Pastors from the Bidar District of Karnataka, India
“Many, O LORD my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done;
and Your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to You in order;
If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.” (Psalm 40:5)
Blessings to you all on this 1st Sunday in October:
Six weeks have passed since the visit by the Hyderabad pastors to the state of Karnataka where they visited and encouraged the pastors living in a radius of 25-30 km within the interior villages. As you might know, they are extremely poor, but exceedingly grateful and praising God that He would send pastors from Andhra Pradesh to lend support. There is no denominational influence or Christian organizations working in these areas. It is amazing that the Sharon Prayer Warriors Fellowship (SPWF) are now reaching into neighboring states (more photos below).
Occasionally, testimonies are sent to me from Pastor Satyanandam, so I thought you might like to read a few of them I recently received after the Pastor and Wives Luncheon last month:
Pastor Prabhudas shared that with the small congregations who are very poor literally the pastor, his wife and children had to go for several days without food. “After join SPWF because of the monthly regular help, and their medical bills I am able to go out peacefully and serve the Lord.” We know many of the pastors and their families condition are very similar to this testimony.
Another pastor had a great deal of debt and had no peace spending sleepless nights. There was no any help from any side they were praying with tears and waiting upon the Lord. At such time a SIF US sponsor came forward to his request and cleared all the problems, thank God because of SIF and SPWF the pastor and the family are quite happy serving the Lord without any fear and shame of debts. Further in turn they are blessing the poor members of the church providing them with Bibles, blankets, cloths etc to the needy and suffering.
Pastor K. John Joseph came to testify that there are many rich pastors throughout India who get millions and millions of rupees from aboard. They go on storing wealth for themselves and their descendents for several generations, but the Sharon India Foundation is blessing many pastors and through sponsors from USA they sharing in the ministry. It is so very wonderful and beautiful for the entire ministry. Nowhere is selfishness, hoarding or amassing of wealth!!!. Lacks of rupees go out to 170 of the pastors to further the Great Commission. We thank God! Such a ministry like nowhere is seen, yet we are experiencing it. We give all Glory to God.
During the lunch and tea break time several pastors wives came to Sis. Lilly and shared the wonderful way how they and their children have been comforted with the help received from you and SIF every month. In the past there were days without a grain of rice in the house and we were going without food for several nights, literally starving. We have been going through terrible sufferings, unable to pay the school fee and to buy books. We had no face to show in the society. Today we thank God for the help that we are getting, not only we are able to take timely food, but also provide our children with basic needs like food, clothes and education. We get tears of joy for what all God is doing in our lives and in our ministries through SIF. May God bless you! You are all always in our prayers.
Several ladies came up with problems that they are going through and their needs. Sis. Lilly told them to look to the Lord in Prayer and wait upon for His wonders. Sis. Lilly encourage them to have patience and to wait at the feet of the Lord.
I hope you were encouraged by those testimonies. As I have mentioned several times, we will probably never know this side of Heaven, the impact that your love has had and is having on these precious brothers and sisters of ours.
If you wish to send support, you can either mail a check to the address below or you can use the PayPal feature on the website (http://sharonindia.org/), which will transfer funds from their secure account to the Foundation account.
Mail your checks to:
Sharon India Foundation
133 E. Warm Springs Rd #102
Las Vegas, NV 89119
A bank wire will be sent to India by the 19th of October. The Pastor Fellowship Meeting will be held on the 23rd.
Humbled in Christ,
Dan
The 2 images below are also from Karnataka. This is what Pastor Satyanandam said: “Let us praise together our Beloved Lord for His great plans and wonders in our ministries and lives, Psalm 40:5, Bidar a district in Karnataka state is about 150 kms from Hyderabad, on reaching Bidar we rush to the spot where new believers are supposed to be baptized. I just cannot express our joy in spirit on finding about 100 people singing together rejoicing in spirit and eagerly waiting for our arrival. To our surprise 14 pastors, with their congregation members. 35 new believers were eagerly waiting to be baptized, I spent some time with them counseling and giving exaltation from the Bible. I was convinced about their salvation, they are from 7 different churches. Thank God there is not any problem whatsoever throughout the Baptismal programme, everything went smoothly without any problem. Thank God I could see the peace and joy on the faces of new believers after the Baptism…. all the people fullness of spirit rejoicing in the Presence of God.”
