Christians Suffering from Climate Change in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal (see map). It has a population of approximately 22 million people. It is home to many cultures and religions including Christianity.

In Sri Lanka, the climate crisis is an undeniable reality: after years of destructive flooding, many people have become trapped in debt. Climate change is not a one-off event but an ongoing crisis that is making life even harder for local communities.

Prabu Deepan, from Tearfund Asia, tells of what life is like. He says that they started seeing massive flooding of crop fields. Farmers then get into debt borrowing money to buy seeds to start again and when they do get a harvest the money earned is used to pay back loans and this cycle keeps on happening. Farmers are also food insecure themselves and this effects their own well-being. Entire districts are continuously impacted by the rain not only destroying crops but costing billions of rupees to the economy and devastating individual lives. Prabu wants to see people reaching out to his communities and working towards restoring the earth. He wants to see the church take this seriously and says that God is saying to us ‘Wake Up’.

Please pray for Sri Lanka that God would fire up the global church to get fully behind work to restore the earth and halt climate change.