My earliest connection to Keswick was through its Year Books, which usually included the full text of the talks that had been shared at that year’s Convention.
As a fairly new full-time youth worker, I pored over the pages of these Year Books which were filled with skilful expositions and powerful applications. At a time when there were no video recordings to help me visualise, I could only imagine what it might have been like to spend a whole week with hundreds of fellow believers feasting on the riches of God’s word. And, even though it took over three decades to finally have the opportunity to attend my first Convention, the actual experience of Keswick exceeded all expectations.
I grew up in Colombo, in a Christian family that worshipped regularly at our local Methodist church. Since Protestant Christians in Sri Lanka made up less than 1%, our formative association with the church gave us a strong identity as Christians. But in my early teens this ‘identity’ became a problem. My secret sins and rebellion against God had created a yawning gap between my public image and my private world; a contradiction that I was finding impossible to live with. My older brother had just come to personal faith, and with fresh enthusiasm he shared with me how I could be saved by Jesus alone if I would trust Him alone. I was 15 when my brother led me to commit my life to the Lord, and there’s never been a moment when I regretted that glorious day.
