In November last year Pastor B. Balunayak, the leader of Balunayak Banjara Tribal Ministries at Baluthanda, in Andhra Pradesh State was praising the Lord as they had been able to get the roof of their new church building completed before the monsoon rains. The church sanctuary is on the top floor and the bottom floor is accommodation. (Picture at right)
The congregation was able to raise sufficient funds to complete the building and on 29 April, Mission Manager Immanuel, accompanied by Rev Paul Aruldoss from the Advent Christian Conference of India, travelled by train to Baluthanda to attend the dedication of the newly completed building.
The dedication day was a Friday and a working day and many of the approximately 100 believers were not able to attend the service, but about 35 attended and rejoiced as Immanuel and Rev Paul Aruldoss cut the ribbon at the doorway, prayed a prayer of dedication before entering and then everyone joined together for fellowship at the service at which Immanuel gave the address.
The building, at 26 feet by 12 feet (7.9 metres x 3.6 metres) is small but is a reasonable size for the village but will be very crowded when all the believers can join together for worship, but the congregation are praising the Lord for the provision of the building which is of course a permanent witness to the Lord in the village.
At the completion of the dedication service Pastor Balunayak took the two visitors about 15 kilometres from Baluthanda to the town of Mahabubabad, which is where he and his family are based, to view progress on the new church building there. The building presently only has the foundations and columns completed and construction is stopped until further funds can be raised. Pastor Balunayak also has ministries in the nearby villages of Gorimella and Salarthanda. They then visited the homes of 5 of the believers in Mahabubabad to fellowship and pray with them before catching the train back to Chennai.
Please pray for Pastor Balunayak and his family and believers as they continue to witness for their Lord in this difficult area of the State.
Please also pray for the Lord’s provision to allow the completion of the church building at Mahabubabad.