Church Buildings

Dear Friend in Christ,
Sugad was stunned when he answered the door and found several pagan priests standing outside. Immediately all sorts of warning bells went off in his mind. After all, to them he represented the competition!

What was even more surprising was their request. They asked the native missionary to pray to his God for a critically ill girl from an animist family. To save time, they had brought her along after they realized that they could not heal her with their chants and rituals.

What had made these priests willing to humble themselves, admit their lack of power and seek help from the Christian God?

It was an incident that happened a few weeks earlier. The girl's sister had fallen seriously ill and her parents had summoned different priests to offer prayers and animal sacrifices to their gods for her healing. However when all their efforts proved in vain, the family priest washed his hands and left their home. As a last resort the parents invited Sugad to pray for their daughter, which resulted in her complete recovery.

Perceiving that God wanted to confirm to these priests and the community that indeed He was the only true and living God, Sugad agreed to pray for the second girl as well.

The young native missionary found himself in a strange "prayer meeting."? He alone called upon Jesus while his unusual visitors stood right beside him to watch what his God would do.

The Lord in His faithfulness answered His servant's prayer in a powerful way, and the sick girl was miraculously made whole.

No doubt the priests and the people of this rural village in Jharkhand, India, have seen a great light and God in His love is drawing one after another to Himself. Both girls the Lord healed received Jesus as their Savior and the church Brother Sugad planted in this area keeps growing steadily. In fact, the number of believers has now increased to a point where they no longer fit in a private home but desperately need a church building.

Hundreds of congregations that our missionaries established across Asia are in the same tight situation, and that's why I write this letter to you today.

All of us rejoice and praise God when a new church is born in an unreached area. We pray that the number of believers will multiply and the church will become that "city set on a hill"? Jesus talked about in Matthew 5:14. And indeed, it is only a matter of time before such a new fellowship of believers becomes clearly visible to the community—and to their enemies. That is when they must move from a home into a larger, rented facility to accommodate all the church members and visitors.

Though a joyous occasion, it is often also the beginning of serious problems and persecution. Angered by the presence and activities of the church, anti-Christian individuals and groups will persecute the believers and threaten all those who associate with them such as visitors and seekers. In addition, they will put serious pressure on any present or future landlord until he cancels the lease.

This forces the church to move from one place to another until they run out of options.

For a pastor, building a solid work under such adverse circumstances is very difficult. Even if his congregation stays faithful, the situation is less than inviting for any potential visitors.

The greatest need for such a harassed church is to have a place of its own where believers can worship Jesus in peace and grow in their faith without constant interference. The very best thing is if growing congregations such as Brother Sugard's can build their own church homes and not have to rent at all.

Right now we have well over 1,000 churches that have reached this crossroad and are in desperate need of a building.

The average cost of a simple concrete and brick building that reflects the local culture and seats 300 people is $11,000 [Australia $15,000, Canada $13,200, New Zealand $18,000, United Kingdom £6,400].

This sounds more than reasonable to us, but for many of these young churches on the Indian subcontinent it is a huge amount that goes far beyond their ability to raise on their own.

There is a solution to this problem, which our churches embrace with enthusiasm and eagerness: The believers donate materials and labor and go as far as they possibly can with the construction of their church home. At the same time they pray and believe that God will provide the funds for the land and the building's completion through their brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ.

With this letter I want to sincerely ask you today to express your love for these new believers and your oneness with them. Pray for their protection, and decide to help them with an extra special gift toward their own church home so they can freely worship Jesus.

Thank you for being a blessing and encouragement to all our churches.

Yours for Asia's unreached multitudes,


K.P. Yohannan