Report for the month of Nov-Dec '06

Preparation for Harvest

By God's grace since 1990, November has been the final month of preparation for the USA program in January. God willing, we will have Harvest-2007 from the 17th - 24th Jan '07 in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh (one of the Southern States in India). I hope you will get the detailed report about this ministry in the GHI February prayer letter. We went to different schools, colleges, churches, villages and fixed up programs in 60 venues. May I request you to uphold you in your prayers for the upcoming ministry? We are privileged to do ministry in these schools with our USA friends that most Indian ministries are not allowed to do. Now to our local reports for November and December.

Monthly Church Retreat (26th November)

This is a regular monthly feature of the church. We bring in all the converts, once in a month to our mother church. We always have Hindus coming to our church. We usually get 200-300 people. This time my son Aaron Samuel preached on the topic "Who is the source of blessing", with reference to the Hindus going to different pilgrim sites to get the blessings from their gods. Finally he challenged them to trust Jesus and worship the true and living God. After the message, I gave the invitation and nearly 50 people came to the Lord and new converts were challenged to remain in Him.

Local Ministry - Report from our follow-up pastors

November and December months are always the greatest months of harvest in the life of our churches. One of our HTC graduates, Shanthi has shifted her residence to Chettithangal. She is a very strong believer. She is from the village called Goduwaripalli where have a church building. She is the first one to lead her whole family to Christ. She has been blessed with 3 children (two sons and one daughter). After she moved to Chettithangal, we started conducting prayer group every Monday. The regular attendance is 8 people. Chettithangal is one of our outreach villages. We are praying for this village since 2002. Now, the Lord has opened the door for regular ministry here.

One of our follow-up pastors found a new village, Muthiyalapalli, which is near Ponnai town. Our pastors have started conducting a Bible Study every Tuesday. We have regular prayer meetings.

We have Bible Studies and outreach work in the following villages. Thank God for good attendance in the following villages:

1. Kudumaiyur
2. Srinivasapuram
3. Paramasath
4. Narasapuram
5. Venkatapuram
6. T. S. Palli
7. S.N. Palayam
8. Boyer Colony
9. Chettithangal
10. Muthiyalapalli

We do hope that from January, 2007, we will be starting Sunday worship in Kudimaiyur and Srinivasapuram village. In the course of time, God willing we will be planning for a church building in these two villages. May I request the saints of God to pray for these two villages? Please pray for a break through. We started the work at Srinivasapuram in 1999 but the growth is very slow. In 1999, we preached the Gospel and many accepted the Lord, but many are afraid to come out boldly for the Lord. Most of the women are engaged in bangles business. So it is difficult for them to come for the prayer meetings. In Kudimaiyur the people had already asked us to construct a church building, but we want to do disciple them first and then construct a church building.

8 Days of GHIndia - Local ministry

We had altogether 8 days GHI-local ministry in November, through door to door evangelism. We ministered in 14 villages and preached to 220 people and 71 took decisions for Christ.

Report for the month of December

By God's grace we never miss the opportunity to present the Gospel and lead the people to Christ. We always arrange meetings and utilize this season. We have three important events in our church ~ Flag hoisting, Carol rounds and Christmas Day celebration:

Flag Hoisting

We hoisted the flag of the cross. This is the church tradition in this area. We hoisted the flag in Bethelpuram (Keerasath) Goduwarpalli, P.N.Palayam and Kattoor. By God's grace we had a very good response. Nearly 260 attended the program and by God's grace after we preached the Gospel, 70 people took decisions for Christ.

Carol Rounds

In the name of carol rounds we went to village after village, but we did evangelism. It was amazing to see people come out of their houses in large numbers and listen to the Gospel. The Lord helped us to distribute cakes after the preaching. We bought 150 lbs. of cakes and celebrated the birth of Christ and also celebrated their decision to trust Christ. It was wonderful to witness the people sitting down on the ground (road) quietly and listening to the Gospel.

