Karnataka - Bangalore - NEW!!!

28^th to 30^th June, 2024

Pastor Stephen had arranged meetings for me in Yelahanka, on the outskirts of Bangalore at the Church of Pastor Jonas – an independent pastor ministering mainly among the slum dwellers in Yelahanka.

Pastor Stephen was good friends with the Church’s Associate Pastor – Pastor James.

I and my wife had been at home recovering from the flu bug we had picked up in Sri Lanka. (To read our Sri Lanka Mission Report, Click here.) It had drained us out to a great extent, and I was just getting back on the horse when the call to Bangalore came.

Pastor Stephen suggested I come straight to Bangalore and then stop by at Coorg to exhort the believers on my way back home to Coimbatore.

28.6.2024

So I set off on the 28^th of June, at around 8:00 am, with my herbal inhaler in hand, trying to keep warm as I sped across the highway in the pouring rain.

I picked up Pastor Stephen on the Mysore -Bangalore highway, and we made our way to Yelahanka with all haste. Driving was smooth up until the Bangalore border that we reached by 3:00 pm just as rush hour traffic began. It took us more than two hours bumper –to- bumper to reach our lodge.

Yelahanka is a suburb and Taluk of Bangalore Urban district in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is the oldest part of present Municipal Bengaluru (Bangalore) and the northern end of the city.

Yelahanka, Bangalore, KA State

We freshened up and had a spot of tea before leaving for that evening’s meet.

The meeting had been scheduled for 7:00 pm, and would end around 9:00 pm.

Pastor Jonas and his wife reside in Yelahanka New Town. They have two children both married. They live on the 4^th floor of an apartment building, with the Church on the 1^st floor.

My message for the congregation that evening was based on Luke 12 - Seek ye first the Kingdom of God - and how if we sought the Lord's Face, the Blessings of His hand would soon follow.

I emphasized on how the current day church messages on 'Jesus For the World' was plain wrong - that Christ had not promised us riches or wealth but only the provision of our daily needs and help in time of trouble, and how the Lord had taught us not worry about our lives as the heathen did but to stay true and faithful to His Word, and all that we required would be provided to us sooner or later.

Pastor Jonas and I had time to discuss the Word at length over dinner that night before we headed off to our room.

He told me how he had kept trying to minster in different more affluent parts of Bangalore, but wherever he went, kept coming back to minister to the less fortunate in those parts. He told me that he had been stationed in many parts of India, and found himself ultimately gravitating in some situation or the other to ministering to those in the shanties and slums of the city’s underbelly.

I shared with him, how I too, had been hesitant to work where I had been planted at first, having had to brave grave difficulties to establish the truth in my area of Senthamil Nagar, in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, and how when I had started, it had been a place of such disrepute that even the local authorities had been afraid to set foot in it.

Click here to read about how that all began. 

The meet had turned out quite successful, and the congregation responsive and encouraging. They had received the Word as simply as babes, and I had felt the Spirit move there as I preached.

 

29.6.2024

The next day, Pastor James came to our lodge to meet us at Pastor Stephen’s behest. We discussed the Apostolic truths with him, and I expounded on The True Baptism, The Folly of Ecumenism, the False Unity of the Beast System, and the Perversion of the Basic Foundational Christian Truths in Rome.

By the end of our discussion, Pastor James was convinced of the truth. he wanted to accompany us to Coorg. but told me that his son had been suffering from typhoid, that there was no one to tend to him in hospital, and so he would meet us in Coorg, on my visit there the following month for the service.

That evening, I had prepared to preach on Matthew Chapter 25 focusing on only the first 4 verses.

I shared with the congregation The Concept of Spiritual Virginity, about The Virgin Bride of Christ, and Separation from the World System.

Pastor Stephen bid us adieu that night as he had to be in Coorg for the next morning’s Sunday service.

30.6.2024

My message that Sunday was from Psalm 104 and Mark 10 - on Jesus - Our Cedar of Lebanon, and The Healing of Blind Bartimaeus.

Many among the congregation had come up to me asking for prayer for the past two days and I had told them to wait until Sunday, that I would be preaching a special message that would encourage them and raise their faith.

The service began at 8:30 am and went on till around 11:30 am.

After the preaching, we had a short Healing and Deliverance Service where, as I usually am led to do, I asked the congregation to come forward and touch my right hand placing their petitions before the Father and believing in faith that they have received them in Jesus' Name.

We were served a hot lunch post service.

Pastor Jonas and his wife appreciated the message, and told me that I was welcome in Yelahanka any time I decided to stop by in Karnataka. Mrs. Jonas expressly told me that with all the huge and grand churches there were in Bangalore, the Lord had sent me to them in their small corner in Yelahanka, for which they were immensely grateful.

I was glad to have had an opportunity to share the Word there and told him that I had many other things to discuss in the future.

I left Yelahankha by 1:00 pm and made my way to Coorg steadily.

I reached my usual lodgings in Kushalnagar by around 6:00 pm.

To read our Coorg Mission Report, click here.

Do keep Pastor Jonas and family, his ministry in Yelahanka, and Pastor James and his family too, in your prayers.

May the Lord open many other doors in the area in the coming days.