As a young girl I loved to sing and play the piano. My spiritual upbringing was in the Methodist and Dutch Reformed Church. Therefore I learnt many hymns and choruses. It was also in the Methodist Church, Kollupitiya that I committed my life to God’s service through the ministry of Rev. Dr. Sam Kamalason.
After a serious health breakdown and near death experience in 1981, I was completely healed by trusting and believing God’s Word, through the Blood of the Lamb, [1 Peter 2:24] in a charismatic church in Kandy! Through this I began to learn other songs and choruses and the Lord showed me the need to put the older and newer songs together in a book!
After the riots broke out in 1983, there was much division in the churches. In 1985 I received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and the Lord showed me that a low-cost trilingual song book was urgently needed and that would bring unity in Christian worship! This was especially needed for rural churches that were using songs hand-written on tattered bits of paper!
So, I waited on the Lord and the New Song hymn book was completed in 1988, to bring unity among churches. This “blue hymnbook” is now in its 12th edition. In 1992, New Song II was published to further strengthen unity of churches, by transliterating 6 Sinhala choruses and 18 Sinhala hymns into Tamil; also 8 Tamil choruses and 14 Tamil Hymns were transliterated into Sinhala! This “pink hymnbook” is in its 4th edition! It is my conviction that the community of believers must show the nation that “all humans are made of one blood” and show our love and unity above our linguistic and cultural diversity – we are Christian first!
In 1992 the Lord God of Israel brought in a new understanding, through a miraculous contact with PFI, of the need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and their salvation, and to share these truths through free trilingual leaflets and prayer letters and to bless some Israeli fellowships with monetary gifts. Our land is blessed as we bless Israel.
In 2019, our 71st Year of National Healing and Reconciliation, let us reach out to Sri Lanka with a “New Song of Healing” to the Church and society ministering to one another each in their own tongue! [Acts 2:11]
To help to learn the tunes of songs and choruses, four low-cost cassettes/CDs were produced in Sinhala and Tamil. Recently, the Lanka Phillip Mission published a Music Book for the original New Song Hymnbook.
The Lord through our experiences in Kahatagasdigiliya DRC Mission field showed the need to produce a simple Family Health Handbook in all three languages to encourage community healthcare in churches!
As the Tamil and Sinhala churches did not have simple Bible Study materials Abba Father, Appa Pidaavey, Abba Piyananee, 36 simple studies, developed by a Buddhist and Catholic background Pastor couple was translated and made available!
These are a small contribution to share Kingdom information so that one day the “…Knowledge of Lord will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea”! [Habakkuk 2:14]
Audrey Ebenezer