Jehovah Church (Pentecostal) was found in 1950 by Pastor B. Chellan Who had a divine vision urging him to establish a new Church for the Spiritual Welfare of people, especially the poor farmers and landless coolies in rural areas. Pastor Chellan established 33 churches in various places, mostly in villages.

Being bachelor the pastor lived his entire for the welfare of his flock and he slept in the Lord on January 8, 1998. Pastor Chellan is succeeded by 43-year old Pastor C.Mariadhas as the President of Jehovah Church.

The Church continues to grow in establishing churches in needy areas. It conducts Sunday schools, Prayer fellowships Gospel meetings and All Night prayers. It also undertakes village and Tribal ministries, open air meetings, tracts-distribution, and personal evangelism. Its religious activities are accompanied by works of charity such as team work in villages where people live in misery the church pay great attention to house visits. A part of its ministry is hospital visits.

The area of ministry by this Church is not limited to kanyakumari District, but also it extends to Tirunelveli District in Tamil Nadu as well as to Villages in Thiruvananthapuram District. KERALA State.

The Church has 33 units in various villages. There are 40 Pastors and 40 Women Workers in this Church. The believers of the Church number about 5500, including 1100 Sunday School children. The teachers of Sunday schools number 110.

During his life time Pastor Chellan evinced great interest on the welfare of poor people in villages. He collected good-will donations from people to help the needy and distressed. He helped children to attend schools, families to thatch their roofs, diseased to improve their health and destitute to get rehabilitated. These works of charity, selflessly undertaken by Pastor Chellan, have inspired his team and his successors to follow in his footsteps. The preaching God's Word and works of charity have to go together in the Jehovah Church.

Kanyakumari District, which has served as mission field right from the time of St. Thomas, is still to be fully evangelized. The mission activities of early missionaries have benefited only certain pockets in the district. The interior villages are yet to be evangelized. Pastor Chellan being basically a villager, took this concern to heart and his ministry evolved with a rural bias.

Pastor Chellan preached that Love of God is not genuine until it is expressed in terms of Love towards the neighbour. All the churches founded by pastor Chellan were in villages and the evangelical ministry of Jehovah Church is accompanied by various acts of charity. The pastors and the Bible women Workers in this Church are called for this ministry and they specially trained for God's Ministry.

With the expansion of the Church activities, financial requirement to support the ministry and acts of charity has been very keenly felt. The believers support the ministry through their offerings. Being villagers, the believers do not have regular and fat income to offer regular support to the ministry. Since Jehovah Church functions with a special theological focus charcterised by repentance, baptism by immersion and life in the Holy Spirit, its popularity among the rich people is very minimal. Hence, stedy public donations cannot be assured.

Pastor Chellan approached various goodwill donors. All declined, except Brother K.P.Yohannan, the Founder- President of Gospel for Asia. He came forward to support Jehovah Church, by disbursing stipends for Pastors. His support is only upto August 1999. Due to the growing number of his training centres, he has expressed his inability to support Jehovah Church financially.

Jehovah Church is now in its stage of expansion. Expansion involves requirements arising out of the growth of the Church in physical, spiritual and extensional dimensions. This, in other words, means church buildings, transport facility, allowances for pastor sand women workers and administrative expenses. When expansion is attended to the already existing infrastructure and personnel have to be reckoned too. When the world is moving on the consumerist way, the Church has to take care of the basic needs of its fold and its campuses and its personnel.

Against this background of realities, this Project is formulated.

1. Aim of the Project:

The aim of the Project is to augment the infrastructural facilities, provide assistance to Church personnel and to meet administrative expenses of Jehovah Church, so that its ministry is carried out without temporal hurdles.

2. Project Needs and Budget costs:

(i) Construction of prayer Houses: In 11 villages, Prayer services are conducted in the huts of the believers. But, due to the increasing number of believers, it is difficult to continue this practice. Modestly spacious Prayer Houses are needed at least in 11 villages are: Cheruthikonam, Thipparamalai, Kuppatharai, Mathoorkonam, Edaicodu and Kuzhichavilai. The other five villages where land is to be purchased are: Chekkadi, Uvari, Muthalaru, Thumbode and Urakkonam. In these villages the believers, despite their poverty, will be providing land for the construction of Prayer Houses. 

