To proclaim the good news to the unreached people, BBPT conducts comprehensive Bible training for committed men and women. This ministry encourages the people to start fellowships which later can grow into a bigger church. Evangelism prepares the foundation to start the church in new areas and there are receptive places for the gospel. BBPT has developed many of its own methods and training materials and tools for evangelism in the past 17 years.
Every month, 139 male church planters and 53 women church planters meet to pray, plan and learn from each other. The church planter’s monthly meetings help to discuss the challenges faced in the field and prayerful move forward & strengthen each other to take care of the existing fellowships groups.
Mandal Outreach Evangelism (MORE): BBPT formed 1499 fellowship groups by training 2,997 volunteers from 18 mandals of three (Khammam, Warangal and Nalgonda) districts through Mandal Outreach Evangelism (MORE project). The selected volunteers were equipped though the trainings with an objective to bring the transformation among the literates, youth, women and the non- literates in their respective villages. This project helped us to focus the unreached through evangelism and church planting by impacting the lives and transform the villages where the Gospel is not heard.
The MORE project has addressed not only sharing the Gospel but addressing the issues like alcoholism and other major addictions. The groups formed through the MORE in the villages lives are transforming completely. New believers are reaching to their families and friends in other villages, reproducing the disciple-making process in their respective areas and beyond. This respond is opening the doors for us to conduct Portable school of Evangelism training in future. The trainees are taking the MORE to their heart and this will spread to the entire district. The encouraging testimonies of the personnel are influencing their respective villages and relatives and family friends.
Evangelism Literature and other materials: The several evangelism literature tracts and messages prepared by Rev. Dr. B. Lazarus Lalsingh and other materials from reliable sources have been translated into Banjara and telugu languages and distributed in the field every month.
Providing the right literature discipleship and other materials to new believers is very important for the church growth. The Training materials for evangelists, church planters and some materials are keyed to evangelism, discipleship/follow up, Bible teaching, leadership training, and devotionals were provided.
The Evangelists and Church Planters use recorded messages, songs, and audio Bibles extensively among the highly illiterate Banjara. Literature such as tracts, Gospels, and Bibles are distributed among the literate.
Presently, BBPT is working on few more evangelistic literatures in Telugu and Banjaras languages and the same will be used for the next year evangelistic outreach activities.
25 New Church Planters: 25 committed candidates have graduated from School of Evangelism (a yearlong bible school program) in May 2011. We could raise the needed support for the church planters from 25 individual (local and abroad). These 25 graduated church planters have been sent to Ranga Reddy, Krishna, Adilabad, Karimnagar and Medak Districts to pioneer & extend the work among the Banjaras of unreached/unchurched areas.
We were successful in supporting the 25 church planters as the individual sponsors responded to the call and have taken up by the individual church planters to pray regularly and extend their financial support. We are happy that this was not a burden.
Motorcycles for Coordinators: God provided five motor-cycles in October 2012 for the regional coordinators to oversee the expanded ministry activities in their regions. Each of these coordinator’s travel50 Kms (avg) every day to cover 20-25 villages & thanda.
The following leaders have received the motorcycles:
- B. Beulah Swarupa,
- M. Srinivas,
- D. Sudhaker,
- N. Paul and
- B. Kishor.
Bicycles for Church Planters:The bicycles are the good means of transportation in the thandas and villages. Each of the church planters have to travel to 8-10 thandas and villages and help the fellowship groups to grow strong in their faith. This year we could able to provide 30 bicycles to our church planters.
Regional Jatharas: Over the years, God expanded the work among the Banjaras and other tribals to reach thousands. In India, over a million Banjaras and other tribals have heard the Gospel through the jathara movement. As the work is expanding the Lord God gave us a vision to make disciples in every thanda and village of India. This year, we praise God for opening the doors to conduct 12 regional jatharas impacting 50,000 people. The objective of the Jatharas is to create an opportunity to hear the word of God and testimonies of strong believers.
We conducted 12 Jathras from Jan- March 2013, after a three days orientation from Jan 11-13 with 50 regional coordinators. In this orientation seminar, we discussed about the local arrangements, participants travel, and the safety measures needed to follow for each jathara. We have selected a central place at each of the above mentioned 12 regions and impacted 52730 people.
We witnessed a tremendous response from these Jatharas. The participants made a decision to accept Jesus as their personal savior and they were filled with enthusiasm to share the love of Christ in their respective villages and thands. The actual number of attendees are more than we anticipated.
Church Buildings:BBPT ministry believes that church planting is a dynamic process and not a one day event. As the congregations grows and the number of thandas increases to 10-12 in and around their respective areas a church building is constructed. This year a church was built in Poosal thanda and the same is dedicated on 07 December 2012.
The buildings are used as worship centres and for bible study, women meetings, Youth meetings, Children ministry, medical camps, adult literacy and community development activities. These buildings are also used as regional centres of the ministry. So far, BBPT has built 34 church buildings in 10 districts of Andhra Pradesh.
Great Commission Youth Camp: We translated the Tent Makers training manual into Telugu language with contains various information, instructions, inspiration, guidelines, tools and methods for evangelism for the youth camp. The Gc3 youth camp was held in 8 locations in the state of Andhra Pradesh and 1026 young people participated in the camps, which laid a strong foundation among the youth.
All the participants of youth camp have made decisions to lead atleast three souls to the Lord. We are working with an aim is to prepare today’s youth for completing the Great Commission in their generation. As organizer, we have encouraged each of these participants to lead at least three to the Lord in a years’ time. Even if, 75% of the participants take the camps seriously and work towards it, it would be a great success.