“Teach me Your way O Lord; I will walk in Your truth: unite my heart to fear Your name.”
Psalm 86:11
Dear Brothers and sisters,
The Church
I have been preaching through the book of Mark. We now got to the 4th chapter. Please pray that the Lord may encourage and convict the believers and convert the unbelievers. We strongly believe that it is through preaching the foolishness of the cross that the Lord would save His people because the gospel is power unto those who believe it but foolishness to those who are perishing (1 Cor 1:18). We as a church have many imperfections but we do see God is working in our midst. But we are facing quite a few challenges in terms of some members not being committed to the cause of the local church. We need to grow massively in this area. Please pray that the Lord may give us wisdom, patience and discernment to apply the scriptural principles in the church life. We are not mightily excited to administer church discipline but we must if the situation demands. So please pray for God’s grace and wisdom.
On a positive side, we have a couple of sisters and one brother came forward to be baptized after many persuasive gospel sermons. We praise God for this undeserved goodness towards us but we are going through the process of interviews and their understanding of the gospel and taking them through their future commitments to the church. Please pray again for divine wisdom as we take these candidates into membership. Also please pray that many of these young believers will not yield to the parental pressure of getting them married to unbelievers. Please pray for wisdom and courage for the church to stand firm. Please pray that the Lord may raise a few leaders to take the burden off me and carry the load.
Vacation Bible School for Children
We had VBS for children from April 25th to 30th. Please pray that the gospel seed that was sown in their hearts may yield its fruit and that the children may come to the Sunday school every Sunday.
The Construction of the New Sanctuary
The Lord is miraculously helping us in building the new sanctuary. We have now laid the slab on the ground floor and we will soon put a slab on the first floor as well. The Lord is helping us miraculously to meet all the needs so far. But we still have a long way to go. We would be using the first floor as a sanctuary and the second floor for the offices, library, Sunday school and a guest room. Please pray that the Lord would help us finish this project. We are hoping that the whole project may be done by October 2017 so that we will have opportunities to have pastors conference by the end of the year.
In His Grace,
Sandeep & The Church
