Help Build A Church In India

Dear Friends,

 

After almost four months away it is good to be home. These past two weeks I have been struggling to recover from jet lag and climate readjustment. It's difficult explaining to your body that it is now on the other side of the world again.

I want to thank everyone that made our visit to Canada such a success. Asha and so appreciate your hospitality and kindness. Have a look below at our latest project.

This update we want to bring to you an urgent need for a new headquarters church. The building was built 40 years ago as a temporary structure and is now falling apart. The walls are crumbling and the roof has started caving in.  On Easter Sunday we baptized 23 new converts and we are now full to capacity. Our need is to build a bigger facility that will hold the whole congregation so they can gather inside out of the blazing sun. 

Church from the front.

Church from the side.

The church will be used for Sunday worship services but also Pastors seminars, revival meetings and community out reach. The budget for the new church is $90,000 CAD. 

You can help by: Sending a team, committing to build part of the building, for example the basement, walls, flooring or the roof each will cost approximately $10,000 CAD.  Inviting us to share the vision and take up a love offering for the project.

Church from the back.

Please prayerfully consider what you can do to help build a church in India.

Thank you,

Prasad and Dawn

Dear Friends,

Gang member.

The past few months can be summed up in two words hot and busy. Officially summer is over in India and children are now back to school. But the heat continues with temperatures in the low forties. 

Man with leprosy.

  

On Easter Sunday all of the “Healing Gospel Churches” came together to celebrate. To God be the Glory Prasad baptized 23 people on Easter Sunday. From the young to the very old from a gangster with a price on his head to couple suffering from leprosy they all made a public declaration to follow Christ. The heat was unbearable that day and by times Prasad wished he was being baptized himself but some how he managed to hold on until the end.

The month of May we welcomed some very special guest into our home.  Every year in May “Hope for the Children” closes it’s doors and most of the children go home. Those that don’t have a home or that don’t want to go home, come and stay with us for the summer holiday.   

So our family of 3 expanded to 8 as 5 of our kids and “Joey” the dog came and spent the summer with us. 

 The summer was spent playing games, and finding ways to stay cool. The fact that due to problems with our well we had no running water and the two hours a day of power cuts made things that much more interesting. 

To finish the summer we took the kids to Kishkintha an amusement park here in Chennai.  

On May 15^th Prasad held a pastors seminar at our church head quarters. The meeting was held outside because the building has become too small to hold these types of meetings. We were blessed by the amount of pastors that attended and received from Gods word and appreciated them braving the heat and spending the day outside under a tarp.

Pentecostal Sunday May 27^th, Prasad was asked to help organize a meeting for Christians of different denominations to come and pray for revival in India and around the world. Although India is a democratic country with freedom of religion, we still faced opposition to the meetings from Hindu extremists. Thanks to the local police for keeping the peace we were able to hold the meetings with out incidence. About 50 RSS (Hindu Extremists) were arrested before the meeting started.

After weeks of hard work and Prasad spending the last few nights leading up to the meetings out all night putting up thousands of posters. The meetings were a huge success. Over 4000 people gathered to take part. The feeling of being in one accord and praying for the great nation on India was thrilling!

On June 20^th Asha and I will be heading home to Canada I will be looking for opportunities to share about what God is doing in India. If you would like to have us come and speak please contact us at prasaddawn@hotmail.com.

With love and prayer,

Prasad and Dawn

Dear Friends,

Often times when we make a request we like a quick short easy answer. Or at least I do. But with God he often takes his time in answering. While we wait patiently or not so patiently God begins to work on relationship with him. Soon he turns our impatience into trust and faith and soon we find ourselves leaning on his "Everlasting Arms". This update is about one of those times.

Shortly after moving to India we met Pastor David and his family. He told us his burden to reach his community of Avadi. He soon became apart of the PAOI (Pentecostal Assemblies of India). In the beginning we were meeting in a building, which belonged to David’s in-laws. The family thought we may eventually claim the building for the organization so the congregation was thrown out of the building and had no place to worship. The congregation was devastated and came to us for help.

We knew we had to find a new building for the church to meet.

With the scorching sun in summer and pouring rains during the rainy season the people needed a church. We soon found that it would be impossible to rent a building to hold a church service. Our only option was to buy a piece of land and to build a church.

Miracle number one: God works in mysterious ways, while we were desperately looking for a piece of land short on funds and time we were approached by a Muslim man in the community. Seeing our need he offered to sell us a piece of land right beside the building where the church had been.

Miracles number two: When this man heard that we wanted to build a church he offered to sell us the land and half of the regular price.

We put up a temporary church building for the congregation to meet. Just a simple hut made of coconut leaves and bamboo. We began to believe God for a new church building.

Many people saw the humble hut and believed with us for a new building.

At Christmas 2009 that year I announced to the church people that some of the funds had come in and that we would soon start construction on the church in the New Year.

Construction began on the new building and we knew God would build “his”church. Slowly we saw the funds come in for the church and the foundation was laid. In the middle of construction a great need arose. Pastor David and his family had to move from their home where they had been living.

This is when the next miracle took place. Murray Cornelius and the "HEART" program donated funds to the project. With this money we were able to build Pastor David a new home for his family and continue you work on the church.

Work continued on and for a while and we had run out of fund and began to trust God. Just when we felt that our faith was being stretched funds would come again and we would continue on. Thanks again to "Heart" for a donation and we saw the beautiful building completed.

On Feb26th we dedicated this beautiful new building to the Lord! God has truly done a great thing. This church is just not a structure but a testament to God’s faithfulness to his children. Although the journey may have taken us longer than we would have anticipated we would never want to change it. It has boosted our faith blessed us to see what God can do.

Looking ahead, in May most of of the kids from "Hope for the Children" will be heading home for the month for their summer break. Those that have no parents or relatives or that don't want to go home come to stay with us. Please keep the kids in your prayers as they head home this summer.

Much love and prayer,

Prasad and Dawn

Feb 2012

Dear Friends,

After a busy Christmas season things have begun to slow down a little. Before I bring you up to date on what we have been up to. I want to thank a couple of people that helped us with raising funds for the Christmas party at “Hope for the Children”

First we want to thank Pastor Laura Bogner (South

Side Worship Centre Ajax Ontario) and her Sunday school children for their help. Also Thanks to Sarah Colantonio (Highway Gospel Church Scarborough Ontario). The children had a great Christmas because of you.

January 15,16, 17, 18^th we held special meetings. It

was jointly held by the South Chennai fellowship. Thanks to all who prayed with us and for us during that time. The meetings were a great success!

Although the weather was cold for Indians and the Canadians that live here down to 18

C or 64F we still saw about fou

r to six thousand people Per night.

Each night we saw hundreds come forward for prayer healing and deliverance. Live

s were changed, people set free from fear and depression. What an amazing time and what a privilege to be apart of it.

On the 26^th of January we took all 42 of the kids from Hope for the Children on a field trip. What a great day! It’s an honor to b

e a part of these children’s lives. To watch them grow and learn.

BEFORE AFTER

Looking ahead we will be dedicating our latest church plant in the town of Avadi. On the 26^th of Feb. Thank you for your prayers.We want to thank Agincourt Pentecostal Church, Murray Cornelius Heart Project, Cedarview Community Church and Stewart Hunter for funding this project.

The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.
Deuteronomy 28:12-14

May God richly bless,

Prasad, Dawn and Asha