Our follow up pastors, Immanuel, Baskaran and Daniel also joined along with me and my son Samuel in proclaiming the Gospel. I rejoiced in the Lord when I heard our old students Immanuel and Daniel preach the Gospel. They know how to do it and do it well. In some places I preached and in some places my son Samuel preached. My wife Ruth and Fay (my daughter-in-law) led the singing teams. When Sam and I were leading the preaching team, my wife and my daughter in law were leading the singing team. What a joy one can have, when one watches God using the whole family for the preaching of His Son Jesus Christ. This is the only time that the villagers did not mind us disturbing them in their sleep. They knew in advance in December that people will come from Keerasath Church and give them a Christmas program. Some of the pictures we took will help you to see how it happened. Through the carol round evangelism, we ministered in 17 villages. We preached to 1,285 people and 746 took first time decision for Christ.

Christmas Day celebration

The Lord gave us a new method of drawing people to the church. We printed 1,500 invitation cards and personally handed over the cards and invited them for the service. It was my desire to invite business men. Our expected crowd was 1,000 but the Lord brought around 1,150. Many business men from Ponnai and Sholingur revenue officer, police officials and school teachers were also attended the service. We gave people cake and a lunch consisting of mutton biriyani.

By God's grace I preached the Gospel, presented the Savior and after the message challenged them, if you are in need of a Savior in your life, stand up and come to the front need the altar and pray along with me the sinners prayer. The Lord brought about 800 people to take decisions for Christ. It was the first time in my life I saw the whole crowd coming to the front and accepting the Lord. Even our driver brought five of his friends who were saved and promised to start attending church in January.

After the preaching of the Gospel, the kids from our Father's House Orphanage brought us two dance presentations and a drama (The Christmas Story). The believers also danced. The crowds loved the event and encouraged our children.

May His name be glorified and I also thank the saints of God who enabled us to go and preach the Gospel. Without your prayers and financial support nothing can be done. So thank you very much.

Yours in Him,

A. James Sundar.
Director
Gospel Harvesters of India

Fall Prayer Letter

Test Post

GH India Report

GHI REPORT FROM JAN - AUG 2005

I am happy to report everything God has done through us from Jan-Aug 2005.

Jan'05 had started with the celebration of Harvest of Souls on the 1st day of the year. The Lord gave me an opportunity to preach the New Year's message and then lead nearly 30 people to Christ who said the sinner’s prayer and took a decision for Christ. A team from the USA joined us for ministry in Chennai and all of the HTC students were involved in the ministry. God blessed us by allowing us to preach to over 40,000 with over 28,400 taking decisions for Christ in the 66 venues where we had meetings.

THE FATHER'S HOUSE BEGINS

The Father's House came to us has a gift from God. After the Tsunami came, we were much troubled to see the children parentless, without proper food, clothing and care. In 2004, we made application to start an orphanage in Chennai but tabled it because our daughter Pauline’s going for studies in Dallas, Texas (USA). But on the last day of our January Project, the Lord helped us through Pastor Vance Murphy, USA to start the Father's House. We praise God for him and the other brothers and sisters who are part of this ministry. We opened on February 1 with a few children and at present we have 45 children ranging from 4 to 13 years.

GHI LOCAL MINISTRY 10th – 18th FEBRUARY

Every year Feb is a good month. In the village people do not have much work. They have harvest in Dec and Jan and in Feb they are free. The weather is also very good. It is not hot or too cold. So people normally stay at home and have time to listen to what others say.

On 10th February we started the ministry in the evening and went to 3 villages. We preached to 209 people and 196 people were saved. It was amazing to see how the Kattor village people accepted us, although they opposed us in Dec and prevented the villagers from going to the church. But now they not only accepted us but happily received the message of the Gospel.

On the 11th Feb we visited 7 villages and preached the Gospel. Mostly we went to Andra Pradesh on this day. But by God's grace we preached to 64 people and 45 people took decision for Christ. We are praying for this area. We have not started any worshiping congregation in Andra Pradesh. There is a possibility of starting the church in Navasapuram nearby village Armakar.

From 12th -18th Feb, we ministered in 40 more villages. And at the close of the outreach, we ministered in 50 villages, preaching to 1050 people and by God's grace saw 905 people taking decisions for Christ. Among 50 villages Atmakar, Devakanikapuram, Ponnaipudur, Kesakuppam, Sangatanoor, Veera-mangalam, Pudur, Challichamalapalli (A.P) and Pariya-Bodenathan are the villages that responded well. Some of them asked us when you will be coming again. We informed them about our church but ours in 20 kms away from their. So we asked them to go to near by churches.

