As the ministry in Rameswaram grew into the 1990s, the need arose for someplace to house and train the growing influx of young disciples joining Moses Paulose from all over India, who were coming to receive his training in village church planting. A large pole and thatch structure was first erected on newly purchased land, which was later burned by Hindu radicals. They also tried to kill some of the trainees by first tying them to the poles before setting the building on fire. However, a sudden rainstorm saved the believers. Another thatched dorm building was later constructed, which again ignited the Hindu’s religious ire. They burned the second structure, and all the Gospel books and equipment they could find.

By 1998, BCM decided to draw up plans for a modest and incombustible structure of brick and cement, which could be used for simple housing and class space for ministry training. As Billygraham Paulose was pondering how to proceed, an old prophet from the mainland of Tamil Nadu, Anan Ezra, arrived in Rameswaram, and announced that he had a message from God. He described how God had shown him exactly what the ministry was to do regarding their need for a training facility. Billy carefully recorded over twenty pages of notes, as Anan Ezra spent hours carefully recounting to him all the dimensions and technical details of what had come to him in a prophesy. Shortly after that puzzling encounter, Billy was scheduled for a speaking itinerary in the eastern USA. During the course of that journey, he met Steve Branham, who worked in global Evangelical architecture projects. Billy submitted all the notes for Steve to examine, and they were found to contain the exact plans for an amazing and very unique building. Steve’s company decided to make a project of it, and that year drew up formal blueprints following the direction of Anan Ezra’s prophesy. About a year later BCM broke ground for the projected Training Center, on thirty acres of rolling sand they owned in Rameswaram. ( author: my wife and I were also present for that event. ) Without even remotely enough funds, staff or experience to complete the colossal one-acre five story facility, we could only wonder on that hot and hopeful day how it could possibly come to pass…..

The Training Center in Rameswaram is now structurally complete. After a decade of daunting opposition from Hindu radicals, mercurial cost escalations, storms, protests, discouragements and setbacks, the walls are now erected, and the roof is completed.

The actual use of the Center, for ministry and training, has been ongoing for the last several years, growing with each season, as new rooms and areas are completed. Even during the tsunami aftermath, many thousands of desperate refugees found food, shelter, comfort and hope within the unfinished walls. We have hosted many pastor seminars, some with thousands in attendance from all over India. The annual children’s Vacation Bible School has grown from a few hundred to a few thousand. An ever-growing number of Bible College students are emerging from the Center each year, trained to carry the Gospel into far-flung villages throughout India. It now houses also a large modern dental clinic, a tailoring school facility, offices, a large library room, and ample provision for housing, bathing and kitchens to accommodate at least 500 Gospel trainees full time.

It is our sturdy hope that we will be able to complete all the details of plumbing, wiring and infrastructure soon, as funds are available. December, 2009 marked the 30^th year that BCM has been shining the Gospel light in Rameswaram and beyond, from the first day the Paulose family arrived on that shore; penniless, yet believing and determined. We had a wonderful dedication ceremony there then, with thousands of disciples and pastors from all over India attending for three days. Also, various prominent government officials came, some of whom were among those who had in previous years opposed the work. ( Contact our office to request a CD photofile of the Training Center dedication. )

As finally completed, the Training Center will seat 20,000 during Gospel crusades. There are more than that many Hindu pilgrims typically arriving in Rameswaram each week. According to ancient Hindu texts, they are enjoined to come to Rameswaram, one of a few special pilgrimage sites, once in their lifetimes, in order to seek out superstitious rituals purported to take away sins. It now is clearly evident how God has designed the BCM ministry and facility to literally stand in the gap as countless souls stream down the highway right by our entrance, enjoining them rather to come into the Training Center and hear, for most of them the first time, how our eternal Creator God has already paid for all our sins with His own blood.

During this nearly decade of struggle to complete the Training Center, waves of persecution have wracked the churches throughout India, peaking recently in months of deadly and arsonous persecutions which began in the Central Indian State of Orissa. So many churches, Bible schools and Christian homes have been torched, and it will doubtless continue from time to time. There is a growing realization of the wisdom that was hidden in God’s directions to us years ago. Before we could see the larger picture, the seeds were planted for a secure and incombustible mega-facility, on ministry land, to serve as an encouraging refuge for training, conference and ministry outreach, equipping the saints, discipling children, and preaching Jesus to the endless throngs of lost and searching Hindu pilgrims.