Hello Fellow Saints in Christ!

We’re so happy to send another monthly update about all the faithfulness of God towards us in our church. We believe, absolutely, that in your prayers there is power partnering with us and God is answering!

Jesus is teaching us to love the people right where they are, especially our Hindu neighbors. Neighboring our fellowship hall (a small house rooftop) are many families who oftentimes stop by and sit in on our services. We have been diligent in visiting their homes too and offering prayers over the last few years. Whoever receives us, we let our blessing stand.

 

Over time, whenever we have announced the monthly Agape Feast or other special occasions where our church serves a simple lunch, we began to be blessed by our Hindu neighbors volunteering to help clean, cook and serve! Obviously, God has been at work in their hearts to see us favorably and desire to join our services without opposing us or stirring up trouble.

 

One particular family we visited at Christmastime welcomed us warmly and served us chai and snacks. During that visit we were able to share the meaning of Christmas, the birth of our Savior Lord Jesus, and of course, of His crucifixion and resurrection. They were a captive audience and very respectful in receiving our message of Good News. A seed was sown.

 

That seed has fallen on good soil, glory be to God alone, and in the month of March, the wife and children of the family really opened up in interest to know more about Jesus. This particular woman came and cooked for our Agape Feast, along with her mother-in-law, and we felt God lead us to honor them and love them. At the end of our worship service, we thanked them openly before the congregation and presented them an award: a Holy Bible all their own and a ‘promise card’ of a beautiful Scripture on decorative paper for them to display at home.

 

Not only did this recognize our willingness to welcome all people into our worship services, but it set the bar for our brothers and sisters to love the people who come to our church no matter what their current spiritual standing is.

 

Our little flock is growing in cultivating a heart for fervent prayer: every Friday night we have prayer night. We gather in one home and we pray for our colony, our state, our nation and for our families. During prayer nights, Hindu neighbors within that house complex, also come and sit in and observe and put in their prayer requests.

 

Again, we are allowing people to just come and hear Truth, encounter Jesus, and ask questions. We really feel that it is God’s Living Spirit drawing people in, and we never want to turn seekers away.

For fun, we enjoyed some church family time by having a Movie Night. We watched a Telugu Christian film called “Identity” and ate treats, goodies and snacks together. Everybody had fun and they requested that we do it again.

 

One of the highlights of our month was honoring a sister from Calvary Chapel in California who has been here since the beginning of our church plant. She’s been helpful from the very beginning in encouragement and praying (even before the church had any walls and was just sticks and a tarp), supporting financially in many projects, visiting the people in their homes, medical ministry, women’s ministry and leading worship. She’s been with us in good and rough times serving in India by our side. She bears the extreme climate, the very spicy food, and does her best to learn our languages and customs to connect people’s hearts to Jesus through her love.

 

The people of our church love her so much and although she was in a different area of the city on her birthday in March, the whole congregation decided to end Sunday worship service by taking a video of everyone singing “happy birthday” to her and sending her many text messages expressing their love. She is not pictured in this update so we can protect her ongoing work, but we wanted to include the happy faces of our believers for you to enjoy. We want to show you that we appreciate those who help us and love us.

 

THANK YOU FOR HELPING US TO BUY MORE BIBLES! We praise God and are so happy to put the Word of God into the hands of new believers and seekers that they may know Jesus! We could not have done it without your support.

 

We want to express our thankfulness and love for each and every one of you who partner with us — from the administrative support, to the prayer support, to the pastoral support and of course, to those who have labored with us heart-to-heart, shoulder-to-shoulder on the ground and for those who have sown into CC South Asia financially.

 

We love you and pray for you. We hope that our updates encourage you, as well. God bless you all!

 

In His love,
Pastor 6*

 

PRAYER REQUESTS:

 

  • salvation for the Hindu families who are visiting and volunteering
  • we are searching for a plot of land to expand & build a church building
  • partnerships and resources to help build a church building
  • for our congregation to grow in trusting in God’s Word
  • we have many broken families in our flock, please pray for their healing
  • pray for the health of our pastoral and ministry team so we can serve consistently
  • for God to raise up more full-time ministers to help teach, serve and lead in our church.
  • this is summer in our area and the temperatures rise to dangerous levels, please remember us
  • pray for Pastor 6* and the ministry team to stand for God no matter what opposition may come through the law or government or political changes in our country

 

 

*Names have been changed or omitted for security reasons.