The Unfinished Dream

John Ministries is currently carrying out a major renovation of the Gudipally church. New bathroom facilities have been built for the congregation — a simple dignity that many rural churches go without. A stage has been constructed for worship services. And the aging roof, which has endured decades of heat and monsoon, is now being replaced.

Every improvement made here is made in the shadow of the man who started there with nothing. The boy who tended sheep in this village became a pastor who poured his pension into building churches for people just like the ones he grew up among. We are honored to continue that work in the very place it began.

Pastor John began construction of a church in Mylapuram (his mother's home town) and built it all the way up to roof level. The foundation was laid. The walls were raised. The villagers were ready worship. But before the roof could be installed, two men from the village — a father and his son — made it their mission to stop the church from being completed. Their opposition was direct, sustained, and effective. The roof was never put on.

Pastor M.B. John passed away in 2002. The Mylapuram church stood unfinished, open to the sky, a roof withheld from it by two men who believed they could stop what God had started.

Years later, the father and son who had opposed the work both died in a motorcycle accident.

With that opposition gone, the family is now ready to finish what was started over twenty years ago. The walls are still standing. The congregation is still waiting. All that remains is the roof.

The Mylapuram church needs $10,000 to complete construction. Every dollar given is a declaration that no opposition — not hostility, not years, not loss — can permanently stop what God has purposed to be built.