Notchimunai, Sri Lanka, was a quiet place. Its populace: headstones, scattered without order, and sometimes nearly submerged under a drift of sand.

Pastor John Loganuthuni gazed at the wide abandoned graveyard and wondered how God could be calling him to this place. He knew he was supposed to preach the light and life of the Gospel to the Sri Lankan people, so why would the Lord send him to a place of death?

By faith and at risk of humiliation, Pastor John and his family built a tiny home on the edge of the sandy wasteland and began a church. In its beginnings, nearly 10 years ago, the congregation only included John’s wife and children. Together they prayed and believed for bigger things. Like Noah, they looked at the blue skies above, and waited for the rains to come.
Pastor John's church, Kingdom of God Ministries.


Health and hygiene lessons have decreased infant mortality in Notchimunai.


Community members gather near the church.


The ongoing political conflict has left many children without parents. In response, the church started an orphan care program.


***

It started as a trickle at first, but soon, a flood of people had washed over the area. After the 2004 tsunami struck the coastline of eastern Sri Lanka, the government banned dwellings along the seaside. Thousands were displaced. The only unoccupied land in the region was the cemetery.

“They settled down here with many heartaches and problems,” John said.

People kept coming. Some fled from their homes in west Batticaloa as fighting between the government and rebel groups escalated. They didn’t have time to pack their belongings. Many families left behind a life’s work, arriving in Notchimunai with their lives and little else.

With nowhere to go, the living settled among the dead, huddling together in tiny shacks, sharing space with the headstones.

***

When sickness inevitably came, residents believed they had roused evil spirits, and offered sacrifices to gods and goddesses as they watched their children writhe in pain and burn with fever.

Word spread about a pastor who lived on the perimeter of the cemetery. Residents said that the miraculous occurred when he prayed. The pastor told them that he prayed to Jesus, the Son of God in human flesh, who had healed the sick, restored sight to the blind, and even raised the dead during his time on earth. He told them that faith in this Jesus would free them from a past of wrongdoings and cruel actions. They would no longer need to fear sickness and death if they believed in Him.

As disease continued to spread throughout the village, worried mothers would secretly slip out of their homes, fearing neighbors’ judgments, and go to the pastor’s house for prayer.

This is how Pastor John’s church began to grow.

Life began to sprout in a place of death.

***

Eighteen-year-old Jegatheepan felt the despair of defeat when he looked down at his hands. Concrete work had shredded his calloused skin, and they were covered in blood. Jegatheepan knew he would never be able to support his family without the use of his hands. He had dropped out of school two years shy of graduation for financial reasons. Without an education, there were few options for employment.

“I laid down on the sand, and I was thinking about why I was created and why I was living in such a desperate situation,” he said.

Jegatheepan’s father died when he was only a year old, and his mother had tried to support the family by starting a small cookery business. Then the conflict between the government and Tamil rebel groups worsened in the area, and the family fled their home as shells stomped closer. They left everything behind.

As Jegatheepan sat outside his home, anger welling up within him, he saw a man talking to his neighbor. The neighbor called to him, and Jegatheepan crossed the sandy path to greet the two men.

There was something familiar about the stranger, Jegatheepan thought, and a sense of kindness he couldn’t explain. The man didn’t smile often, but when he looked down at him, there was something about his eyes. They seemed to shine. It was almost like an illuminated light bulb in a dim room, startlingly different from the hollow, disaster-ridden looks of the countless others living in the graveyard. The stranger took the boy’s worn hand in his. “I’m Pastor John.”

The neighbor had told John about the boy’s situation. The pastor invited Jegatheepan to the church, where he was offered a position in a Samaritan’s Purse-sponsored welding program the church hosted. He would not only receive skills training, but would also have the opportunity to work on small welding projects to generate income.

Jegatheepan accepted but was skeptical and critical of the Christians he met. And his explosive temper began to create problems.

“When he started the training, he was the person who was always in fights,” John said.



