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

Update Nov 2011

Dear friends,

It is great to be home! We arrived safe and sound back in India on the 5^th of Nov. We were greeted with the sounds and smells of India. It was 25C at 3AM quite a difference compared to Canada.


We want to start our new letter by thanking all of you that made our trip so special. Thanks to all
the pastors and churches that allowed us to share and to all of our friends and family for their hospitality and love.

As many of you know Hannah stayed in Canada to continue her schooling. We thank you all for your prayer support. Although we miss Hannah a lot it is a great comfort to us that she is settling in well and has started a new job.

We want to bring you up to date on a couple of projects. First the Hope for the Children construction and updates are finished and it looks like a new place.

Thanks to Pastor Zis Moradi from KRT Brampton for funding this whole project. The kids now have a beautiful new facility.

I also want to introduce our latest project, “New Beginnings Learning Center”. Many of you know and support Women Helping Widows. WHW is a widow’s ministry that I started to help poor and abandoned widows in our churches. From this ministry came a dream to start a center where women can learn a trade. We are planning on opening a center and restarting our sewing ministry.We will offer free sewing classes to women.

So many women in the villages are living in abusive situations because they can’t leave. They are poor with no skills or education they depend on their husbands for their financial support. Because many men are addicted to alcohol they spend their money at the local wine shop leaving the family with little or no money.


New Beginnings will offer women an opportunity to break the cycle of abuse and poverty. It will give them a better life and improve the life of their children. It will also open the doors to us to share the Gospel and the love of Jesus.

If you would like to partner with us in helping these women please contact us at prasaddawn@hotmail.com.

Looking ahead to the next month we are getting ready to start the very busy Christmas season. With all of it's Christmas programs in all the churches we give leadership to, widows party and children's party. If you would like to send a gift towards the Christmas programs please send it to the PAOC national office. Please note Samsons Chennai Christmas and drop us a line to notify us of your gift.

Advanced Christmas wishes to you all,

Prasad, Dawn and Asha.

Dear Friends,

Summer in Canada is just beginning while summer in India has come to an end.
Summer means a break from school for the children at the home and a begging of our daily vacation bible school for the churches. This is an opportunity to reach out to the children and parents in the community. The DVBS ran for one week and was well attended. We pray that God will water all the seeds that were planted in many children's lives.

As we wind down from this busy time we wanted to update you on what has been going on with our family. The new addition to the children’s home is finished at last. It is a great blessing to see this done. Now we have started on phase two of the renovations. Some much needed remodelling on the existing home.

On Palm Sunday we celebrated with a parade or as they say in India a “processional”. We walk through the village singing songs and caring palm branches.

In May myself and with Hannah and Asha headed home for Canada. Prasad will be staying behind for a few months to care for the children’s home and churches and will be joining us later in the summer.
We will be looking for opportunities to iterate and would like to visit as many of our church families as possible. If you would like to have us speak please contact us at our hotmail address. We will be in the Mari times until Sep 12th and in Ontario from September 13th until Nov 3. We look forward to hearing form you.

Prasad and Dawn

Update Dec-Feb 2011

Update Dec - Feb
After only a few short weeks winter has finished and spring is now here. Day time temps are in the low thirties and we know that summer is just around the corner.
In Dec we celebrated Christmas with family and friends. The month flew by with many Christmas programs and the children’s party.
This month we held our second Indian Field Retreat. This is a time for all of the PAOC missionaries to come together for a time of fellowship and to bond as a team. Our special speaker this year was Rev David Hazzard Assistant Superintendent for Fellowship Ministries and Rev Crag Burton District Superintendent for Eastern Ontario. We had a great time with the team and are already looking forward to next year.

We are excited to tell you about our latest church plant. Often we face trials and challenges when we start a new church this time was no different. We were asked to come and start a church in this are after the original church building had been torn down.

On February 6th we held our fist service next to the rubble of the old building. Please pray for this small church congregation. We want to thank Lori Gibbons the District Superintendent for Western ON for sharing a very special word that morning.

The finishing touches are being put on the new addition at the children’s home and should be finished next month! It is a blessing to see the home almost finished and knowing that soon we be able to help many more boys and girls. Thanks to Pastor Zia Morardi KRT Brampton for funding the full project.
Looking ahead we will be heading home to Canada in the month of May. We are still settling on a date so please keep this in your prayers. Looking foward to seeing you soon!

Prasad, Dawn, Hannah and Asha

Dear friends,
We want to start our update by wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year. The rainy season has arrived in Southern India. Days of scattered showers and heavy rains a week can pass without seeing the blue sky. Children look forward to rain days just as kids in Canada love their snow days.
Just a few weeks ago we finished with our last team from Canada. A total of four teams this year. Each team was a blessing to us and to the people we minister to. We are now gearing up for the busy Christmas season.

