SRI LANKAN STUDENTS GIVEN SCHOOL SUPPLIES

WILLS POINT, Texas – Responding to requests for help, Compassion Services Teams supported by Gospel for Asia (GFA) recently visited poor areas in Sri Lanka to supply school children with book bags filled with school supplies and other items needed to continue their education. They also helped equip a particular school with much-needed musical instruments and sports equipment that will help take its teaching to a new level.

“Throughout the world, impoverished children face life without hope and without opportunity,” said K.P. Yohannan, founder and international director of Gospel for Asia. “By the grace of God, we are able to help some of those precious children by providing them the means to a better life.”

Responding to a need raised by a concerned citizen, a GFA-supported Compassion Services Team visited a school in southern Sri Lanka to provide classroom supplies, which included school bags, pens and pencils, a ruler, eraser, pencil box, water bottle and lunchbox to more than 150 students. In addition, the team also provided sports equipment and band instruments.

In northern Sri Lanka, a Compassion Services Team responded to a call from a school principal asking for supplies for his students. A new school is being built in the area, which is still struggling to recover from the 2004 tsunami. The team supplied more than 160 students with gift packs filled with classroom supplies.

One teacher said, “We never expected such help. Thank you so much!”

“Christ’s special love for children is found all over Scripture,” said Yohannan. “It is our privilege as His followers to extend that same love and compassion to the suffering children around us wherever we find them. Nothing provides a brighter future more than education.”

When vulnerable children can’t go to school they face even greater threats. This is a reason millions find themselves discarded, orphaned, abused or sold into bonded labor. To assist them, GFA sponsors a variety of initiatives, as well as operates homes for runaway and abandoned children.

“Caring for vulnerable children is a top priority of our ministry and everyone we support,” said Dr. K.P. Yohannan.

For more information, go to http://www.gfa.org/ministries/abandoned-children/.

GOSPEL FOR ASIA has – for more than 30 years – provided humanitarian assistance and spiritual hope to millions across South Asia, especially among those who have yet to hear the Good News. Last year, this included more than 75,000 sponsored children, free medical services for more than 180,000 people, 6,000 wells drilled, 11,000 water filters installed, Christmas presents for more than 400,000 needy families, and spiritual teaching available in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry.