RLM Church Dedication Service
7th December, 2019
Many of you who have read this blog know about how Rhema Life Ministry began.
The building where we had our services was built with a great out pouring of love of all the believers who were in fellowship together at the time.
When the church was built, it was in an undeveloped, rural part of Coimbatore - a wasteland so to speak - land which was allocated by the Government to lower income earners who did not have a place to stay, nor the means to buy land. Essentially you had to just pitch tent in a place, and in the course of years, that became your land.
Building the church was a labour of love for most of us. The wasteland we had chosen abounded with rocks of all sizes, being the remnants of boulder explosions by the ACC - the first cement manufacturing company in India. And the brethren scoured the area for big stones for the building's foundation.
Most of the congregation were poor labourers and lower income wage earners so we all got together and pooled our resources, our efforts, and ideas to erect something that would serve the purpose for the time being.
The building was laid with a foundation of only 2 feet. A few brothers managed to procure roofing tiles and beams from the town's old market where second hand goods and cast away materials from condemned buildings were usually sold.
There was no electricity, no water facility nearby, and no set up for a lavatory. I remember hauling plastic pots filled to the brim with water from the public pipe at the bottom of the mountain to the very top where the church was being built. Sometimes the sisters would stand at the road turns and keep passing on the pots till we had enough for curing the cement work.
The final finished structure was just a shelter where the brethren gathered faithfully each Sunday, sang their lungs out in praise, and feasted on the Word of God. We had a church of our own and we were happy.
In the course of time however, divisions arose within the body and many of the believers left. It was the time my ministry was undermined and challenged. As a result, I made my way to Mumbai to the home of brothers in the faith in search of answers.
When the Lord confirmed what I had to do I returned to the little church and began living in it with my mother. We braved the harsh cold permeating in through the unplastered walls, the leaky roof, and the cold stony floor where we huddled up at night.
As the years wore on, people were added to the church, and the face of the structure changed. A little by little, just as the Lord was adorning the Church with the might and quiet beauty of His Word, he was opening up the believers hearts to give more for the work of the Lord, bringing in people who contributed to the expansion of the structure, until finally the little church became home to a small fledgling assembly of souls seeking the Lord.
From 2003 when I first began serving the Lord full time, until 2018, our little church has been patched up here and there, reshaped, dusted, painted over, and made presentable enough to serve the purpose of a church building, but it had always been our desire to see it rebuilt.
In 2018, the Lord made this possible by providing us with the opportunity to avail of a loan for the renovation and rebuilding of old structures. This loan had not been made available to structures in areas such as ours at all. But we had prayed to the Lord to send us help in some form, because the old building had been patched over so many times, it was like a wounded limb being bandaged over with the bones still broken underneath. It was falling apart before our very eyes.
Inspite of feeling the pinch of church maintenance expenses and at times finding myself scraping the bottom of the barrel by month's end, I never approached anyone for funds because I believed that the Lord would give us what we needed in His own way and time. I relied solely, as I had been taught, on the offerings of those who faithfully upheld me as their shepherd and supported me whichever way they could.
So, we took up the loan, demolished part of the old building, and rebuilt it from the lintel upwards, adding a bit to the structure, as much as could be afforded. A few brothers in the faith came forward with offerings to fund the roofing, the flooring, the windows, etc.
When the building work was done, we wanted to arrange a Dedication meeting, but the date kept getting postponed on account of other ministry work and the need for the meeting expenses.
We wanted to dedicate the building to the Lord, because although the church had been run there since 2003, the document for the land had been in my mother's name, and we were now turning it over to our Church Trust.
In 2019, I was struggling to meet the monthly loan payments and juggling other ministry expenses plus my living expenses at the same time. It was then that the Lord opened the heart of a brother who sent me the pending loan amount to be paid in full.
It was an answer to a wordless prayer of the heart, and a source of great rejoicing to our little fellowship. It was also a great testimony in the face of all the criticism and ridicule I had faced in the area I minister, especially from the prosperity gospel mongers who believed that God was with you only if you abounded in material blessings.
I cannot explain everything about the kind of people who reside around our church. It will suffice to say that their are not the kindest of neighbours. I may not be able to explain to you how the rebuilding of our tiny church has afforded us such great joy, because I may not be able to take you back through the years in detail and show you how much we suffered from the blow of evil eyes, thoughts, and words in this place.
However, we have prepared a little video montage to try to elaborate on how much this meant to us and I hope it can give you an idea of the height and depth of our joy.
It was on December 7th, 2019, after much deliberation, that we invited a few pastors and close brethren, as well as some of our well wishers for a Church Dedication Service in Senthamil Nagar, Coimbatore.
In attendance were Bro. Rajeshwer Dayal from Etawah, Uttar Pradesh, Bro. Shailesh Kumar from Madhya Pradesh, Pastor Daniel Saarthi from Gudiyattam, accompanied by his wife and daughter, Pastor Abraham from Tirupur, joined by his family, and many of his congregation, and Pastor Mariappan from Manapaarai.
Pastor Abraham from Tirupur, who usually took out his time to travel to Coimbatore and lead the evening service in our church in my absence, began the service with prayer.
Bro. Ebenezer organized the worship accompaniment.
Pastor Daniel Saarthi from the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, Gudiyattam, was the guest speaker.
His message was on 'Dedication of Self' and 'Friendship with God'.
We were all richly blessed by the message.
I had invited our fellow brethren - Bro. Rajeshwer Dayal from Uttar Pradesh, and Bro. Shailesh Kumar from Madhya Pradesh to share their mission testimonies with us after the great success of the mission work we had accomplished in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in March and May 2019.
Their testimonies and reports of the wonders that the Lord had been doing in their lands filled our hearts with gladness and was a source of great encouragement to the congregation.
Our RLM Tots gave us a rousing rendition of "His ways are higher than mine!", and the Hindi Song, "Namoona Bano".
A few sisters came forward with special songs.
We were able to share our walk down memory lane across the years from the time Rhema Life Ministry had begun and how it has shaped up to be what it is today.
Pastor Mariappan concluded the service with prayer.
It was a time of great celebration and rejoicing for us all.
We thank the Lord for granting us the desire of our hearts, for lifting us up in the midst of scorn, and for enabling us to give back a little of what He has so graciously bestowed upon us.
I give all Glory and Thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ for making possible what seemed impossible, and bringing to pass what we had only imagined.
"Many, O Lord my God, are they wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered." (Psalm 40:5)
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