Throughout 2008, the Lord has shown His mercy upon us in the midst of various troubles and persecution.
The church where I am pastoring in Chettipatty has grown in grace and in numbers and also in finance. The church became self-supporting since past two years and supporting a pastor for full-time ministry. In the same way, the church in Thinnapatty and Angiam also became self-supporting. We are encouraging all the other churches to support their own pastors in near future. We are thankful to our friends who are still supporting our poor pastors whose churches are not able to support their ministers due to their poor income.
During this year, the Lord led us to expand His work in Ramnad District down south of Tamilnadu. Brother Rajangam who worked with our orphanage in Chettipatty in the past had returned to his village named Abiramam in the above mentioned district. Since then, he started evangelizing in his own village. As the Lord used him as a powerful instrument, so far 15 people have been converted.
By the immense mercy of God, Yercaud Church building and parsonage construction has been completed after 3 years. Raman Immanuel has already moved into the parsonage and is pastoring the church. The remaining 8 churches in Tamilnadu and 3 churches in Andhrapradesh are still with us. There were 30 new converts baptized during the past year.
Child Care: the children in the orphanages have grown physically and spiritually. We keep teaching the Word of God in the daily prayers, Bible study, and worship services. We have had to close 2 child care centers, but were able to open up 3 new ones, in different locations. There are now 6 care centers, serving 295 children.
Community Health Care: we continue to operate our mobile clinic, visiting about 25 villages in all. Since October, we moved the program to the Omalur area and modified it, opening five clinics in the five major villages of the area. So far we have been able to treat 558 patients. Also, the construction for the Fair Haven Health Clinic has been completed and is ready for use.
Without the mercy of God and the help of the saints, the work could not have accomplished up to this stage. On behalf of the preachers, orphans, and staff I want to express our deep thanks to you for all your support and partnership extended to the work of the Lord in India.