***

Pastor John knew what it was like to live a life full of hatred and bitterness.

Two years in a jail cell had given him plenty of time to reflect on the terrible acts he had committed during three years as a Tamil Tiger fighter.

“During that time, all I learned was destruction,” he said.

It was in prison that John met a pastor who told him about Jesus Christ. He felt the anger of the past leave and an unexplainable hope filled his heart.

“I was saved from slavery,” John said. “I know how dark it had been. I saw the light, God’s love.”

When he was released, John joined a Bible college and devoted himself to learning Scripture. God began to cultivate within his heart a desire to plant a church in Notchimunai.

In the early days of his ministry, Pastor John’s past revisited him at the sight of youth idling in clusters around the community. These boys were uneducated, had no marketable skills, and were susceptible to joining the rebel forces.

If they joined, these boys would only know an existence of rage and horror.

So with the little he had, Pastor John bought his first chickens, selling eggs to raise enough money to purchase equipment to start a welding program for the boys. One of his new church members had received formal training in his home village and volunteered to teach classes.



***

As the welding teacher was demonstrating a new technique, Jegatheepan’s eyes wandered. He watched a father playing with his young sons in a nearby field.

“I started missing my father,” he said, “and I wished I had a father like that.”

That evening, Pastor John again invited Jegatheepan to attend the Sunday church service. The boy had always refused and often made fun of the other young men who attended.

“But I remembered Pastor’s caring attitude, so I decided to come,” he said.

That night, John preached about God’s role as a loving father.

“I had never heard a message like the one I heard on that day,” he said, “especially in a place where people were killing one another and stealing from each other.”

Jegatheepan couldn’t quite explain it, but something changed that night. The anger and bitterness left.

“While I was staying at the church and attending services, I felt like someone was giving light to me,” he said. “It was like someone was helping me to see God clearly. I felt like I could be that light to other people.”

In the following days, Jegatheepan made a decision to follow Christ and to bring the Gospel message to the people of Notchimunai and surrounding areas.

“People need the opportunity to know Christ also,” he said. “Then there will be peace, no more war. There will not be this hatred.”

***

The large speakers outside an ornate temple blare the shrill of a woman’s voice as K.E. “Giri” Giritharan drives by. A few women walk in prayer circles and bow before a small gold statue.

Only minutes separate the temple from John’s church down the road. It’s not long before another sound reaches Giri’s ears—the rhythm of tambourines, a lively song that ends in the prayers of 40 voices, and the occasional shout. The sound of Pastor John’s deep baritone is the unifying constant.

The glow of the small sanctuary is the only light in the dark village.

Even though the community skews to the west of this place, Giri knows he has reached its center.

Giri, a Samaritan’s Purse staff member, visits Notchimunai frequently to teach church members about basic health and hygiene practices. Each person in attendance is encouraged to share what they’ve learned with five other families in the community.

Sri Lankan society is largely based on the Hindu caste system. Most of Notchimunai’s residents are “untouchables” and lack basic education and health knowledge.

“This is an underserved community,” Giri said. “By creating interactions, we are helping to build up this church.”

Sickness is beginning to leave Notchimunai.

“The quality of life has improved, and people see that God is working,” said S. Shanthakumari, a church member who attends Giri’s lessons.

Over tea, Pastor John tells Giri about the changes he’s seen in Notchimunai. Residents are properly disposing of waste and hygiene has improved. Ten youth are currently enrolled in the welding program. Four have now decided to follow Jesus Christ. One young man wants to start a ministry in remote areas with no Christians, just as John did nearly 10 years ago.


***

Before going to bed, John gazes out the widow of his home and sees a faint light in the sanctuary. Jegatheepan is sitting on the floor, reading his Bible late into the night.

“He has really changed,” John said. “The Word has changed him so much.”

As Jegatheepan sits atop the remnants of a graveyard, his eyes pass over Psalm 56:13.

“For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.”

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Samaritan's Purse , Sri Lanka , Community Development , New Life in a Place of Death