Mission Report · December 2025
Christ’s Arrows Youth Camp — Reformed Protestant Mission
On Dec. 18, 2025, a group of 24 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 the investigative trip taken to Sri Lanka in 2024 in anticipation of organizing a missions trip there. Arise & Thresh, the nonprofit ministry organized 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 Prakashpalan and three of his children from Zion Presbyterian Church in Fredericksburg, Virginia, joined the larger group a few days into the trip.
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 by 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 a student of the ministry to preach, with Parthee’s cousin 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, eating without utensils in the traditional Sri Lankan manner. The people of the Kilinochchi congregation were hospitable, warm, and very generous.
In the afternoon, we drove to Mullaitivu for their evening service. Afterwards we ate dinner prepared by the Mullaitivu congregation and spent time getting to know the people there.
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 ditch to put the cut-off parts of the trees into — the Sri Lankans told us this would help fertilize the coconut trees. Meanwhile, the girls cut and cleared vines from several long rows of sticks used like trellises.
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: “with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation”; our God is “the Fountain of living waters”; “a pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” The infinite, eternal, and unchangeable Fountain of all goodness is Jehovah — offering 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 a delicious seafood meal for lunch. It was satisfying to end our afternoon of hard work with a good meal.
On Tuesday, the church in Vavuniya hosted a Children’s Church Camp with approximately 80 children in attendance. Most were from the three FCC congregations in Sri Lanka, but there were some from Hindu families who heard the gospel that day.
Several from our group helped teach the Sri Lankan youth. The theme was the armor of God. Three teachers from Greenville, South Carolina led Bible lessons in the morning with help from the rest of the group: one group covered Kindergarten through grade 3, helping the children make and decorate paper crowns while discussing spiritual warfare and Heaven; another led grades 4–8 in coloring and reviewing Bible verses; and the third, for grades 9 and up, concluded their lesson by teaching the young people to sing Psalm 23 in English from the Scottish Metrical Psalter.
After the teaching time, we ate lunch and played several games with the Sri Lankan kids. The games grew very competitive, with everyone split into two teams — Team Joshua and Team David. The camp ended with students receiving rewards for participating and all singing a psalm together.
In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul speaks of “becoming all things to all men.” Many opportunities presented themselves for us to adapt to the cultural environment of Sri Lanka — eating with our hands, using the side-to-side head nod, or offering simple “nandri’s” (“thank you” in Tamil). Trying to 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.
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. The first address covered every person’s need of forgiveness from the Lord. On Friday morning, two more lectures addressed the need for individuals to have forgiveness from God in Christ, and how forgiveness is a uniquely Christian grace.
The 75 young people attending were divided into three 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.
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 the trip in the form of fevers, coughs, congestion, and fatigue. This was a bit discouraging, but many of us realized our need to be brought lower before the Lord. We are thankful for His humbling hand, since He gives grace to those who are broken and contrite before Him.
On the last night of the conference, one of the directors led a devotional outside around a bonfire. Afterwards, fireworks were set off, glowsticks were handed out, and a badminton net was set up. Many stayed awake past 1am playing games or having good conversations with each other.
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 was a huge blessing. For those of us on the 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 may be hidden to our physical eyes, though we can rest assured that the Lord is gathering glory to Himself through our feeble 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.