Below are the Karnataka pastors with their new believers. This was a glorious day indeed!
I thought the map below would be helpful to visualize the location of the SPWF pastors in Hyderabad and where they are extending their outreach. You will see that Karnataka is to the west of AP and Orissa is to the north. They are planning to visit Orissa this November (please pray). You may recall that both Karnataka and Orissa are extremely hostile to Christians. The pastors and their congregations in these areas definitely need edification. By the way, I took a screen shot of this map from another source. The “red” area are the Communist Maoists and their influence down this corridor. There are many problems in India!
Every year we try to sponsor a pastor and wives luncheon. This is a great encouragement for them. This was the luncheon where many testimonies were shared on how God is pouring His Grace upon their lives. They are more passionate than ever to share the live-changing news that trusting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior can bring to those living in darkness. They sometimes remind me of the quote from C.T. Studds (missionary to China and India): “Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.”
In August, Satyanandam had a meeting for some local businessmen. Due to the many conversations that the India Pastors are having with their SIF sponsors, they decided to reach out to 20 local businessmen and share what the Christian businessmen are doing in the USA. They desire in the future to raise up Indian Christian Businessmen to follow the E² model.
Baptisms……..Below are just a few of the many baptisms that have occurred in the past couple months. Clockwise from top left is Pastor Israel, Pastor Ratna Paul, Pastor Rambabu and Pastor Abraham in Amburpet.
Several more baptism photos: Baptisms at Paastor Jesu Ratnam and Pastor Vinod Kumar’s church.
Baptism at Pastor Ashok’s congregation. Here is another wonderful testimony that Pastor Satyanandam shared: “I thank God for another beautiful day toiling for our God’s kingdom , baptize another 4 born again children of God today. This programme is arranged by Pastor Ashok, vanastalipuram of Hyderabad city. We thank God for this new souls added to the church and let us pray for these dear ones witnessing for Christ and living for His glory the rest of life.
During the programme Pastor Ashok share his testimony about How the Lord is Glory let him to our fellowship while going through terrible, unbearable economic crisis. Pastor Ashok with his wife, children and some of the church were in tears moving from place to place looking for a small shelter to have worship. They found it impossible to pay 4 months of arrears rent due to which reason the Land lord ask him to vacant, at this time our SPWF Pastor M.M Prasad advised to him to meet me, when he came and shared with me the crisis he was going through Holy Spirit promoted me to help this dear servant of God in such unbearable sad situation , this is how Pastor Ashok came in to our fellowship. Glory to God the Lord blessed him he is stable today when he shared the testimony not only his congregation other guests also move with compassion and tears. It is the proof that God is with us leading us, guiding us strengthening and encouraging us.
Satyanandam continued: This is one example the many examples experienced by our SPWF pastors. We thank God for our SIF USA wiping the tears of many such pastors bring join and comfort to many pastors their families and congregations at such crucial and unbearable circumstances . Glory to God, God alone!!!
In the last email, we mentioned a request from the teachers and parents of the “free education” schools that are run through the Sharon India Foundation. An anonymous donor contacted us and by the grace of God these students now have notebooks, pencils, book bags, books, etc. In a shame-based culture like India, to have these supplies is an enormous blessing!
Bible Distribution: 10 of the SPWF Pastors serving the Lord in and around Nalgonda area arranged this program under the leadership of Pastor Sudhakar.
Ground breaking ceremony at Pastor John Moses church site. Another huge blessing from God. This is what was said: “On Sunday after the worship service we visited Pastor John Moses at Kuntuluru, then we prayerfully conducted ground breaking ceremony for the construction of new church at this place. Please pray that the Lord will help this beloved Pastor and the congregation to build a nice and humble church shelter for worship of this place and surrounding areas.”
For now, we have been able to assist a certain number of poor widows every month. Below are 5 widows from 5 different churches. I want thank those donors that are led to help in this area. In many cases this support is truly life-changing. These widows are very bold in their witness to Jesus Christ.
Last month’s meeting of the Pastors’ Fellowship Meeting. Directly below are 7 pastors that traveled from Karnataka and were able to join in the encouragement and fellowship during the September meeting. What a blessing!
I wish I had time to tell you just how grateful these brothers are to the Lord and
for sending them help in due time!
“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee;
yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” (Isaiah 41:10)
