Saj & Michelle — Our Church Planting Story
Like everyone else, we came to Dubai hoping to make some money, perhaps build a home in Sri Lanka and keep on with our lives like we had been doing up to that point. As time passed, and the couple of years we’d intended turned into more, we never expected to go back… we just didn’t see ourselves fitting back into the Sri Lankan culture. Even now, we sometimes feel like we’re planting into a culture that is unfamiliar to us in so many ways.
There are many touch points in this journey that could be seen as the start –how different elements came together to write a chapter in our story. The best place to begin is probably at the Genesis Conference that happened in Dubai just before Covid disrupted our lives. Until that Genesis Conference we saw ourselves as the couple who, at best, would go along with and support someone else to plant a church.
The Conference started with Chris Wienand asking a simple question – ‘raise your hands those of you who see yourselves planting a church sometime in the future’. I bravely stayed seated on both my hands. He promised to ask the question again at the end of the conference.
On our way home my wife Michelle suggested we change our language – rather than saying we could be a support couple for someone planting out, let’s be open to the idea that if God calls, we will say yes.
True to his promise, at the end of the conference Chris posed the same question. This time, Michelle and I found ourselves putting our hands up and saying yes to planting if God were to call us.
It would be a lie to say that we felt a strong urge to go plant a church – for the longest time that idea was terrifying to me. What we were really doing is saying to God – if you’d have us, if you feel that we can contribute, here we are. I never really ‘felt’ ready or prepared at any time along the way. All I could say with confidence was that I Knew if God called us to it, he would take us through it.
See, we’ve occupied that seat in church and heard all the stories that belonged to other people. They were stories of great adventure, of hardship and tears, of joyful victories and God-powered breakthroughs. We never expected that there was a chapter in our lives that had yet to be written – one that entailed leaving the relative safety of Dubai, the joy of family and the order of a well-established community.
So, what made it possible for this chapter in our story to be written? You could say that it started by us saying yes. But there were many things that helped prepare our hearts for this. Certainly, those stories we heard encouraged us and raised our eyes beyond our own lives. But two other key elements were necessary – the first was being planted in an apostolic/prophetic community that existed beyond the parameters of the local and the trans-local. At Well of Life, we encountered the ascension gifts of Jesus listed in Ephesians 4 in a manner that truly served to ‘equip the saints for the work of ministry’. We were afforded the opportunity not just to learn underlying theology but to engage in and experience God working in the nations to which we were called.
The last element God tossed into the mix were people who invested in our lives. From my fellow leaders in Dubai to others we met – a tiny man with nuclear energy from Nepal, a prolific church planter from Zimbabwe, a soft-spoken evangelist ministering to little known tribes in India. These, others like them and the whole gamut of Ephesians 4 gifts that we have had the privilege of engaging with and learning from shaped our thinking and our hearts giving us courage and confidence for this chapter in our lives.
Compelling stories, a dynamic and vibrant Jesus-community and leaders who inspired us were the elements that God fused together and used to bring us to a place where we were able to surrender our lives to this incredibly challenging and rewarding adventure.
See, we’ve occupied that seat and heard all the stories that belonged to other people. But today, Michelle and I have our own story. Not one that I would have thought possible but here we are. The year past has seen its fair share of challenges, but these are overtaken by the joys of seeing God birth a small community, of lives being transformed and opportunities emerging that can advance the Kingdom of God in Sri Lanka.
We’re grateful for the deep friendships and partnerships that emerged from those early experiences. For friends that still encourage us with regular calls and visits; those many who pray for us and Restore Faith Community in Negombo, Sri Lanka. We’re grateful to our children who have lovingly, albeit reluctantly, encouraged us to follow this road, We’re grateful for the new friendships and opportunities God brings our way…most of all, we’re deeply grateful for the overarching protection and provision of God as we submit to his leading in this crazy, amazing, scary, wonderful adventure called church planting.
Matthew 13:36-37 — Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom.
