Our Church history

Introduction

I am very thankful to my teacher Dr. Shivraj K. Mahendra, who enabled me to take a step forward to research and know about my local church in which I have been and I will be part of, as per the divine will of God for my personal life.

Content

In this paper, I am going to describe a short history of my home church, which is founded by my father. I mentioned it as a home church because my home and church are seperated just by a wall. Even though we officially registered it as a Church, my father prefers to call it like that. It is because, from the beginning of his ministry to now, my father has been facing several oppositions from our neighbouring residents who are radical hindus. To defend for the presence of a Church in midst of the Hindu region, my father argues that this is our home and we are just conducting prayers weekly in it. Thus I am going to write about the brief history of our ‘house of prayer’ which is named as “Immanuel Pentecostal Church of God”, including my father’s biography which is almost the same as our Church’s biography. I was baptised by my father in 2016 and this is the only church that I have been attending from my childhood. Thus my Father is my local church pastor. My local Church’s pastor name is Rev. A. Daiva Kumar.

Location:- Our Church is located on a canal bank (‘bandar canal’ which was dug by Britishers 2 centuries ago), in a village called Penamaluru, which is located next to the Vijayawada urban (12km from Krishna river bank - the heart of the city). It is a (bandar canal) bank which contains a single row of houses, nearly around 300 in our village jurisdiction, paved with a straight horizantal road (The other side of the canal also contains the same pattern). There are agricultural fields infront of these rows of houses paved with a straight horizantal road and many new houses and buildings have been being built since the past few years.

Church and ministry programmes

*Since the establishment of our church in Penamaluru, our pastor has baptised more than 120 people and our current Church holds nearly 50 believers since there had been a partition of believers in 2014. (the causes of the partition are not mentioned here)

*Our church has been having oppositions, quarrels, miracles, visions, exorcisms, speaking in tongues, outdoor gospel convention meetings (more than 10 under our Church’s authority), children ministry programmes, Bible seminary programmes for pastors (this began in 2000 and has been continuing every month until now), charity works(food and cloth distribution during heavy floods in Machilipatnam and Vijayawada in 2006 and etc.), internal Church intercessory & fasting prayer days, all which the early apostolic church had.

*In 2010, our pastor had received a vision and call from God to conduct prayers every month, in one of his relative’s factory in Hyderebad. Our pastor had managed to do that ministry for two years and quit it because of some reasons.

*In 2016, our Pastor received a specific call and vision from God, to begin ministry in a place called Krishnalanka where our Pastor had lived along with his family during his childhood, received Christ, attended Church, and was baptised and worked as a teacher in his former days. So he took a house(number ‘4’ in the map) for rent there (imitating his old pattern that he followed before 2006) and began to conduct worship services there on every Sunday

*There has been no expansion and growth in our ministry from 2014 in terms of number of (extra) believers being added into the Church. Currently our pastor travels to and fro from Penamaluru and Krishnalanka to conduct worship services on Sundays and monthly Pastors’ gatherings in both the places, where 10 Pastors gather for once in every month and pray for each other and admonish. Our church does not have any financial support from any organisations but our pastor meets his personal needs and ministerial needs by the offerings and tithes received in the Church.

Short biography of our Church founder/pastor

Our Pastor came from a Hindu family. His family was migrated from a village called Chandrala, which is 50km away from Vijayawada, to a place called Krishnalanka, which is at the centre of the Vijayawada city, at his very young age (when he was 7 years old). It was a very poor family and his mother washed clothes in several houses and his father was a daily wage worker and wanderer. They continued to be hindus until a time when they lived in a rented house whose tenants were Christians. The tenants were very polite and lovely, said my grandmother. They always invited our Pastor’s family to attend the Church nearby their home. The tenants were relatives of the Pastor of thar local church. Our pastor used to attend sunday school services and Church programmes and somehow God touched His life as he was earnestly habituated to read bible and pray, because of his Sunday school lessons. In 1987, He accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior and was baptised at the age of 16. Later he did several jobs like riding boat, working in printing press etc., after finishing his matriculation. As per His school Principal’s invitation, he began to work as a school teacher in the same school in which he had studied before. While he was teaching and continuing his normal Christian life, God called him to do his ministry and in 1993, he joined in Zion bible college to do his D.Th. (Diploma in Theology). Zion Bible college was founded by Pr.P.M. Samuel, a pentecostal missionary from Kerela(Pastor P.M.Samuel was a companion of Rev.K.E. Abraham, who is well known as the pioneer of Indian Pentecostal movement). That is where, our Pastor says that, he had a closer and deep intimacy with God and experienced the Spirit baptism. During the vacation of his first year, the college had sent him to a village called Penamaluru, to minister in a home-Church(This home-church is displayed with number ‘1’ in the map) in which the previous pastor had died. From then on, our Pastor conducted weekly Sunday worship services there. Few believers from that particular congregation had requested the pastor to start a new church in their place and offered him a land to build Church. And our pastor began to conduct Church services there from 1994. After finishing his graduation in 1995, he came back to his teaching proffession to maintain his family’s financial needs for: the marriage of his younger sister, the study of his younger brother, and the treatment of his sick mother who resisted him to do God’s ministry. He worked both as a private school teacher and an independent pastor in Penamaluru.

On 24th may of the year 1999, He got married and in the same year, on August 26, they built a small thatched roof church in the land given by the believers in Penamaluru (This church is displayed in the map with number ‘2’) and he quit his job to fully involve in the ministry. Meanwhile, he gave his sister to marriage with a pastor; his brother began to earn and his mother recovered from cancer as she saw a clear vision from God to set her son apart for ministry in Penamaluru. So he and his wife settled in Penamaluru by living in a rented house until they built their own house in 2006 along with which they built a new Church on November 19, 2008. This house and Church are where I and my father’s ministry grew (This church is depicted with number ‘3’ in the map). We re-constructed this Church and home recently in 2020.

Conclusion

Writing this paper has led me through emotions like surprise and gratitude; and it is motivating me to know more about God’s will for the Churches that He has been establishing everywhere in the world (especially about my own local Church); and to seek His help for exercising and accomplishing His purposes and divine gracious plans in them (it). I learnt about the everlasting mercies of God that He has been lavishing in every corner of this world by systematically establishing His sanctuaries (Churches) in midst of several kinds of people who are in the need of His divine presence; and about His burdensome and strategic plans of choosing His ministers from nowhere to serve people belonging to somewhere (a particular region). I personally thank my teacher who has given me this blessed opportunity to write this paper, which helped me to know about my own Church and my place and responsibilities in it.