During the programme, I talked to many people. I had a nice chat with the father of one of our volunteers. He had been a gang member and had first come to us for protection after an incident about 30 years ago when there were people wanting to kill him. He hid in our farm, and I will never forget my terror as I drove him to the courts fearing that someone would shoot at us. He told me how he had recently visited his old gang friends to tell them about Jesus and urge them to turn to him. He was one of the honoured guests who distributed gifts to the children. His three older children had grown up in YFC and now the youngest was a volunteer in the work. Then I talked to a young person who came from a family ruined by alcohol. She had met Christ in our ministry, and she is now active in her church, and so is her mother who was also at the programme (Recently it has been a joy to see several parents of our youth following their children in making commitments to Christ). They had come to see the younger sister perform in our dance troupe. Then I talked to a young man who had met Christ and had been very active in our work but had fallen into a trap of Satan and moved away. I have been praying for him for several weeks and now I was delighted to see that he was making a comeback.
I have just returned from a year-end programme at one of our centres. Though a majority of those at the programme were youth, there were also parents, children, neighbours and friends of the ministry. This is the time when gifts of school supplies for the New Year are given to the students in our education programmes. It was in the open air and, for the first time in several days, there was no rain. Over 250 people were there. My job was to give a Christmas message towards the end of the four-hour programme. I was extremely nervous!
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by Ajith Fernando" »
