Peoples Church 70th Anniversary of Pastor Colton's ministry

I want to take this opportunity to express our love and appreciation for Dr. Colton Wickramaratne and his family, as well as to the Peoples Church congregation and friends in Sri Lanka.

Quite honestly, I fell in love with Sri Lanka shortly after falling in love with my wife—who is the daughter of Alfred and Elizabeth Cawston, missionaries during the 1940’s and early 50’s. After marriage it didn’t take long for me to also adopt Sri Lanka as my second home.

Eventually, Bonnie my wife and I served as the first resident missionaries to Nepal, after which, we switched over to Sri Lanka and Southern Asia. It was at this time in our ministry that we taught at the Bible college and helped Pastor Colton as much as we could to evangelize the island.

While doing this, Pastor Colton decided to take a sabbatical to travel abroad to introduce his vision for Sri Lanka and ask me to pastor Peoples Church during his absence. Fortunately, he and Susan had laid a firm foundation and although these were big shoes to fill, Bonnie and I managed with God’s grace to minister to this lovely congregation.

At this juncture, it is hard for me not to say that these were the good old days, but I know that would not be true, since you are still experiencing what for you is the good old days, also. None-the-less, it will be hard for any generation to match the devotion and ministry of some of my colleagues who were active in those days. How well do I remember Daddy Beling and his entire family—yes, David and Paul were a vital part of the ministry then, too, as well as Gerald Senn, Samuel and Rani Kumar, Birdie and Lincoln, and many, many others. I can still hear Lincoln call out: “Here Ringo, come here Ringo,” and old Ringo, the family dog, would come trotting around the corner and pause just long enough to give Judy, the family monkey a break from being annoyed. In passing, I should say, Judy had a mirror in her cage, and was constantly looking at herself—Pastor Colton would pass by and “Say, oh yes, Judy, you are such a pretty girl!” I don’t know if she understood but she sure seemed to accept this as a compliment.

Speaking of monkeys, I want to tell you about two other monkeys. One belonged to Sister Oloff, a Russian émigré, who once asked Colton to pray for him, since he was sick. Pastor Colton politely informed her that “We did not pray for monkeys at People’s Church,” which disappointed her very much.

Later she asked him it he would pray for her friend “Charlie” and he did so very eloquently one Sunday morning. That evening a vesper’s services, during testimony time, Sister Oloff stood and gave a praise report on how she had asked Pastor Colton to pray for her friend Charlie, and that Charlie was now cheerfully jumping around in his case. (Charlie was the name of her monkey!) Colton just laughed and said to me, “Well, she got me on that one!”

Now, the other monkey that I want to talk about is one named Michelle, which you now know as your dignified pastor, Dishan. Oh, my, where do I start on this one? What about the time that he and our son Jimmy went to the Green Cabin restaurant and ordered shrimp fried rice, and just before they finished their plates off, Dishan plucked a hair out of his head, place it in the remaining spoonful and then call the waiter over and demanded: “Do you expect us to pay for this? It has a hair in it. I am sure that the health inspector would like to know about this!”—or words to that effect. Naturally, neither of them had any money so they had concocted the scheme up all on their own just to avoid that. Then there’s the time that Michelle put a girl’s wig on, painted his lips and arrived by car at our front door in Havelock Town, in Colombo, and put on a whining (poorly, I must say) impression of a damsel in distress; although, about have way through his act he blew the whole things and begin giggling uncontrollably. Yep, that’s your pastor, and like Charlie, I suggest that you also put him on your prayer list.

Now, enough of that. Back to Pastor Colton. In my mind, never did a greater man of God or prophet live. I have found him at all times to be a man of utmost integrity, sincerity, and trustworthiness. I honor him for that but am quick to add that he could have never accomplished half of what he did had it not been for Susan, his dear wife, and our beloved friend. She was priceless in that regard. I mustn’t neglect to say that each of the family members, all of the children, are a testimony and a compliment to their parents and to this great ministry—which, of course, I am sure you are well aware of. It was and has been a great privilege of ours to be a part of it, and to have such great partners and friends as the Wickramaratnes. May God bless you all on this the 70^th Year Celebration of the ministry.

May His peace be upon you!

 JimR_/