Building Village Churches
BUILDING VILLAGE CHURCHES
There were two remarkable spiritual awakenings in Wales.
One of them took place in 1859; the other in 1904.
Evan Roberts was greatly used by God during the momentous days of 1904.
One hundred thousand people were profoundly influenced 'by that awakening. Missionaries from Wales were working among the Khasi people in Assam and the awakening extended here to this part of the world also.
When Edwin Orr, the historian of evangelical awakenings, visited Wales and travelled through it, he observed that many chapels and churches were 'built in 1860 and rebuilt in 1905'.
This meant that the men and women who were changed by the two awakenings found it necessary to build or enlarge their places of worship for spiritual fellowship.
I had some significant experience in the Coimbatore Diocese when new places of worship were constructed with enthusiasm and manual toil so that the people who received new life might have closer fellowship with God and with man.
A surveyor, Seenivasagam by name, often called on me.
I found him obliging, pleasant and efficient.
When he was young, he was expelled from a boarding school for his rebellious behaviour.
Later he joined the Army and its discipline helped him.
During the evangelistic meetings in the Diocese he gave his heart to Christ.
He was now a man of some means.
He gave Rs 630, for the extension of the Chapel at Kommacoil (his native village).
In 1953 I was invited to rededicate the building.
He was also giving a small sum every month to two women to do the work of God among women in his village and its neighbourhood.
God was teaching many people in the Diocese that giving is gaining and the more cheerfully we give for God the more He blesses the giver and the receiver.
Basuvapatti (22 miles from Erode) had a smal] Christian congregation consisting of nine families.
The Christian teacher there, T. Thangamuthu, was touched deeply by God in a Teachers'
Convention conducted by Mr N. Daniel.
As the teacher repented and waited on God, his cry was heard and a voice bade him read
Psalm 40.
When he read, 'He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay; and he set my feet upon a rock,
A. J. APPASAMY
and established my goings', he received the assurance that his sins were forgiven. He gave a moving witness of how he had struggled with his burden of sin and how he now enjoyed peace in his heart.
When he returned home God gave him a vision of what he should do for his own village. The few families there were divided among themselves and there was no fellowship in the congregation.
His brokenness helped him to humble himself and be reconciled with those with whom he had differences in the past.
He felt strongly that God was calling him to erect a chapel for worship as there was no adequate building and the one they were using was a small thatched shed.
The congregation rallied round him, but was it God's will?
One day, praying intently to know His will, he asked God to speak to him through an appropriate verse in the Bible if it was His will that a chapel should be built.
After prayer the first verses he read were, 'For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee.
Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek Thy good' (Ps.,122:8, 9)His faith was now strengthened and he proceeded to erect the chapel.
The people in the village joined him.
They put their trust in God.
As they approached the village casteman for a gift of trees, he gave them the very trees which they had desired. The mission gave a small sum but the rest of the money came through prayer in response to the teacher's appeal.
They made their own bricks and they were their own masons and carpenters.
The manual labour that was necessary was provided by the teacher, his wife and relations, and the co-operation from the villagers was wonderful.
Thus a small chapel, which would normally cost Rs 800 to build, was completed at a cost of Rs 250 only.
I dedicated the chapel on 14th March 1954.
The congregation rejoiced to worship in their new chapel and were filled with gratitude to God for the way in which He had led the teacher in faith to serve his small village.
The Service of Dedication was coming to an end.
It was a devout Service but, like all special Services in our village congregations, it had been quite long. We were getting ready to close the Service and go home.
The Presbyter in charge of the Service came to me and said:
'A woman in the congregation wants to bear witness to what God has done for her'.
I agreed to her request.
BUILDING VILLAGE CHURCHES
She was poorly clad and had probably received little or no education.
But she stood before this large congregation and spoke boldly about how God had heard her prayer.
My son, who was seventeen years old, left the village seven years ago and no one knew where he was.
All my efforts 'to get in touch with him failed. Many began to say that he was probably dead as there was no news from him.
When I saw the walls of the small chapel going up, I went there daily and prayed earnestly, often with tears, that God would restore my lost bey to me.
Sometimes' I would cry aloud in the fields when at work and pray that God would bring back my son.
Some people made fun of me for my prayers but I persisted.
It was my deep longing that before the chapel was dedicated I should hear news of my son.
I also prayed to God that if He sent me news of my son before the dedication of the chapel, I would bring an offering of sweets for distribution to the congregation.
I fully believed that God would answer my prayer.
And He did.
Two weeks before the Service of Dedication I received news that my son was working in Calcutta.
This definite answer to my longings has strengthened my faith immensely.
Now I would ask the congregation to pray with me that my son may visit me in the village at an early date.
We all rejoiced to hear this moving testimony to the power of God and to the wonderful way in which He was leading this small congregation to follow Him and to worship Him.
In 1956 I visited the village of Arampalayam.
There was a keen group of young people there.
A Convention had been conducted in the village by Mr Victor Manogaram (now President,
Youth for Christ, India) and others.
Several people were greatly blessed by the Convention.
They wanted to build a church for their worship and had the active interest and ready co-operation of Mr A. S. Ratnam, a Christian Government official for Community Development.
He obtained a grant of Rs 700 for the church building from the Co-operative Society which he had
A. J. APPASAMY
organized in the village. A church building which held about a hundred people was erected.
I dedicated it.
As several hundred people had come, the Services of Confirmation and Holy Communion were held inside the church with a loudspeaker but the public meetings, both before and after the Service, took place in a large temporary structure of thatched cocoanut leaves outside the church.
I was informed afterwards that the man who read the address of welcome to me was once a drunkard but had been converted during the evangelistic meet ings.
A college student from Erode, who had received new life, had been appointed to work as an Evangelist in that village. He did good work, a young man among young men, In the Confirmation Service about thirty people were presented.
The function terminated with an interesting item.
A. S.
Ratnam and his friends Jeremiah and Doss told the story of the Lord Jesus Christ to the accompaniment of Indian music.
For over half an hour several hundred people, including a large number of Hindus, listened to this great story told in a fashion which is quite familiar in the villages of India (Villu Pattu).
On July 13th 1958 I dedicated a Church building at Kaniyur, about fifteen miles from Coimbatore.
We travelled most of the distance by car on an excellent motor road.
Kaniyur is about half a mile from the main road and we had to walk along a rough and stony path, with the earth washed away by heavy rains.
About a year ago the small Christian community of Kaniyur decided to build a church for its use.
There were thirty-six Christian families, all of them landless labourers earning a rupee a day by their work.
The Diocese gave a small contribution of Rs 300 towards the building. The congregation raised Rs 900 from among themselves and their relations working in the Tea Estates on the Nilgiris and on the Anamalais.
This was not enough to cover all the expenses connected with the building.
Stone, timber for the roof and wood for doors and windows had to be bought, The cash which they collected was enough only for such purposes.
So they bravely decided to do all the manual work themselves. They worked hard all day long to earn their daily food.
When they returned home they took their evening meal and with hurricane lanterns built the church, digging the foundations, laying the stone and doing all the unskilled work.
They had then to pay for /