Bible Faith Lutheran Church is an association of 43 Lutheran churches located in remote villages within a 70 mile radius of the city of Guntur.
The church’s ministry focuses on sharing the Gospel with poor, usually Hindu villagers in areas without a church. Most of the people within the congregations today are first-generation Christians who face family and social isolation for taking a stand to follow Christ.
In addition to planting churches the church also operates:
- Bible Faith Lutheran Seminary, which offers pre-seminary courses and continuing education programs for BFLC pastors and other Lutheran pastors in the state of Andrha Pradesh.
- Moriah Children’s Home, which provides food, shelter, medical care, education and Christian instruction for 50 poor and destitute children, ages six to 16.
- Moriah Christian School, which provides education from kindergarten to tenth grade for almost 350 students. It offers opportunities for poor children to obtain quality education for a nominal tuition on a sliding-fee scale. Nearly all of the children who attend the Moriah School come from Hindu and Muslim families.
Thanks to our “Beyond This Day” capital campaign, All Saints funded the building of a new church building for the Lutheran congregation on the island village of Nachugunta. In January 2008, five people from All Saints, led by Eric Whitehead, will be traveling to Guntur to visit BFLC congregations, including Nachugunta, and work with the seminary in Guntur.
Pastor Mike Weaver
In a sign of the continuing partnership between All Saints and our brothers and sisters in India, a team spent Jan. 25 to Feb. 9 on a mission trip to the country.
Pastor Mike Weaver and All Saints members Eric Whitehead, Bob Loomis, Jim Sexton and Aaron Shank visited friends at the Bible Faith Lutheran Church in Guntur. The trip also included a visit to congregation of Nachugunta where these All Saints representatives celebrated the completion of a new worship building (pictured at right at dawn) that was made possible by the generosity of All Saints’ members.
Upon his return, Loomis wrote an article for the "Columbus Dispatch" about the challenges facing Christians in India. The article, which appeared in the paper's Feb. 22 "Faith and Values" section, can be found here. "Dispatch" staff member Meredith Heagney wrote a companion article on the inspiration Weaver and other travelers found in meeting Christians in a very different culture. Click here to read that article.
To read more details about their adventures, visit the All Saints in India 2008 blog, maintained by Whitehead and Weaver.
