God has been good to the Bidar Church. This year has been a great turnaround with the fortunes of the Bidar Church. We have had 13 baptisms so far 7 men & 6 women in the last 7 months & many more people are studying the bible to accept Jesus as Lord in their life.There are many phenomenal things but few things really stand out
It’s always inspiring to see whole family being a disciple of Jesus & I would call this year as the year of families.
It’s all started with Sumanth’s uncle family. Sumanth uncle’s wife Rajamma, elder son Ezekial & daughter Rebecca were already disciples. Even though Uncle has been visiting the church for 2 years but for the fear of being kept out of the village he delayed making the decision. But God never gave up on Him & this year in the month of February Uncle decided to surrender his life to Jesus. In the month of May His youngest son Martin who is in II PU also became a disciple of Jesus. Sumanth Uncle e& his family is known for hospitality. God has blessed them with a good house & they always open their house for the disciples who are visiting the city.
Inspired by Sumanth Uncle, his elder brother Vajinath also became a disciple in the month of July. Apparently Vaijinath Uncle’s wife Lalithamma Aunty & his elder son Robert were already disciples in the church. Now his daughter Reena is also studying the bible. Vajinath uncle after he became a disciple he is convincing his friend Pundlick to study the bible. Pundlick & his wife are studying the bible. Apparently Pundlick’s son Joseph is already a disciple in the church.
Ravi is another inspiring story. Ravi who is a painter by profession became a disciple in the month of February & his wife followed the footsteps of her husband & became a disciple in the month. His mother Basamma has been visiting the church & studying the bible for the last 2 months .Ravi is very much influenced by the love of Christians in the church & he is passionately reaching out to many of his friends. Two of them came to the point of baptism & then they gave up. But nothing stopped Ravi from reaching out to people. Now he is reaching out to his aunt & his cousin & both are studying the bible.
Shakauntala Aunty & her daughter Elizabeth have been faithful disciples. Her 2 other sons Issac & joseph & her daughter Esther used to persecute her & also the other Christians who are visiting their family. Aunty never gave up praying for the family & God has miraculously melted the hearts of those who persecuted the church. Esther has been a miracle. She never used to talk to Christians when they visit but she is completely transformed now & everyday she is making some time to study the bible.Aunty’s son Joseph also is studying the bible.
My Personal experience in Bidar:
“The Lord is my shepherd & I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pasture” This scripture means so much to me from the time I am moved to Bidar.I feel so blessed to be in Bidar in every way. For me being in Bidar is like living a dream. I can see God is making a nice music with my life & every new note sounds so exciting. I would never thought I would be leading a church as a single & looking back I am sure its by His grace is where I am today. Looking back into my life with all weaknesses & imperfections that I had & still I have I am sure it is his grace that carried me through.
I landed in Bidar in Jan 2011 with lot of anxieties in my heart. How am I going to lead the church as a single? How I am going to survive in a place where they speak only Kannada & Hindi ? But looking back God has been gracious to me more than I deserve. As I did ministry here I have fallen in love with this city & the People here. I have seen many of my answers being prayed here & my relationship with God has become more real than ever before.
As I have fallen in love with this city God has put a vision in my heart for the church Bidar.
- To see the church grow to 300 disciples by 2016.
- To be self supported in the next 3 years.
- To have family groups in every colonies & in every villages in Bidar.
- To have churches being planted at villages around Bidar (My prayer is to raise up a couple to lead the village ministries..I have already Zeroed in on a couple..Please pray that many more could be raised up & many more people who have hearts for God could be saved)
To send mission teams to other parts of Karanataka ( Bidar is a land where they honour missionaries but we need to instill the dream in their hearts & if we do that we can see many people come forward to risk their lives to be great missionaries)
Bangalore Church hosted the South Asia Men's Conference. All the men who attended the conference were so inspired and are gone back with great visions for their own spiritual lives, families and their churches. On the Final day we had a great Worship Service with Bangalore Church where more than 1544 people came together to worship.