Ministries of MARGAYA FELLOWSHIP
Prayer and Worship Ministry
Prayer ministry - Fasting and prayer has been a major emphasis throughout Margaya history. In order to encourage and to focus on prayer a monthly prayer letter is circulated to the prayer partners in Sinhala and a quarterly prayer letter in English. All night prayer vigils, weekly fasting and prayer times, prayer chains are organized in local churches.
Many Christian songs written by our workers and sung by members of Margaya, were produced by way of an audio cassette. The three hymn books published by the Fellowship also included hymns written by our workers. The second hymn book "Kithu Bathi Gee" is one of the first of its kind to be produced in Sinhala. The third hymnal was released to commemorate the 30th Anniversary celebration of the Fellowship in January 2006. It contains 500 choruses and 544 Hymns. Hymns are categorised according to Christian calendar, doctrinally important events and occasions. Traditionally well loved Hymns of the Church are also included.
Birth and growth of a ministry.doc
Kithu Bathi Gee - The First of its kind
"Without prayer we cannot do anything and without prayer God will not do anything"
The denomination itself was pioneered through a Sunday school ministry. A special emphasis is made for ministry among children. Over 1000 children are being ministered to on a weekly basis all over Sri Lanka. Regular training for village teachers, Bible quizzes for children, sports-meets and educational trips are some of the major activities.
For the last several years Dangsandong Church, Korea has been conducting children's programmes.
This year too their visit was a great success.
A large proportion of Sri Lankan society consists of young people. The problems they face are many. The two insurgencies and the 23 year old civil war has seen approximately 200,000 lives being lost and an equal number being physically disabled. Of these numbers, the mostly affected were the youth.
The highlight of our youth ministry has been the annual youth conventions where youth from village churches gather to study the word and for discipleship training.
From the inception much emphasis has been made on Christian education and training village workers.
The Bible school at Mirihana offers the following:
Certificate In Christian Education-Stage I - Two year Course offering upto 45 credit hours- Diploma In Christian Education - Four year Course offering 45 credit hours.
This offers beginners a systematic study on Christianity.
Correspondence course is in 5 stages, which leads to a diploma certificate.
- State I - Introduction to Christianity (1).
- Stage II - Introduction to Christianity (2).
- Stage III - Introduction to Basic Doctrines (1)
- Stage IV - Introduction to Basic Doctrines (2)
- Stage V - Discipleship
Stage I -
To plant a mother church in every electorate in Sri Lanka is the vision of the 5 year plan. Village believers are given a two year training under the 5 year plan training program.
A good library is vital for the serious bible student. The library has over 6000 books, which includes a wide range of Christian academical books. Audio and video cassettes are also available.
With the high literacy rate in the country, literature evangelism has taken high priority
A major contribution to the National church has been by way of the publication of books. So far the Fellowship has published 29 books while a few are in the process of being published. A further contribution made to the National church by way of publications is the "National Church Survey 1998" and "Human Rights and the Christian community" edited by our founder Chairman Rev. Rohan de S. Ekanayake.
Some of the books published by the Fellowship:
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"The Priesthood of all believers" which received greater emphasis after the reformation is much emphasized at Margaya .The most effective evangelistic method has been believers witnessing and bringing others to the Lord. Having begun as a missionary organization at a time where the church had neglected the great commission, evangelism continues to take priority in the denomination. Other than the traditional evangelistic methods, i.e. tract distribution, hospital visitation; various other methods have been used. The gospel through ‘‘viridu’‘ has had encouraging responses. The film on "The life of Jesus" has been effective, although in the current context our share of opposition has been experienced. At Kalutara screening of this film was attacked by mobs led by religious leaders, causing damage to equipment, to the value of Rs.750,000/- approx. belonging to Campus Crusade.
A teledrama under the name "Peraliyak" was produced on behalf of the Bible Society. The seed for the correspondence course was sown in 1995 through the "Shalom project". Hundreds of thousands of tracts were distributed within 5 days in 18 districts in Sri Lanka. The responses were encouraging. As a follow up measure beginners courses were prepared. However in the year 2001 this correspondence course was reorganized and now offers courses at four levels. The fourth stage, offers a diploma certificate. Currently there are 600 students from 18 districts following the course.
History and background
Serving the people through education has been the strength of the Christian community. We at Margaya have been able to assist the community in Montessori Education.
Hope for Oppressed People Everywhere is a self-employment scheme for the benefit of the poorest of the poor believers. This is carried out in partnership with ROPE. Over 250 such projects have been supported under this scheme, with the majority of such projects effectively helping the recipients to earn an income
Health care is an important facet of our Lord's mandate on social welfare. "Suvajeevana Medical Centre"
is a vision come true. It is situated next to the Headquarters premises. Quarterly medical camps are conducted in our rural bases.
The number of children who are orphans, single parent children, children from broken homes and children who are sexually abused are on the increase. We come across many such children in our village church ministry.
The process to commence a home to take care of children affected by the Tsunami and orphans is under way. A land has been purchased at Waga, approximately 40 Km. from our Headquarters. A farm, to meet the cost of supporting the Children's home has already commenced. Already cultivation has begun, to make the home self-supporting of its needs. An animal husbandry is also being developed.
Being a pioneering indigenous ministry in a poor third world country, resources have always been limited. The poor village believer's tithes are insufficient to support the work. "God's work done in God's way does not lack" said the great missionary Hudson Taylor. We thank God for His marvelous provisions all these years. With the ministry expansion, the Resource Ministry is committed to raise funds for ministry through skills and gifting of people. Following the example of Paul who engaged in the tent maker ministries, the resource committee has ventured out into 2 projects:
- Restaurant - In an attempt to become self supporting-a Restaurant has been started at Mirihana by the Mirihana Fellowship.
- Welfare Sales centre - This is to provide opportunity for believers to obtain daily provisions at a reasonable prices.
