On Sunday, July 7, Pastor Shehan dropped into the AC Reach prayer meeting to provide information and prayer points for Sri Lanka. The following is a transcript of his testimony:
Pastor Shehan Fernando, From Little Devil to National Leader
Yes, my name is Shehan Fernando. I currently serve as the national leader of the Apostolic Church in Sri Lanka.
I grew up the son of a pastor, so my father and mother were among the first couples to join full-time ministry in the Apostolic Church in Sri Lanka. The ministry started in 1963. Last year, we celebrated our 60th anniversary here in the Apostolic Church. However, the Sri Lankan mission joined the UK Apostolic Church in 1974; this year, it will be 50 years since we joined the Apostolic Church in the UK.
To speak about myself, when my parents came to full-time ministry, I was one year old. They were ministering in a rural area. They both worked earlier before joining the ministry, but they left their jobs and then went to a rural area called Kalevala when I was one year old. After that, I grew up in the church, so we always lived in a parsonage.
I’m the firstborn of the family, and I have a sister and a brother. We grew up in church at [location] for two years, then moved to a region called [region], which is on the coast of Sri Lanka. When my father went there, it was a small church, but God instrumentally used him to plant other churches.
But I was not a very good child. So my father had complaints about me. So many times, I was called a little devil because my behaviour really disturbed other children. And my father found it really hard to discipline me and keep me quiet.
Whenever he got into the pulpit to preach, I escaped from the church and used to play with children and fight with children. So every Sunday evening, it was like a routine to discipline me. But he got fed up with me, but they were praying for me.
At the age of 12, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, and then my life was changed. And I started helping ministry, sweeping the church or anything like that I could do something to the Lord. So after my advanced-level studies, I went to Bible school.
But before, well, before my conversion, I never wanted to be a pastor because of the hardship in the ministry, but since I accepted Jesus, I felt that God’s calling upon me. Somehow I as a young man, I felt that calling, so my father also encouraged me to go to Bible school here in Sri Lanka.
I studied at Lampa Bible School for two years to earn a diploma in theology. Thanks to the missionary board in the UK, I had the scholarship to come to you to study at Penigroes Bible School in 2002. So that was a great opportunity for me to visit the UK, learn the word of God at Penigroes, learn the history, and also improve my English.
Since returning to Sri Lanka, I’ve had the privilege to do my BTS and then my Master of Divinity at Atlanta Bible School with a scholarship. Eventually, I became a visiting lecturer, too. In the year 2003, the apostolic church decided to start our own Bible school. That was a vision my father had since the 1990s. Pastor Eric Karikari came to Sri Lanka, and he talked about Bible schools, but for many years, they were praying. But after about 13 years, we were ready to start the Bible school. So, since I came from the UK, I could either work in the secular sector or become a full-time minister, leading the Bible school.
Then, I decided to lead the Bible school, and I was appointed as a principal. So, in 2003, we started Bible school. The same year, I got married, but then, together with my wife, we were involved in ministry. So, for 10 years, we could train the 121 students. Most of them are today pastors and pastors, wives, and Sunday school teachers. We were blessed to have the Bible school. Since 2013.
We have had difficulty leading the Bible school up to now. But by faith, we look forward to starting it next year for the Apostolic Church in Sri Lanka, established in 1963.
Today, we have 103 churches all around the island. And until 2018, there were about 65 churches. But from 2018 to this year, despite COVID and all the challenges in the country, God has opened many doors, and we have been able to add 38 churches, so it’s really a great blessing. Within five years’ time, 38 churches have been established; it’s the work of the Lord. Also, God has opened another 150 new doors, and we are having new opportunities. We are looking forward to planting churches in these places where our pastors and ministers have home cells and houses; you’re just at the moment. So you can pray for these places because God has given us a vision to plant churches.
10,000 New Churches Vision
Pastor Alan asked me to share the vision as well, actually, when I was appointed the national leader. However, when I was appointed as a national leader, it also came with a prophetic word from Pastor Eric Parker, who visited Sri Lanka in 2017, that he had a vision. That was October 3, as he said, so he had a vision and said that God asked to ordain me as an apostle, and I should be appointed as the vice president. And after two years, I should be appointed as the national leader, so it was a prophetic message.