THE IMPACT OF 9 DAYS MINISTRY

As a result of those days of ministry, we strongly felt that we should start churches in 4 places: Mangamarathamedu, (one center) one in Andra near Atmakur, the third one in Ramapuram and fourth one in Pariya Bodenatham.

27th MARCH - 5TH APRIL

We always thank God for one or two people, whom the Lord used to take us to the unreached areas. GHIndia and International always delight to visit the village which has not been reached with the Gospel. So we thank God for Samuel, who is a convert from the high caste (Chettiar). He took us to Paralayakapuram and Kolathakupam. In both villages people had listened to the Gospel with much interest and we saw 75 people listen to the Gospel with 60 taking decisions.

There is always a question if 60 people accepted the Lord then there is a good possibility for a bigcongregation. But we do not have resources, people and time for me to go again to the villages, stay there and disciple them. Honestly speaking we do not have people and needed financial support to place pastors  to do the church planting.  Please pray for our resources for this.

Again from 28th March to 2nd April, we visited 45 villages. There was a great response to the Gospel. We did not face any opposition in these villages. I consider the following villages the most receptive - Eamaplur, Balakrish-napuram and Srinivasapuram. And we think there will be a chance later for us to plant a church in Srinivasapuram but the head of the village, Mr. Ravi, is indirectly working against us, though he speaks nice to us when we meet him.  So at the end of the project, we preached in 49 villages with 999 people listening to the Gospel and 597 people taking decisions for Christ.

T ESTIMONIES

We had met some people who regularly listened to the radio and watch the TV Christian program. Our visit became a follow up work of salvation. It further helped them to firm in their faith. The villagers always think Christ is the God of low caste God. This time in most of the village theyconfessed Christ is there God too. As Paul struggled to present that Jesus is the Christ. In the same way we need to struggle with the Hindus to let them know that Jesus is the only God and the only Savior and he is Lord of all the castes in India.

YOUTH MINISTRY

By the grace of God, we organised a meeting for the young people. About 60 young people attended the one day retreat. In the morning session about 31 indicated their decision for Christ and in the afternoon session about 17 indicated their decision for Christ. Praise be to God for his grace to save.

GHI AND DTS STUDENTS MINISTRY REPORT

By the grace of God about 3 students came from DTS to minister along with GHI. Christina a teen age girls also ministered with GHI.

The major ministry was teaching at the Harvesters Training College. They taught 1 Corinthians, Synoptic Gospels and Church History. Right now we are teaching Old Testament Survey, Biblical Preaching and Teaching Methods.

They also went to about 8 villages for personal evangelism. The Lord was very gracious to open many people to the Gospel. About 50 people were drawn to the Savior as the Gospel was presented.

The Lord also used the GHI team and the DTS students in preaching at the various village congregations and visiting the people in their homes.

REPORT ABOUT HTC

By God's grace the HTC students started their one year field work from Jan'05. We have placed them in Goduvarpalli, Nadumore, Pudur and the women are staying at the GHI center. At present the women are ministering at Srinivasapuram, Kattoor as well as taking on the role of wardens at the Father's House. The men are looking after the churches at Nadumore, Goduvarpalli and also go for evangelism in the surrounding villages.

From June, we started up classes for them to finish some of the course work which we were not able to cover up in 2 years time. In addition there were some extra subjects to comply with the Asia Theological Association (ATA).

CHURCH LIFE

We have regular worship service in Keerasath, Goduvarpalli, Nadumoor and Kattoor. We are planning to have Bible Study in Venkapuram every week on Sundays and in Chettivarapalli on Wednesdays.

PLAN FOR THE FUTURE

God willing we will be having a retreat for about 15 villages on the 18th of Sept. We pray and hope that the Lord will draw many to his fold and also strengthen the believers in their walk with the Lord.We are also planning to have two more evangelistic projects in Sep/Oct 2005 and Nov 2005.

Prayerfully,

James Sundar and
Aaron John Samuel