Dear Brethren in Christ,
Greetings to you in the precious name of Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. By the grace of God and by your prayers we are all doing great. We are excited about sharing the wonderful news about the growing Churches in our state.
Besides all the difficulties, we are coming across due to bifurcation of the state of Andhra Pradesh, and we are able to carry out the gospel to several places. As a result several preachers are uplifted and going forward to strive for the cause of Christ.
In an economically growing country like India, among the common encounters and problems, one of the most serious problems is finance. Usually a preacher stands at the category of common man only. In other words preachers face a great financial difficulty, especially those who just begin their ministry and are totally dependent on this ministry. There are some avenues to help those preachers that would uplift them financially. One of them is a Tailoring Centre; this is a place where the local preacher’s wife would teach how to stitch clothing. For this to be established, there must be one lady who would be able to teach. Since this is purposed to help the preacher’s family it would be wonderful if a preacher’s wife could teach. 3-4 sewing machines will be there in each center. Depending on the convenience of the time, they will hold the classes. So, this would become a place for the women to gather. We anticipate that the preacher’s wife would get a great opportunity to teach them, but also to know them better and teach them about Jesus. These centers would also establish new friendships that would help increase the attendance at the Church.
These might appear like just an effort except that through this kind of programs so much can be accomplished: a) If they charge little money on each student as a tuition fee, this will be an income for the preacher, b) Also if the preacher’s wife can stitch clothing and she can make some earning too, c) A preacher’s family gets the greatest opportunity of meeting new people who come to learn tailoring; teaching them about Jesus and inviting them to Church would an awesome thing to start with. This may be the greatest things we can ever accomplish, because through this we gain souls for the Lord, and d) Also in the local community the preacher receives a good name for helping the women to learn tailoring for the expense of little fees and helping them to live on their legs, certainly there is a scope for all the above things mentioned.
With the help of some fine ladies from the Duffee Church of Christ, they have come up with helping two of our graduates. Upon our request, brother DVS Prakash (first batch of graduates 2009-11), Anakapalli and David Raju (second batch 2011-13) from Ramagiri, were blessed to have these centers established. They are so excited about these centers. Certainly these have given them an opportunity to extend help, education and Christian love. Brother Irven Skinner and Chris Shilply represents the Duffee Church of Christ and we thank them for their concern towards the preachers in India.
We had visitors from USA: brothers James Gilliam, Jimmy Gilliam and sister Joyce Gilliam who admire the school program so much. We are grateful to God first and then to our sponsoring and supporting Churches. With all our love and concern you are making it possible to reach the unreached millions through this program of training effective evangelists. You have a great role in this great effort. We appreciate your prayers towards us, which strengthening us to be steadfast in working for the Lord, besides all kinds of circumstances.
We had brother Jerry Bates teach for a couple of weeks this month. We will post that information soon. We sure did have wonderful Master’s Classes. They have been very productive with much learning….!!
Results of our Mission work in last two months:
Number of people obeyed to the Lord - 18
Number of doors knocked: 3,870
Gospel Tracts Distributed: 9,600
Gospel Meetings Conducted: 6
New Congregation Established: 1
In Christ,
John Dean M
for Visakha Valley Bible College