IFTY NEW CONGREGATIONS were established where three months before we had one struggling company.

Forty thousand gathered to hear the gospel on one day in one place. (Some estimates went as high as 50,000.)

This happened in Ongole, Andhra Pradesh, India, on January 20, the cumulation of two weeks of revival meetings. This was more than double the nightly average of 20,000. Hundreds sat in the parking lot in the back of trucks and atop buses, listening to the final service and the showing of the Jesus film in Telugu.

�This is the largest Adventist gathering we have ever experienced in India,� says Southern Asia Division president Ron Watts, who admits the attendance may indeed have been 50,000.

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She Was Possessed Starving Spiritually

People were trucked in from distances of up to three hours away. They stood crowded together in the back of open trucks to attend the meetings. In one place they started with one truck. By the final meeting five trucks were loaded in that one village. Other people got on public trains and buses and came on their own.

One of these was a Baptist minister from a city of coastal India, who brought his congregation of 70 members by public transport to the meetings. �We believe the Adventist message,� the pastor said to a member of the team. �My congregation and I are all going to join the Seventh-day Adventist Church. We want to follow the truth in God�s Word.� This is one of� more than 33 pastors of other churches who attended the meetings and are stepping out with their congregations. Twenty-one of these pastors and their wives have already been baptized.

Thorough� Preparation
The remarkable program in Ongole was planned and coordinated by laypeople of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, with Robert Paulsen and Garwin McNeilus playing major roles. Maranatha Volunteers International, another lay organization, was also involved. These lay leaders and organizations worked closely with the church in a combined effort that produced results that exceeded all expectations.

In September 2000 P. Wilburt and officers of the South Andhra Section went by jeep to 78 villages to survey the interest. Passing by the 28 villages where there was opposition or little interest,� they settled on 50 villages where the people said they would welcome our gospel workers.

By October 100 Global Mission volunteers moved into the area of Ongole, with two of these lay workers per village. They began to visit and pray with the people, starting Bible studies in many homes.

By the end of November 50 pastors were sent to join the volunteers to conduct a series of meetings simultaneously in all 50 villages. All the major teachings of the church were covered.

During December the newly formed congregations of believers began to hold Sabbath services in the 50 villages, and on January 5 the reaping meetings began in Ongole.

On the day the meetings were to start, an out-of-season rain collapsed the shamiana (tent) set up to accommodate the meetings. The platform decorations and the large screens to show the video projection were damaged. But the team refused to cancel the program, and held an open-air meeting, which 5,000 attended. Within a few days the crowd grew to 20,000, some nights reaching 25,000.

Every night at the conclusion of the service people crowded around team members for special prayer. Many brought their small bottles of oil to be used in anointing for healing according to Scripture. There were miracles of healing and experiences of demons being cast out. The air was electric with the expectation of what God might do next.

Spiritual Hunger
�There is a great hunger among these people for the Word of God,� says N. D. Samson, South Andhra Section president. �In all of these villages we met Christian people who have had no spiritual direction for many decades. Although there have been Christians in these villages for 150 years or more, there are neither churches nor pastors ministering to these people in most of the villages. They are sheep without a shepherd.�

�Please come to our village and teach us,� Samson remembers one old man begging him. �We have not had any Christian teaching for as long as I can remember. We have no one to show us the way of salvation. We have no one to call for funerals or marriages. We have no one to pray when our people are sick.�

In another village a retired schoolteacher has been doing his best to bring the Christians together for singing and prayer. He has had no encouragement from a pastor. He has no materials to use but his Bible. He is the one they call on for marriages and funerals. He was all smiles as he welcomed the Global Mission pioneers to his village.

Missionaries came to this area of coastal Andhra in 1842, and thousands were converted and joined the Baptist Church. These early missionaries believed that the local churches must be self-sustaining. By the time of Indian independence in 1947 most missionary support had vanished. These congregations were on their own. Churches in towns flourished, but the congregations in the villages who could not afford to pay pastors or build churches have languished. It is this spiritual vacuum that created the spiritual hunger that brought people by the thousands flocking to the meetings in Ongole.

Follow-up
�It is most important that we build churches in all 50 of these villages before this year is out,� declares Ch. John, president of the Central India Union Section. �This will do more than anything else to firmly establish the new congregations.�

�Wherever we have established a congregation, there are now at least four more villages nearby who are calling us to come to their village,� states Samson. �Our follow-up work will reach a total of 250 villages. The 100 Global Mission pioneers will work to raise up congregations in the remaining 200 places during the next five years.�

�The deep spiritual hunger of the people of India brought this on,� said Watts. �God worked through a wonderful combination of lay members, Global Mission pioneers, and ministers to bring this result. And we have just begun!�

Jan Paulsen, General Conference president, responded to the exciting news: �The Lord�s blessings can take matters so far beyond our expectations. . . . These reports coming out of Ongole are a powerful testimony to what God can do through servants wholeheartedly committed to Him. Good plans have been laid. Many have prayed for the reaping. And yet the outcome almost takes one�s breath away.�

�We believe Ongole is just a small foretaste of greater things the Lord has in store for His people in India,� says division secretary K. J. Moses. �We need the prayers and support of the world church at this time of unprecedented growth and opportunity.�

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Dorothy Eaton Watts is the associate secretary of the Southern Asia Division with headquarters in Hosur, Tamil Nadu, India.