Out Reach Program for Ratanpur Church (CNI)

Following the decision of diocese of Jabalpur that big urban churches should  adopt needy rural churches, it was decided to adopt Ratanpur Church (CNI), PO Urrai, Dist.  Mandla. The decision that Christ Church Cathedral should adopt Ratanpur church was conveyed by the bishop vide his letter No. BSP/Ex Comm./12, dated 23.07.12. You may recall that there are several incidences in the Bible where a congregation in need was helped by people of other congregation during the early church era. (Please read Acts 11: 27-30 & 2 cor 8: 13-14.)

The first visit to Ratanpur was made on 27.11.2011. Following members of our church were the part of the team

Rev Lalit Solomen who is priest in charge of Ratanpur church accompanied us from Mandla. He is stationed at Mandla and is visiting pastor for Ratanpur and Devri Churches.

After meeting the congregation of Ratanpur and surveying the church building, the property, the grave yard, the village, and observing the socio -economic condition and spiritual life of people of Ratanpur following plan of action was made for their all round upliftment. The plan is divided into short term and  long term spiritual and physical work Brief description of this plan is given below

1. Short Term Work:- We identified such physical and spiritual work which can be done immediately without much requirement of funds or time.

By the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by co operation of members of Christ Church, we have completed quite a lot of work from above list. The details are given in the following paras of this document.

1. Long Term Work:- Such physical and spiritual work which will require large sum of money and time were kept for long term work. These are listed below

Three visits have been made to Ratanpur so far. In addition to these visits,one visit was made alone by Mr. Vijay Bernard accompanied by his team of artisans on 24.11.12. Two trunks were transported from Jabalpur on his car and complete electrification of the church was done.

This trip was followed by another trip on 28.11.12 consisting of Mr. N. K. Boro, Mr. Sanjay Martin, Mr. Naveen Cak, & Mr. Nitin Bagh, along with an electrician from Jabalpur. Rev Lalit Solomon accompanied from Mandla.  Balance work of electrification was completed, and lot of old clothes which were collected from congregation of Christ Church was distributed among the people.

So far following work has been done at Ratanpur

Since approximately 3 acres of land is available, it is planned to cultivate it so that some income is generated for the church. A tube well is needed for irrigation since there is no water in Ratanpur. For this purpose, during visit of 28.11.12, we met Mr. Vargese who is a government contractor at Mandla. He has quoted a cost of Rs 65000/- to Rs 70000/- for the tubewell along with a pump.

Following things are planned to be completed before Easter of 2013 –

A          Land measurement by government authorities.

B          Demarcation of boundary and providing fencing to protect property.

C          Providing tube well.

D          Construction of Alter

D          Identification and education of children due for confirmation.

E          Educating proper account keeping.

A trip to Ratanpur is being organized between 14^th to 18^th January 2013. Interested people can accompany by contributing for bus fair. Following activities will be done during the trip

• To know their problems and their views regarding church growth.
• Women’s fellowship will interact with women of congregation and guide them to organize WFCS.
• Youth fellowship will interact with youth of Ratanpur.
• Sunday School teachers will motivate young people to start Sunday School.

We specially request doctors of our congregation to visit Ratanpur for a rough assessment of general health condition of Ratanpur people so that a health camp can be organized in future.

Those who are interested to go may contact the pastor or Mr. Naveen Cak / Mr. Vijay Bernard / Mr. Nitin Bagh or any other member of the committee at the earliest so that proper size bus can be arranged.

We request all members of our congregation to come forward to help in this project in what ever way you can do it.

CHRIST CHURCH FLOORING :By the Permission of Bishop and  Pastorate committiee Church has started, indoor flooring work from 4th of January 2016 .The old Flag stone are been removed and replaced with the New Marble stone.

The initiative taken by Rev.Bruce Thangadurai,Dn.Subha Vanketrama ,Mr.R.C.Joseph,Mr.Nitin Bagh ,Mr.Joseph Lazarus ,Mr.Sanjay Martin,Mr.Meshech Thangadurai and Mr.Naveen cak.