However, I never felt that fit enough to lead the church, although I was a pastor’s son and was involved in ministries. Then he and Pastor Simon, Pastor Mark Andrews, and all these apostles encouraged me to humbly accept and take responsibility. So I had to obey the Lord. It is like a big burden. That time I was doing my doctoral studies at Singapore bible school as well. So I was in between my studies, and I felt it was a big responsibility, but I was praying and asking the Lord what the Lord wanted me to do.
I had this strange feeling. I didn’t know whether it was from the Lord or not, and it had been in my mind for so long, and I was struggling with it. That was to plant 10,000 churches. I felt it was crazy. No one could do that. And I don’t like numbers because they’re hard to accomplish. Giving numbers! I can’t see that Jesus didn’t say to plant 1 million churches or anything.
I felt, now I’m going out of my mind, I felt that it is I cannot remove it from my mind. I felt like something was wrong with me. But then I felt it was a heavy burden in my heart. And the Holy Spirit said if I don’t speak, God can choose someone to speak this out. However, as the leader, I am responsible for sharing the vision. But I said, “Okay, Lord, as it’s so, so foolish to share this number. Yes, we plant churches. And we can do that. But giving a number is crazy. But I would become the most foolish person and just share this.”
Then, I shared with our leaders, and young people started to come and say that God had given similar visions to plant 300 or 400 churches like that. It was weird. When we calculated the number, it went beyond 10,000 churches there, so it’s crazy. However, when I shared this with Pastor Mark Andrews, he publicly announced it, and it became like a church vision.
But what’s happened when we humble ourselves to the Lord, it is his church, and he built his church. What happened when I shared his vision, although I didn’t want, I just humbly shared this. It was hard for me to say this because some people laughed, and some people felt that I was crazy. Or some people said that. I’m like overconfident. But believers actually took it seriously. Many believers share the gospel now, and God uses our average believers to share the gospel and instrumentally use their lives. God is using them, and they go to the villages. And when they pray, miracles take place, and there are more openings. And they said, “Pastor, God has given you the vision, and God is using us.”
Now, God is using more believers than ministers who share the Gospel, which is why we have about 150 new openings. Even recently, there were more openings when God was bringing more people to Christ. So now we need more workers to serve, which is why we thought we needed to start the Bible school.
Establishing the Bible School
During COVID, we started an online Bible school, and we had 256 Students studying from all around Sri Lanka, even from overseas. Sri Lankans joined, and even interdenominationally, 15 other churches sent their students to study online. After COVID, we struggled to maintain that because people became busy, but that is still going on. But we felt it was needed to start our residential Bible school.
And I must say and earlier, when we when I visited UK in 2006, that time I was the principal in the Bible school I made a request. Is it possible to send some books to Sri Lanka because we need some good English books? And so pastor Andrew Jenkins and Pastor Jason Pennington. They worked out to collect some books then. And they sent some books to Sri Lanka in 2007. And we got something around over 2,000 books that time. Later, we decided to register the school with the Asian Theological Association. One of the requirements was to have 8,000 books in our library.
When I shared that vision, Pastor Mark Andrews initiated the collection of these books with Pastor Jason, and he worked hard to collect nearly 5,000 books. This year, we received those books from the UK. We cannot say how much they are valued because they are really precious to us. So maybe some of you might have donated some books or supported or prayed. I thank you for that.
So we look forward to upgrading our library facilities and starting the Bible school next year. You can pray for that because God is doing something special in our midst.
Present-Day Sri Lanka
You might have heard about Sri Lanka. We went through a really difficult time, and if I speak about the history, we had 30 years of war in Sri Lanka. But in 2009, the war ended, and we thank God for that. But it did not bring full peace to the country. After many years, the 2019 Easter bomb attack again created some problems. Then, in 2022, the country was declared bankrupt. So, still, we are trying to come out of those problems.
If we talk about the present situation, there are many people going through poverty, and a lot of people leave the country and have no hope. There’s a lot of suicide, and a lot of young people have no hope, so they get addicted to drugs. Despite all these problems, we see God has opened doors to touch people because the gospel has hope.
When people share the Gospel, you know, hopeless people come to Christ. Even today, some people come to the Lord and accept Jesus because God is doing something great in our midst daily. So we thank God for that. And thank you very much for your prayers.
(Editors Note: The dialogue has been adjusted for easier reading.)
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