Nachugunta, India--Thursday, Jan. 18

Thursday morning we met with all of the 35+ plus pastors of the BFLC to discuss the important topic of ordination of nine of them in January of 2008. After a three and half hour meeting, it was decided to appoint Pastor Shalem Raju as the lead pastor of the BFLC and the officiant of the ordinations. It was an important and historic step in the development of the BFLC ministry, and a natural choice to formally appoint Shalem as the spiritual leader of the group.

The meeting started and ended much later than we had planned. We had hoped to leave Guntur for Nachugunta no later than noon. Unfortunately, we didn't sit down for lunch until around 1:30pm and didn't get in the Safari until 2pm. It would be another three hours until we'd get to the edge of the Krishna River to take the pontoon across the river to the island where Nachugunta is located.

When we got to the pontoon at 5pm there were a few people milling around the shore line waiting the arrival of the pontoon from the island. Fifteen minutes later, it docked on our side, but no one got on. We found out that we'd have to wait for the bus that travels to and from local villages daily to arrive because it carried passengers for the boat. Forty-five minutes later, we finally got on the pontoon and began to cross the Krishna. It was 6pm.

Here's the problem we faced at 6pm: The sun was setting and the last pontoon from the island to the mainland was at 7pm. As we stood their helplessly waiting for the bus to arrive, we saw our time that we'd be able to spend with the people of the congregation slipping away from us, as well as our ability to see the new construction in daylight. Much to our disappointment we realized that our visit would have to very, very brief. Three hours of travel for a very short visit. Not to mention that the entire three hour ride I was car sick.

6:00pm: We begin to cross the Krishna. On our way we met a young man, in his early 20s, who had grown up in the Moriah Home most of his childhood. (The Moriah Home is the orphanage run by the BFLC that houses arond 50 children ages 5-16 year round). He was heading back to spend time with his family in Nachugunta. He was one of the success stories that the Moriah Home is blessed to hear. After leaving the home, he furthered his education and now works in advertising in Tenali and is doing very well in life. If the Moriah Home hadn't been in existence, who know what would have happened to him.
6:15pm: We arrive on the island and head for the Nachugunta
6:30pm: We park the Safari at the end of a very rough dirt road and walk the rest of the 1/4 mile to the church located at the edge of the village. We begin to examine the construction of the new church building located behind the existing structure. The pictures above of the people outside the existing church building are of congregation members leaving worship at the beginning of January. Below you can see the progress of the construction. The church is about half of the way done. It has been a slower process than anticipated because of the difficulty of getting building materials from a village on the mainland to Nachugunta. The construction will unfortunately be halted for the month of February because the pontoon will be out of service for repairs.


Before we left, we went into the existing sanctuary for prayer and for me to be able to present to the Nachugunta congregation a banner from All Saints. We feel blessed to be part of the partnership to build this congregation's new building. We headed over to Pastor Sudir's house and met his wife and two small children and then unfortunately had to head back to the Safari and then to the pontoon. Many of the people escorted us to our SUV. One woman said to us before we left, "Thank you so much for coming. Next time, please stay longer." We all agreed and wished we could have stayed to share dinner with them.

We got back to the pontoon just in time and arrived back at the Moriah Home around 11pm that evening. Yes, unfortunately, I did manage to get carsick the entire ride back to Guntur.