December 2025 Mission Report: Serving in Sri Lanka

Traversing the globe

On Dec. 18, 2025, a group of 18 Americans boarded a plane and began their travels to the other side of the world. Their goal: to serve the FCC Reformed Protestant Mission in Sri Lanka by participating in and helping facilitate church events and activities for the young people there.

You may remember reading about Caleb Fithian and Caleb Reeder who first visited Sri Lanka in 2024 in anticipation of organizing a missions trip there. Arise & Thresh, the nonprofit ministry they started under the oversight of Greenville Presbyterian Church, held its inaugural missions trip to Sri Lanka from Dec. 18-30, 2025.

A total of 22 people from three of the U.S. FCC congregations and one preaching station participated in this nearly two-week long trip. The majority of the group was comprised of young adults in their teens and twenties from Greenville Presbyterian Church in South Carolina. Pastor Romesh (Rom) Prakashpalan and three of his children from Zion Presbyterian Church in Fredericksburg, Virginia, joined the larger group a few days into the trip.

Worshipping with our Sri Lankan brethren

Most of the U.S. team traveled for over 34 hours after leaving their homes before arriving in Vavuniya, Sri Lanka, on Saturday, Dec. 20. Weariness and exhaustion from jet-lag, hours of traveling on the bus, and new sleeping quarters disoriented us a little during our first few days. But in His infinite goodness and wisdom, the Lord supplied grace sufficient to get us through each day.

On the morning of our first Lord’s Day in Sri Lanka, we drove about 1.5 hours from Vavuniya to Kilinochchi to worship there. Pastor Parthee led most of the service in Tamil before calling on Jordan Costantino, an American student of the ministry, to preach, with Parthee’s cousin, Ranjan, interpreting.

After the service, the teenage girls in the congregation introduced themselves and we were able to make small talk with them in English while others prepared a traditional Sri Lankan meal.

For lunch, we sat cross legged on the ground and used banana leaves as our plates. We ate

without utensils, using just our right hand to scoop up food in the traditional Sri Lankan manner.

We found it to be a fun cultural experience, and the people of the Kilinochchi congregation were

hospitable, warm, and very generous.

In the afternoon, we left Kilinochchi and drove about 1.5 hrs to Mullaitivu for their evening service. Once again, Parthee led most of the service and Mr. Costantino preached, with interpretation from Ranjan for the Tamil speakers. Afterwards we ate dinner prepared for us by the Mullaitivu congregation and spent time getting to know the people there.

Ra-Annan farm

On Monday morning, we drove back to Mullaitivu and headed to the Ra-Annan farm to work. The young men helped prune banana trees and dug a big ditch to put the cut off parts of the trees into. The Sri Lankans told us this would help fertilize the coconut trees and cause them to grow even bigger. Meanwhile, the girls cut and cleared vines from several long rows of sticks used like trellises and then piled up the sticks to be reused for other needs on the farm.

There is a well on the farm that allows the crops to get the water they need during the dry season. In the gospel of John, Jesus Christ speaks about ‘a well of water springing up into everlasting life’. Throughout the Bible, the LORD uses illustrations of wells, fountains, or rivers of water to teach us. There are many instances: ‘with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation’; our God is ‘the Fountain of living waters’; ‘whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely’; ‘for with Thee is the Fountain of Life’; ‘a pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb’. Glory shines in this. The infinite, eternal, and unchangeable Fountain of blessedness, holiness, happiness, and all goodness is Jehovah. The Father of lights, the Word made flesh, and the eternal Spirit in glorious communion and union, the eternal Godhead—the perfect Trinity. He offers to be our God and to satisfy our thirsty souls with Himself in and through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Since Mullaitivu is close to the ocean, the family who lives on the farm cooked us a delicious seafood meal for lunch. They made us a spicy seafood soup and tuna salad with fresh ingredients. It was satisfying to end our afternoon of hard work with a good meal.

One thing we noticed when sitting outside to eat our meals in Sri Lanka was the stray dogs. Countless street dogs roam throughout the country. Seeing them brought to mind the biblical view of dogs in Scripture and how Jesus used them in His teachings, i.e. “don’t give that which is holy to the dogs”. “Yet the dogs,” said the Syrophoenician woman to Christ, “eat the crumbs that fall from their Master’s table.” She made this confession to Jesus when He spoke of His ministry as being only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. What child-like faith she had! We are like beasts before the Lord, yet we who are sinners of the Gentiles and strangers from the covenants of promise are offered reconciliation and peace through Him who is the Hope of Israel. What a mystery hid from ages and generations, but now made manifest: Immanuel, God with us, Christ knocking at the door of souls to sup with them!

