Sri Lanka Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, an ethnic Tamil Christian, was assassinated in a gun attack Friday and the state of emergency that followed has affected GFA ministry on the island.

“Some roads are closed and every vehicle is being searched,” explained GFA’s Sri Lanka ministry leader. “But this is normal in these situations.”

“The biggest problem for our ministry is in the Batticaloa area, in the eastern area of the country controlled by the Tamil Tigers. This area was hard-hit by the tsunami, and we have a lot of relief and children’s work there. Our work there has been affected by these events.”

Tension is high in the area, especially after someone threw grenades into a Tamil Tiger office in Batticaloa. A Tamil website reported that the building was damaged but no one was hurt.

A senior police officer has blamed the assassination on the Tamil Tigers terrorist group, but President Chandrika Kumaratunga has pledged not to break the two-year-old ceasefire between the Tamil rebels and government forces. The President appealed for “calm and restraint.

Although Mr. Kadirgamar was himself a Tamil, he opposed the rebels’ calls for an independent Tamil area in northern Sri Lanka, and some of the Tiger leaders considered him a traitor to their cause. They had threatened his life on several occasions.

Two days before his assassination, a husband-wife team of Tamil journalists was also killed for supporting the government.

Under the new emergency powers, the government can deploy troops freely (which they have already done), detain suspects without charging them, and search and demolish buildings suspected of housing terrorists.

Some GFA leaders are concerned that these powers could be used as a way to hamper evangelism and other church work.

“We continue to pray for peace to come to the nation of Sri Lanka, and we trust that Christians will remain free to share the Good News with their countrymen,” said GFA President K.P. Yohannan from his office in South India.

Please be in prayer for peace in Sri Lanka, for the GFA leaders there, and that those on both sides of the conflict will come to know the peace found only in Jesus Christ.