Sword & Trowel 2018: Issue 1
ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA News from Pastor Sunath Kumar, Reformed Baptist Church, Vinukonda
rebuilding of our church and meet- ing room facilities, for which we have received substantial help from friends overseas. We held a dedication service on 29 November, 2017 followed by two days of evangelistic meetings, to which we had issued many invitations in and around Vinukonda. The new sanctu- ary can hold a maximum of 170. Around 300 attended the dedication service and we arranged a canopy with loudspeakers in the compound outside the church building for the overfl ow. The congregation consisted of our own people, congregations from the villages and many other invitees. Probably about 70% were believers. Yet more people joined us after the service, when we began to serve the food. Running out of food is very offensive in our culture and thankfully we were able to provide an estimated 800 meals. We thank the Lord for such a level of inter- est from the local community. In addition to a message from a
W
E ARE thankful to the Lord that we have completed the
guest speaker, my son, Pastor Samuel Boppuri, was able to share something of the vision of our church, including: our growth as a biblical church; the provision of sound theological training for our supported pastors and more widely; the planting of churches in our part of India; the translation and print- ing of Christian books; and the care of poor and destitute children. Three years ago, when we realised
that we needed improved facilities, we did not know what to do but the Lord has guided and provided in answer to our prayers and we have been drawn closer together as a church as we have accomplished many things together. During the fi rst few weeks after the dedication of our new building we had quite a number of visitors and attend- ance was numbering around 70. Many of them came from charismatic-style churches and were unaccustomed to our reverent, traditional worship, and our focus on the preaching of the Word. Within a few weeks, the at- tendance had settled to around 50. As much as we desire to see the numbers grow, there are certain things we cannot compromise on. We strongly believe that numbers can only grow when the believ- ers are committed to
New building on the dedication day.
page 4 Andhra Pradesh, India
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