On Oct 23 we welcomed the WM team to Chennai. This team focused on women, children and widows. The team was led by Sandra Gill WM director for Canada. In just a short 10 days the team visited 3 three schools and entertained, educated and blessed over 1400 children. In the evenings we visited our widows a total of 75 over a period of 3 days. On Saturday Oct 30th we held a one day WM event with over 200 ladies attending.

School children learned about life in Canada they also had a special visit from Joy the clown. Joy talked about creation and how God created everyone special and beautiful. The team planted seeds of hope and love in these Hindu children’s hearts.

In the evenings we visited our widows, some nights visiting them right in their homes. This gave the team a look into the life that these desperately poor women live. Left alone and often abused having the team visit them is an event these ladies will never forget.

One night the ladies walked more than a KM through the mud and rain to hold a meeting for our widows. Slipping and sliding all the way the ladies finally arrived. Between the showers Sandra blessed the ladies with a message and then each widow received a new sari and a bag of groceries.
Flourish! That was the theme for the WM event. You are beautiful, you are worthy, you can grow and flourish. Much needed words of compassion and love to these ladies. The WM team reached into the hearts of ladies and encouraged them blessed them and gave them hope.

We want to thank each and every member of the WM team for choosing Indian and for all of the hard work that was done. A big thank you goes out to Sandra Gill and to Donna and Dan Davies that helped co lead the team. They overcame many challenges along the way but lead this team with grace and love. We also want to thank “Covered by Love” quilt project and Sandra Morton who brought us so many beautiful quilts.

As we look to the New Year we can’t help but wonder what God has in store. Early in the year the new addition to the children’s home will be completed and we will be able to accommodate many more new children.
Our church plant in the town of Avadi will soon be finished and we will be able to hold services inside a brand new building.
Christmas brings challenges being stretched in many different directions and the distance between family and friends always feels a little further at Christmas. At the same time it’s a honour to serve those around us.
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas,

Prasad, Dawn, Hannah and Asha

Dear Friends,
The months have flow by and we are now heading into the rainy season. Days of rain and mud puddles that resembles small lakes.

The past months have been full with teams and visitors from home. After returning from our regional retreat in July we were visited by our second team this year. We welcomed APC "Agincourt Pentecostal Church" Scarborough. This was a special time for us because the team leader Pastor Laura Bogner and her husband Andy have been friends of ours for many years.

The team focused on children’s ministry. During the day visiting schools and in the evening holding children’s crusades. Hundreds of children were touched, loved and moved by the team’s ministry. Magic tricks, puppets and games were just a few of the items the team had brought along with them.
The team reached out to some of the poorest of the poor including a visit to a leper colony and a fabulous party at our children’s home. We want to thank the APC team for all of their hard work. You did an awesome job!

In August work started again on our church plant. Thanks to the HEART project started by Murray Cornelius. The walls were going up when work was shifted to a much needed home for the pastor of the church. Pastor David and his family were forced to move three times this year and could not find a home suitable for his family. Thanks to the HEART program Pastor David and his family will have a place to live.

Because of the construction of the home we still need $10,000 dollars to complete the project. Please pray that we will see the funds raised for the project. Our prayer is that we will be able to hold a service in the new church by Christmas.

In September we began preparation for our next team KRT "Kennedy Road Tabernacle"Brampton. KRT has been supporting our ministry since 2006 when a team came and began construction on “Hope for the Children”. They visited again in 2007 to build the compound wall around the home.

This time KRT came to begin construction on the home of an additional building to house the boys at the home. Not only did KRT help build the foundation but thanks to Pastor Jamie Stewart and Zia Moradi they also helped in a huge way to fund this project.

Over the past two week the team carried cement “Indian Style” on their heads. Dug holes and moved mountains of mud. All the work paid off and at the end of the two weeks they had laid the foundation for the new building.
In the between the construction they took part in outreach, a children’s party at the home and a very exciting visit to a leper colony. We thank them for all their hard work and flexibility.
A look forward our next team arrives the end of this month our WM (Women’s Ministries) team will be focusing on women and children ministries.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers as our ministry continues to move forward.

Prasad and Dawn

Update April and May

Dear friends,
Spring has gone and we are now at the end of the summer season. Temperatures that were above 40C and humidity at 86% for many weeks have now cooled down to 35C. It has been a busy season for us.

