Prologue

Gettysburg, PA, USA to Guntur, AP, India

Gettysburg, PA, USA to Guntur, AP, India

Gettysburg, PA, USA to Guntur, AP, India

By

Syam S. Pilli, Virginia, USA

Syam S. Pilli, Virginia, USA

Syam S. Pilli, Virginia, USA

Prologue: India’s first church was founded in 52 A.D. by Apostle Thomas, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ. As commissioned by the Lord, the doubting Thomas became a fervent missionary and preached gospel throughout Malabar Coast. He died as martyr in 72 A.D. and was buried in a tomb near Chennai. Though Christianity was established in 52 A.D., the Christian movement throughout the rest of India was propagated only after the arrival of the European and North American missionaries in the 16th century. Saint Francis Xavier, a Roman Catholic missionary commenced the great missionary work in 1542. The First Protestant missionaries Bartholomew

Ziegenbalg and Pluetschau arrived in Tranquebar in July, 1706 and worked extensively by translating and printing the first Indian Bible in Tamil in 1714. William Carey, the father of modern missions arrived in Calcutta in November, 1793 and greatly influenced the missionary movement in India.

Christianity in the Telugu land is the result of several foreign missions. The following table provides the details of the foreign missions in Telugu region until the arrival of

American Lutheran Mission.

Year

Mission

Base

1805 London Missionary

Vizagapatam (Visakhapatnam) –

Society (LMS)

1805

Cuddapah (Kadapa) – 1822

Chicacole (Srikakulam)—1839

1836

Plymouth

Narsapur, Palakollu

Brethren

1840

American Baptist

Mission (ABM)

Nellore

1841

Church Missionary

Society (CMS)

Masulipatnam (Machilipatnam)

1842

American

Guntur

Lutheran Mission

First Missionaries

Rev. George Cran and Rev.

Augustus Des Granges

William Bowden, George

Beer and their wives

Rev. Samuel Stearns Day,

Rev. Stephen Van Husen

and their wives

Rev. Robert Turlington

Noble and Rev. Henry

Watson Fox

Rev. Dr. John Frederick

Christopher Heyer