A History of the Church

A spiritual  congregation is an extension of one's family. It is a place from where a child gets to learn the alphabets of faith and it's where he gets to know the world. One such congregation amongst the many is Bethsaida. When we look back at the days gone by, we cannot but remind ourselves again that the Lord almighty has been so gracious and used us all to be one more link in the huge chain of Kingdom building

It all began

Around the late 1980's a small group of people used to have a prayer meeting in & around Mahadevpura area of Bangalore city and they gathered in houses. These meetings consisted of people from various Christian denominations and also non-Christians. The gatherings bought people closer to the teachings of our Lord, many were being healed and were blessed.

Pastor KC Andrews' ministry was gaining strength with Lord working amongst the people and the word of God started to develop deeper and the people felt the need to get closer to the lord and his teachings. Few of the believers chose to accept the Lord Jesus as their personal saviour and further testified through water baptism. The baptisms of these brethren were held in June 1992 and it was the first in this gathering. John 4:23 says "... true worshippers should worship Him in Truth & Spirit"

The Pentecostal beginning..

This small group of people traveled far, to a place called Banaswadi. They included small children in the respective families and those days the travel between Mahadevpura & Banaswadi was a major hurdle as both the places were not directly connected as today, the Ring road was in its infancy and very few buses plied on this part of the city. Because of these travel difficulties, they often struggled to reach on time and even more the small kids had a difficult time. Interestingly, now decades later some of these kids hold various responsibilities in the Church. The family members withstood these challenges and kept their faith to worship the Lord in Truth & Spirit, according to the tenets.

When you pass a test, the resultant is joy. After some deliberation, it was decided that a congregation be setup at Mahadevpura itself and Church services be held there. This would help in providing greater impetus to the ministry in Mahadevpura

The house of worship...

Starting a new worship center bought its own cause of worries. From a building to the floor mats had to be arranged out of nothing and it was a tough ask on the members, most of who were Technicians, lathe operators, machinists, fitters, welders etc. The Lord in His magnanimity did not let the faithful people down, He provided everything at the right time. The Bible in Ecclesiastes 3:11 says "He has made everything beautiful in its time". To the amazement of all, things started to fall in place and end of April 1992, we were able to identify a newly constructed little house in the close vicinity of Maheswarinagar. The rental agreement was made and the building was given a fresh coat of paint. The house was ready from the external, however we still needed to furnish it for prayer gatherings. The mats were provided by people who loved the Lord, few elementary musical instruments also gifted to the church.

August 31st, 1992 On this warm Sunday evening the first worship service at Mahadevpura was conducted. During this service, we all sat there with our hearts full of praise & thanksgiving and the new house of worship was dedicated to the Glory of God.

As time passed, In God, we put our trust and placed a plea to our Master Lord that He provide us with a property that we owned and on it, He enable us to construct a Church building. As a token of commitment to collect funds for the church building, Rev K C Andrews contributed Rs. 100.00 and our faith stood the test of time

The Church Building

In April 1996 by the Grace of God, Rev TM Daniel laid the corner stone for the Church building, in a plot which we were able to buy with funds raised internally and generous contributions from a lot of friends & dear ones. The work went on smooth and we were able to complete upto the roof level, after which due funds shortage the work had to be paused for about 4 months. The situation was worrying and all of us at the church earnestly started prayers. With hardly any funds at hand, there were hard choices to make like keeping the waterproofing of the roof for a later time, this in-fact caused a leaky roof too

Through it all, the Lord helped and the building was ready to be dedicated for the Masters service. The greatest joy of all Bethsaida folks February 14, 1998. In the presence of Rev Dr. John Thannickal, Rev TD Thomas and other servants of the Lord. Rev TM Daniel dedicated the building

God is Great and all His work are wonderful. A Congregation of over 100 families now gather here in Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil & Telugu services. The Lord has been continuously adding people to the church and working miraculously in the midst of his people.

Bethsaida stands for the HOUSE OF MERCY and is a FAMILY


Pastors who have served at Bethsaida

Rev K C Andrews | Our founder Pastor & served the Lord, until he passed away in 2018

Rev V P Mathews | 2018 - 2021