The atmosphere is charged in Classroom B. In just a few days the Medford Sabbath school class has raised $26,000 for church buildings in India. Matched by Merlin and Jo Ann Fjarli, members of the class, and again by Maranatha Volunteers International, that amount will be multiplied to more than $100,000 and will build between 10 and 25 church homes, depending on the needed size.
Already more than 25,000 people have been baptized in the three 50-village missions previously sponsored by Classroom B in just the past year. This pushes the South Andhra Section of the Southern Asia Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church over the mark to become the largest conference in the world field. Altogether, 100 church buildings are either built or in final stages of completion.
Enthusiasm is contagious
The children’s Sabbath school divisions in the Medford church caught the spirit, sponsoring an evening of film and fun, to raise money for Bibles printed in the Telegu language, netting $504. The story doesn’t stop there. A church member approached two members of Classroom B saying, “I have a check for $1,000 in my pocket that I will give for Bibles if someone will match it.” That night $500 was pledged by five members present, the rest is coming, raising the number of Bibles inspired by the children to more than 1,300.
Prayer warriors
Members of the class have also pledged themselves to individually pray for one of the 50 villages asking God to pour out His Spirit in a most powerful way on:
• The Gospel Outreach Volunteers—Adventist Indian nationals who are paid a small stipend and are committed to live and work in the particular village for three years
• The pastors who hold evangelistic meetings in each village before the American teams arrive
• The 24 people from the U.S. making up the five evangelistic teams now holding evangelistic meetings in the Amalapuram area of the state of Andhra Pradesh, India.
“Never have I seen such results for the money spent,” says Merlin, “I get more ‘bang for the buck’ from this than from anything I have ever done.”
Please don’t tell anyone in Classroom B that one Sabbath school class can’t make a difference.
Newly baptized converts express appreciation for Bibles.
A new church building is a sanctuary that plays a vital role in holding these newly baptized converts, brought to Christ in an Indian village where before there were no Seventh-day Adventists.
