~Featured Missionary and Country of the Week - Prince and Suzana Mathiasz/India, Sri Lanka

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Prince and Suzana Mathiasz
Region(s): Europe/Middle East - International
Field(s): India / Sri Lanka
Poster: download PDF
Website: click here to visit

Bio: Prince Mathiasz, a Sri Lankan national, is the product of missionary work. He was baptized in Jesus’ name and filled with the Holy Ghost while studying engineering in Stuttgart, West Germany. After his studies, he and his Yugoslavian-born wife, Suzana, who is conversant in several languages, moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. They received their appointment to Sri Lanka in October 1982. He superintends the work in Sri Lanka, pastors the headquarters church, which he founded in Colombo, and is engaged in ministerial training. The UPC of Sri Lanka is growing in spite of the political and social unrest. The Mathiaszes were instrumental in helping Compassion Services International’s SMART team direct relief efforts following the devastating tsunami in 2004. Their daughter Natasha returned to Sri Lanka to oversee distribution of supplies and construction projects. In 1991 Prince and Suzana Mathiasz’s appointment was expanded to include ministry in Eastern Europe.

India

Republic of India/Bharat
Area Coordinator: Stanley K. Scism
Superintendent/President: 
Population: 1121800000
Area: 1,269,340 sq. mi.
Capital: New Delhi
Languages: Hindi (official), English (official), Bengali, Gujarati, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Kannada, Assamese, Sanskrit, Sindhi (all recognized by the constitution)
Religions: Hindu, 81%; Muslim, 13%; Christian, 2%; Sikh, 2%; other, 2%
 

The Republic of India occupies most of the Indian subcontinent and borders Pakistan on the west, Afghanistan, China, Nepal, and Bhutan on the north, and Myanmar on the east. Bangladesh forms an enclave in Northeast India. India’s population exceeds that of Africa and Latin America combined, and grows by 18 million per year. At this rate, India will become the world’s most populous nation by 2040. Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikkhism all began in India, and India contains more Muslims than any other nation except Indonesia. The caste system, under which people are socially classified at birth, is an important facet of Hinduism and dominates Indian life. Even though the 1950 constitution abolished the lowest caste, known as untouchables, caste conflicts remain a serious problem. Saffronization, in which Indian identity is pegged to Hinduism and people of other faiths are persecuted and denied civil rights, grows in India and has the sympathy of the present central government. Economically, India often seems like two separate countries: village India, supported by primitive agriculture, where 40% of the people live below the poverty level; and urban India, one of the most heavily industrialized areas in the world. Although the traditional textile industry is still important, the emphasis is now on heavy industry, producing iron and steel, machine tools, transportation equipment, and chemicals, and the recent high technology boom. “Mother” Dorothy McCarthy, who founded the Bharosa Ghar Mission, was the first Oneness missionary to India and arrived in 1909. However, the E. L. Scisms, who arrived in 1949, laid the foundation for the United Pentecostal Church of India. The Indian church is now divided into two units: The United Pentecostal Church of India and the United Pentecostal Church of Northeast India.

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Sri Lanka

Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
Area Coordinator: 
Superintendent/President: J. Prince Mathiasz
Population: 19900000
Area: 25,332 sq. mi.
Capital: Colombo
Languages: Sinhala (official), Tamil, English
Religions: Buddhism, 69%; Hindu,15%; Christian, 8%; Islam, 8%
 

A pear-shaped island, Sri Lanka lies southeast of India. Formerly known as Ceylon, it became an independent republic within the British Commonwealth in 1948. The name was changed to Sri Lanka, meaning “resplendent island” on May 22, 1972. Since the 1980s tension between the Sinhalese and Tamil separatists has repeatedly erupted in violence. On December 26, 2004, a tremendously powerful tsunami ravaged 12 Asian nations. About 38,000 people were killed in Sri Lanka. Compassion Services International’s SMART team was one of the first foreign relief agencies to arrive on the scene to dispense emergency aid and hope. James and Margaret Burns, the first UPC missionaries to Ceylon, arrived in 1949. Then for many years the nation forbade foreign missionaries to reside on the island. In 1983, however, J. Prince Mathiasz, a Sri Lankan national living in Canada, returned to the island to begin his first missionary term. The Sinhalese church now numbers 3,004 constituents, 54 licensed ministers, and 68 churches and preaching points.

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