In March we held Pastor Conferences with several hundred pastors attending. Many of the pastors traveled hundreds of KM to attend. Thank you to Pastor Marshall Eizenga from Waterloo Ontario who spoke at the conferences. We hwldo two days seminor.The first day Pastor Marshall spoke on the subject The Holey Spirt. The second day he spoke on the subject Leadership. It was an eye opener and we got some very good feed back from the local pastors.

Also during the same time we held a special woman’s meeting our special speaker Sandra McIntosh shared. Over two hundred ladies attended the meeting. Sandra edified and uplifted the ladies speaking to them about how beautiful they are in God's eyes. How special and precious they are to him. These ladies were touched and ministered to by Sandra and her word.

In May we held special revival meetings. The dates were the 18th 19th and 20th of May. The day the meetings were to begin a tropical storm blew in and the weather forecast was rain, wind and thunderstorms for all three days. We asked people to pray that the weather will hold. The first night the weather was beautiful with just a sprinkle of rain from time to time. Our special speaker Brother Williams who spoke and sang the word of God. Brother Williams spoke on the righteous path, the path of peace, the path of purity and the path to heaven. Over one thousand people attended the first night.

On day two the storm was full force our stage, banners and most of our lights were destroyed, blow away or damaged. By three o'clock in the afternoon the decision was made to cancel the meeting.

But by the third night the weather had miraculously cleared and we went ahead with the third day meeting. With over one thousand four hundred people attending brother Moses Rajasekar spoke, sang and testified of God's goodness. Brother Moses is compltely blind and is dependent on dialsis and yet travels throught out India and the world singing and preaching.
We want to thank everyone that prayed for the meetings we saw many people come forward for healing and salvation. It was a true miracle that we were able to hold the two meetings!

Things have been quiet at the children’s home the past month. Many of the children go home for summer holidays. While the children were away God provided the funds so that we could have a play ground installed at the home.

Construction has stopped at the church in Avadi. We were able to finish the foundation and floor and start the construction on the walls. We can not continue this project with out your help. Please pray that we will be able to finish this project before the rainy season. If you are interested in more information about our church building project please have a look at our prior blog you can email us prasaddawn@hotmail.com.

Looking to the coming month, in July we are expecting a team from Agincourt Pentecostal Church. We look forward to this team Lead by Pastor Laura Bogner focusing on children’s ministry.

This year we have at least two more teams coming our way. 2010 is becoming a very busy year for us.

Please continue to pray for our family our budget is still in deficit and we are believing that God will work a miracle in this area.

Blessings,

Prasad and Dawn

Dear Friends

I am writing this Blog to ask for your help with our latest project.

One of the churches we give leadership to is in a town North of Chennai called Avadi (some of you have visited this church). We were meeting in a large church building provided by a family member. It was a solid structure and quite adequate to hold the church of about 200 members.

In 2007 we were told to leave their church building. The congregation was given only one month to find a suitable building to meet in. Out of desperation the whole congregation went to the land lord’s house and begged him to reconsider. He would not and told them to leave immediately.

This left the church with no meeting place and Pastor David (our associate pastor)
and his family with no home. They had been living in a small apartment above the church.

We began looking for a piece of land to build a temporary building for them to meet in. The land prices in the area were very high and nothing seemed to be available. Just when we didn’t know where to turn God came through. A Muslim man offered us a piece of land for half price. It was right beside the old church building and in a good area. Right away we put the money together and bought the land. As we left for Canada in 2007 they were able to build a small hut where the people could meet for church.



At Christmas time they extended the building to hold the crowds of people. Still every Sunday people sit out side in the hot sun to hear the sermon.

As you can see the church is very small. The walls are made of coconut leaves covered on the inside with cloth. The roof is also made of coconut leaves that leak in the rainy season. Despite their church building Avadi is a healthy growing church. They are praying for a new church building one that is big enough for

the entire congregation.

On our visit to Canada in 2009 we began to raise funds for this project. So far we have raised $5000 of the $20,000 needed to complete the project. By faith we have started constructing the building. In March Prasad laid the first bricks to begin the project,



Here is where we need your help. First we are asking for everyone to pray for the church in Avadi. Pray for Pastor David his wife Gitsey and their two children. Pray for Pastor David and his family that they will continue to see the church grow as they reach their community for Christ.


Second we ask you to join us as we raise funds for a new church building. As I mentioned we have raised $5000 of the $20,000 needed to complete the project. Without help we will have to stop the construction. Please pray that God will provide the funds needed to finish the church.

If you would like to help with this project you can make check payable to the PAOC. Memo the Samson's Avadi Church Planting Project.

Thank you for your support. You are making a difference in India.

Blessings,

Prasad and Dawn