By John Halford
WATTALA, Sri Lanka—The Worldwide Educational Institute (WEI) is a small school in Sri Lanka sponsored by our church.
It is on a quiet street in Wattala, a suburb of Colombo, the capital. (The island nation of Sri Lanka is on the other side of the world to most of you reading this. If you dug a hole straight through the earth from Dallas, Texas, you’d come out close.)
It was founded in 1986 as the Waterfield Institute and was first located in the central highlands at Nuwara Eliya. When the church had to withdraw funding and close the institute in 1995, past and future students, their families and local church members were deeply disappointed.
Many graduates, including some from member families, had obtained outstanding employment and were given the gift of a fulfilling future because of their training at the institute. Under the auspices of the Australian Office and with the encouragement of the Colombo church, then-Pastor Bharat Naker and Joe Piotrowski, Waterfield director, responded to the widespread feelings of dashed hopes by creating a plan to keep Waterfield alive by charging manageable tuition fees. Two years later the institute moved to Colombo so it could operate less expensively out of the church’s own building.
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| Worldwide Educational Institute building |
Today the institute, renamed the Worldwide Educational Institute, has about 80 students. Most are of school-leaving age, the equivalent of freshmen and sophomores in a U.S. college. The institute offers three- and six-month certificate courses and a one-year diploma program.
The focus is on developing effective English language skills. Sri Lanka’s national language is Sinhalese, but English is still the language of business and commerce.
WEI also has classes teaching business skills, including word processing and marketing. The principles of success class teaches young men and women, many of whom are from Buddhist families, the underlying values of the Christian way of life.
WEI students develop a confidence and a polish that gives them an excellent foundation for higher education in the world of work. The institute has developed a reputation for excellence, acknowledged by Sri Lankan Airlines, which has contracted with WEI to provide training classes for their employees.
Robert Reeves, an Ambassador graduate, is principal, and Spencer Cramer is director. Mr. Cramer volunteered to serve WEI after his retirement from a local company.
In this largely Buddhist country, WEI shines its light not with overt evangelism but by example and by modeling and reinforcing those values that reflect the teachings and beliefs of the Bible. Sri Lanka has been wracked by a vicious civil war for the last few decades. More recently, a cease-fire has been negotiated and hopefully will hold. But there are also growing signs of anti-Christian sentiment.
In a number of rural areas, Christian church buildings and some pastors have been attacked by militant Buddhists who see the growing number of conversions to Christianity as a threat to the traditional structure of the village communities and the well-being of the Buddhist religious community—even though only eight percent of the population is Christian.
In this challenging environment, our school at Wattala represents an intelligent and thoughtful way forward. WEI offers a priceless education to the young people of this beautiful and emerging nation. The greatest challenge it faces right now is financial—to keep it affordable for Sri Lankan families while maintaining the standards.
WEI and our congregations in Sri Lanka ask for your prayers and are grateful for your concern.
WORLDWIDE
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE
GRADUATES—[Photos by John
Halford]
Principal Robert Reeves
Graduation address by Denishiya Fernando
We thought you would like to read the graduation address by graduating diploma student Denishiya Fernando. She explained what WEI meant to her—and hundreds like her.
There
is a saying “a person who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything”—and
I was such a person.
I ran away from challenges because I was afraid to make mistakes and grow.
In school, I did not get good grades except for maths and Tamil. I did not participate in many school activities, because I was shy. I wanted to, but I didn’t. I thought that I was useless because nobody thought that I could do anything. I was very unhappy with myself.
I tried taking many English classes, but they didn’t help me improve at all. But one day I made up my mind to face up to challenges without running away from them.
As you all know, finding the right place to learn English is not easy because there are so many places being advertised. But thanks be to God. He directed me to the right place—WEI.
I was very scared during the first few days at WEI. Everything was new—faces, the environment and doing all my subjects in English. Although I was very scared, I said to myself, “I am going to continue whether I like it or not.”
In the first few days, I made a lot of mistakes when I spoke English. I was shy and thought my classmates and teachers will laugh at me.
But you know, not only did they not laugh at me, they also encouraged me to be brave and keep trying.
I was surprised because for the first time nobody condemned me because I made mistakes.
My teachers at WEI never gave up on me. They constantly encouraged me to believe in myself; to believe that I’m an intelligent person; to believe that if I try I can achieve.
Life at WEI was not easy. We had to work very hard—midterm test, final test, projects, assignments, speeches, pop quizzes, outreach activities, talent show are some of the things we had to do. Some days I thought, how can I do all these? But I managed.
It was also during this tough time I was able to make many good friends. We had to do projects and activities together. It also helped me to learn life skills like how to work with people, how to work in teams, meeting deadlines and so many other things.
Today I stand behind this podium proud of what I have achieved: from an F in English, I managed to get the highest grade at a test in class; from being shy and scared, to being a confident and mature person; from running away from responsibilities to taking on challenges.
WEI is like a beacon that gives direction to the ships in the deep ocean. So thank you very much for directing my life and the lives of these young men and women sitting here today. Thank you for turning my life around. Thank you for giving me a hope and a future.
May God bless you and help you continue to change the lives of many more young men and women.
Copyright © Grace Communion International, 2004