Church camp

On Tuesday, the church in Vavuniya hosted a Children’s Church Camp with approximately 80 children in attendance. Most of the children were from the three FCC congregations in Sri Lanka, but there were some from Hindu families who heard the gospel that day.

Several of the people from our group helped teach the Sri Lankan youth who attended the camp. The theme was the armor of God. Three people from the Greenville, South Carolina church taught Bible lessons in the morning with help from the rest of our group.

Grace Reeder taught the kids in Kindergarten up to grade 3 with Mercy, Pastor Parthee’s sister-in-law, interpreting. Her group helped the children make and decorate paper crowns and talked about the culmination of spiritual warfare being Heaven for the believer.

Mr. Bruce Fithian led the 4-8 grade group. They colored pictures and reviewed Bible verses in addition to learning about the armor of God.

Caleb Fithian’s group consisted of young people in grades 9 and up. After their lesson, they learned how to sing Psalm 23 in English from the Scottish Metrical Psalter.

After the teaching time was over, we ate lunch and played several games with the Sri Lankan kids for most of the afternoon. The games got very competitive, with the children and people in our group split into two teams; Team Joshua and Team David. The camp ended with the students receiving rewards for participating and then we all sang a psalm together to close out our time.

In 1 Cor. 9, Paul speaks of “becoming all things to all men”. Though Paul is primarily speaking concerning unbelievers in this verse, can it not also apply to being around believers in other countries or cultures? Many opportunities presented themselves for us to adapt to the societal and cultural environment of Sri Lanka like eating with our hands, using the side-to-side head nod, or offering simple “nandri’s” (‘thank you’ in Tamil). Trying to live and act somewhat like Sri Lankans while in their country helped our interactions go more smoothly and were received with happy surprise by the people there.

Youth Conference

Pastor Rom and his children arrived in Sri Lanka on Wednesday and joined us in our travels east to the youth conference in Trincomalee on Thursday.

The theme of the conference was Forgiveness, and the first address was given by Mr. Costantino on Thursday evening on every person’s need of forgiveness from the Lord.

There were two lectures on Friday morning, a second from Mr. Costantino on the need for individuals to have forgiveness from God in Christ, and one by Pastor Rom on how forgiveness is a uniquely Christian grace.

The 75 young people attending were divvied up into 3 teams during the conference. Each team had a captain and competed with the other teams for points by answering questions after the lectures and playing games. After lunch on Friday, the afternoon was largely spent playing organized games in which the three teams competed with each other.

All things work according to the perfect will of our Heavenly Father, and in the Lord’s providence, physical infirmity and sickness abounded among our group for most of our trip in the form of fevers, coughs, congestion, and fatigue. This was a bit discouraging, but after consideration, many of us realized our need to be brought lower in the dust before the Lord and to be lowly before men. We are thankful for our Lord’s humbling hand, since He gives grace to those who are broken and contrite before Him and fits us for His service by reminding us that we are His servants, not our own!

On the last night of the conference, Pastor Rom gave an address on the difference of forgiveness between believers vs. forgiveness between believers and non-believers. He also explained the difference between “love of benevolence” and “love of delight” in connection to this concept.

After dinner on Friday, one of the Arise & Thresh directors led a devotional outside around a bonfire. Later on, fireworks were set off, glowsticks were handed out, and a badminton net was set up for the young people to play with. Many of them stayed awake until after 1am playing games or having good conversations with each other.

The final lecture of the conference was given by Pastor Rom on Saturday morning. Afterwards, a Q&A time with Mr. Costantino and Pastor Rom was held with questions from the young people before the conference drew to a close.

Some tears were shed when the time came to say goodbye to our new Sri Lankan friends. Although there was a significant language barrier with most of them, their love and warmth needed no English words to be known and felt by us.

Putting faces and names to the people we pray for on the other side of the world in Sri Lanka was a huge blessing. It spurs us on in our prayers for the advancement of Christ’s kingdom around the globe. For those of us on the missions trip, we felt that in trying to give, we had actually been more blessed in receiving our Sri Lankan brethren’s love and fellowship. Many of us expressed a desire that the warmth and hospitality shown to us would be brought back home with us and expressed to everyone who visits our churches in America.

Much of the fruit from our time among the people of Sri Lanka may be hidden to our physical eyes, though we can rest assured that the Lord is gathering glory to Himself through our feeble and tainted efforts for His name’s sake. We look with expectation and hope to the age when Sri Lanka, India, and all other nations will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. One day, all the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ and God shall be all in all, reigning forevermore! Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.