayer Co-ordinator, UK