The Prayer Houses, with a plinth are of 55 x 26 square feet will be modest and they will be built with burnt bricks and roofed with asbestos. The floor will be laid in cement and the walls will be plastered in cement.

The total budget cost of a Prayer House will be:
Rs.250,000. (Approximately US $ 10,870).

The cost of 11 Prayer Houses will be:
Rs.250,000. X 11 = 27,50,000. (US $ 119,570)

(ii) Stipend for Pastors and Bible Women : The Pastors and Bible Women who are the backbone of the Church ministry to be supported with stipends for their living expenses. This stipend will enable to cover their maintenance, travel and medical expenses. Free from such mundane worries, they will be able to fully concentrate on their ministry in the interior villages.

The Budget Cost For The Stipend Is:

Stipend for 35 Pastors:
Rs.1000 per mensem x 35 x 12 = Rs.420,000. (US $ 18,260).

Stipend for 40 Bible Women:
Rs.1000 per mensem x 40 x 12 = Rs.480,000. (US $ 20,870).

Student Centres:

(iii) The poverty-stricken families in villages suffer from various socio-economic handicaps: hunger, ill-health, scanty clothing, ill-equipped housing, illiteracy, lack of productive skills and lack of regular income. In this muddle of problems, the children get trapped and they lose their childhood.

The Pastors and Bible Women of Jehovah Church, during their house-visits and village ministry, try to motivate the parents, especially the mothers, to look after their children and send them to schools. But their socio-economic conditions do not allow them to do so. They are, however, very much concerned about their son or daughter who has dared to go to schools. The parents are worried about these children because they may have to discontinue schooling on account of hunger. Seanty clothing. Lack of electricity and want of peaceful atmosphere in families.

Under these circumstances, Jehovah Church has decided to organise Student Centres in five interior areas. In each Centre 25 Chosen children, both boys and girls, will be provided with nutritive diet, educational materials, dress and other amenities. Poor children studying in schools will assemble in these Centres in the evenings for study. On holidays, they will spend the entire day in these Centres. Besides nutritive snacks, study and recreational facilities, they will be provided two sets of dress a year and educational metinials. This Supplementary educational aelivity will be catalised by a traired year and educational materials. This supplementary educational activity will be catalised by a trained teacher in each Centre. They will be motivated to live fully Christian lives. In this manner, a total number of 125 children will be enabled to have a better future.

The Budget Cost for the student Centres is:

Bible College:

The Jehovah Jireh Faith Bible Training College, started in 1992 has trained a number of Pastors and Bible Women, through the goodwill offerings of the believers. So far, the classes of the College have been conducted in the Prayer House at Kalladimamoodu. The trainees were staying in the nearby rented houses.

A building for Bible College and two hostels for Pastors and Women workers (Trainees) have to be realised. The total cost estimate for these buildings will be.

Youth Training:

In the rural ministry, one of the most striking aspects is the unemployment of educated youth. Pastors and Women workers are very much concerned about it. It is now planned to enable 50 girls an 50 boys to get training in productive skills such as tailoring (for girls) and technical fields (for boys). A tailoring centre will be started at Kulasekaram for training girls in tailoring. The boys will be provided with stipends (Rs.250 per month for a period of 3 months) to get training in TV/ Radio mechanism, wrist watch repairing, two-wheeler/ four wheeler mechanism, etc. These skills will enable the bays and girls to be self- employed. In the tailoring centre, the instructress will be paid from the modest fee collected from the trainee-girls.

Administrative Expenditure:

The recurring expenditures in administration is met from the offerings of the believers. The increasing responsibilities have augmented office work. The infrastructures are very minimal and out of date. A Computer and some furniture are to be provided for the office.

Justification of the Project:

The overall aim and vision of the Project is to promote an on-going ministry for ennobling humanity with the unction of the Holy Sprit and to spread the Holy Gospel across the villages which are remote and difficult to reach. In this noble venture, the required financial assistance has to be made up through the benevolence of the people of good will. The budget cost has been kept at the minimum despite the cost-escalations.

The budget period has been kept at one year. In the subsequent years, the expenditure can be met through the contributions of the believers whose number is increasing.

Against this background, the overall budgetary cost is justifiable:

Request:

We earnestly Request the goodwill donors to contribute generously towards the promotion of Jehovah Church (Pentecostal) ministry.

Pastor C. Mariadhas
President