The influence of American Missionaries on the culture, education, and medicine of Tamil people in Jaffna, Sri Lanka (Ceylon)

The influence of American Missionaries on the culture, education, and medicine of Tamil people in Jaffna, Sri Lanka (Ceylon)

Missionaries, American -- Sri Lanka -- Jaffna -- History.
Missions -- Sri Lanka -- Jaffna -- History.
Sri Lanka -- Church history.
Education -- Sri Lanka -- Jaffna -- History.
Medical care -- Sri Lanka -- Jaffna -- History.
Culture -- Sri Lanka -- Jaffna -- History.

By Vijayathasan, Daniel Jeyaruban (2021) -- In the 19thCentury, as a result of the American Presbyterian and Congregationalist Missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission, the river of God’s love flowed into Jaffna, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) from Massachusetts in America. American Presbyterian and Congregationalist Missionaries propagated the Christian faith in my region, Jaffna, and were deeply involved in the community by providing educational, medical, and other social service needs. They also provided a printing press, dictionaries, published The Morning Starnewspaper,and translatedwestern books into Tamil and other social services.<br />The American missionaries left their comfort zone, their family members, relatives and friends, and property, and came to our land to share their gifts and talents with our Tamil community. They lived within our community, they wore our dress and learned our Tamil language, encouraged our culture, and translated many English books to Tamil and Tamil books to English. American missionaries were like salt and lightto our community. They lived with us, labored for our community, educated our men and women, died, and were buried in our land. They responded with their lives to Jesus’s command to sell everything, to give up everything (Luke 18:22).<br />The American missionaries were quite different from the British Methodist and Anglican Missionaries who served in Jaffna. The interesting fact is that the American Missionaries were not colonizers in the same sense as those from the Methodist Mission and Church of England. There is often criticism made against missionaries globally, but these Americans were missionaries who sacrificed their entire life for others.

Vijayathasan, Daniel Jeyaruban

See record for print version in VTS Library Catalog

Virginia Theological Seminary

May 13, 2021

Copyright © 2021 by Daniel Jeyaruban Vijayathasan

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