A few months ago I was in Sri Lanka with TEAR Fund gathering images and stories for our upcoming Summer Campaign. I took our incredible film company, Exposure with me and they made this beautiful 4 minute film. Here is a quick blog on my reflections during our time there.
With its sunny skies, swaying coconut trees and luscious
palms it’s easy to see Sri Lanka for what it looks like - beautiful beaches,
fertile surrounds and soaring temperatures. But beneath the surface one finds a
land recovering from a 25-year civil war that has left an indelible mark upon its
people. My first briefing was with our programmes officer who plonked a map on
the table, followed by a land mine. That was a conversation starter.
.jpg)
The civil war, fought between the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and the
government troops, took the lives of over 70,000 people and displaced more than
280,000*. The LTTE were fighting to establish a separate state in the north.
On August 22, we headed into the north of Sri Lanka with TEAR
Fund’s partner, World Concern. We handed over our passports at the check point
and after the security procedures were complete, made the 1.5 hour trip into
what was the centre of the war zone a mere four years earlier. As I looked out the
car window with land mine fields, burnt-out buildings, and bullet holes filling
every blink; my heart sank. How had I missed this?
.jpg)
Later that day we drove through the place where the
majority of the war was concentrated. As you look out the window all you can
see is houses, libraries, orphanages, businesses and buildings that are nothing
but a taunting reminder of the aftermath of a war that ended in 2009. Bullet
holes still riddle everything from concrete to palm trees. Abandoned ruins line
the streets. The silence and stillness as people carry out their lives amidst
this backdrop, palatable and haunting. It was as if they were frightened to see
who or what was passing by.
We finished our day in silence. Standing on the beach
where the war was reported to have come to its bloody end. Digging my toes into
the warm sand and watching the sunset felt surreal. Here it was widely reported
by international press that over 20,000 people lost their lives in a ‘safe
zone’.* I can’t even begin to describe how I felt driving away in my air-conditioned
car to the safety of my motel an hour and a half away from the war zone these
resilient people call home.
For these people, I have no deeply satisfying answers. I
can’t see justice on the horizon for them. But I can see the first ray of hope.
Justice is God’s and he promises this life is not the end. When I came home I
was so deeply moved by the time I spent in Sri Lanka that I spent hours
‘debriefing’ with my husband. You know it’s an important conversation when your
6’1 hunter gatherer of a man has tears running down his cheeks. Of course, that
set me off.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about the scene in the Book of
Esther where Mordecai is outside the gates of the palace pleading for Queen
Esther to save her people. We too could have been the ones outside the gate. This
‘accident of latitude’ means we could have been the ones born into war, raped
for profit or starving.
This Christmas, TEAR Fund is doing all we can for these
people. Our campaign, Wipe Away their
Tears is our opportunity to declare God’s promise in Revelations 21: “He’ll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone.” May your kingdom come.
*"LTTE defeated; Sri Lanka liberated from
terror".Ministry
of Defence. 18 May 2009. Retrieved 18 May
2009.
* "Slaughter in Sri Lanka". London: The Times. 29 May 2009. Retrieved 29 May 2009.
* "Slaughter in Sri Lanka". London: The Times. 29 May 2009. Retrieved 29 May 2009.
