Sri Lanka consists of 70% Buddhist, 12% Hindu, 10% Muslim, but only 7% Christian. Our city, Kandy, is also home to a famous temple that Buddhists from all over the world flock to. In response to this gospel need, we established the Building Up Dreams (BUD) Centre, a community centre that provides local children the means to further their education.
With our team of national workers, we offer classes in art, English, math, Sinhala (the local language), computer, and sports (volleyball), besides organizing children’s and youth camps. Only a very small percentage of children who attend are Christian; thus, we constantly seek to share Jesus with the over 140 children we have registered. We regularly see 80+ of them attending our centre daily, ranging in ages from preschool to grade 12.
I (Nishanthe) was born and raised in Sri Lanka. I lived a life very similar to that of the young people we are reaching. Once I came to know Jesus I gave his whole life to serving and filled a variety of roles as a children’s ministry leader. I (Kristin) went from Canada on several short-term mission trips to Sri Lanka before solidifying my call to full-time ministry there. Since 2013 we have served full time with Mission Global and in 2014 we answered God’s call to establish and build a ministry centre in Sri Lanka. We reside here with our four children.
