London Missionary Society (L.M.S.)

they started one High School at Ongole. Later, High Schools were started in Nellore and Kurnool. Even today these educational institutions are functioning and progressed as Colleges. Today all the Telugu Baptist Churches got united and formed as one United Church under the name of'Samavesam of Telugu Baptist Churches 1 (STBC) in 1962. There are more than 550 Churches in this Union. LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY (L.M.S): The London Missionary Society was established at London in England on January 8, 1795. This society without confining to a particular denomination attracted all Christians of different denominations and sent them as missionaries. It also gave freedom to those who converted into Christianity by this mission to go and join in any Church. Consequently it sent in 1804 three of its missionaries to India who arrived in February 1804.43 Originally they were intended to work in Tamilnadu, but in course of time, they were led by friends in Madras to go to Vizagapatnam.* The missionaries Rev. George Gram and Rev. Augustus Des Granges were cordially received by the Collector of Vizagapatnam and the English residents in July of 1805. They immediately turned to the study of Telugu while at the same time held the services for the English population.44 * Visakhapatnam

In course of time, two more missionaries, Rev. Gordon and rev. Pritchett of L.M.S. came to Telugu country. They not only made substantial contribution for the development of Christianity of Visakhapatnam district, but also pioneered the translation of the portions of Bible into Telugu and thus paved the way for the growth of Telugu Christian literature. Besides the translation work, they also established schools at different places in Northern Coastal Andhra and regularly preached gospel to the natives. The fruitful results of Northern Coastal Andhra encouraged L.M.S. to open the second Telugu Mission in the Ceded districts of Cuddapah, Bellary, Anantapur and Kurnool. These districts were taken over by the British from the Nizam of Hyderabad in 1800. From the newly developed station in the Kannada speaking part of Bellary, work was extended into the Telugu speaking sections until Mr. William Howell who was sent in November, 1822, to establish a station at Cuddapah. This mission was more successful than the mission at Vizagapatnam, because it was able to convert more than 100 members to Christianity in 1850. This shows how successful it was in proselytisation work when compared to Vizagapatnam Mission. In 1810 John Wands came as Missionary and started his missionary work in Bellary. He used to visit Cuddapah frequently and