Pentecostal Mission · Vellore, Tamil Nadu
Hallelujah Village Church Trust is planting churches and serving the least among us in rural India. Widows, orphan children, rural pastors, and the vulnerable, in the name of Jesus Christ.
HVCT invites cross-cultural missionaries and resource persons to share in the ministry. Visiting the mission spots, staying for a time, and taking part in medical, educational, crusade, theological, and social service work.
Meet the Pastor
Pastor T. John Ravi Chandran has walked the dusty roads of Vellore and Tiruvannamalai districts for years, planting churches in villages where no preacher had set foot, and gathering a brotherhood of rural pastors who carry the same fire.
He carries one verse the way a soldier carries his orders, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). It is why HVCT exists. It is why he keeps going back to the Roadside Camp at dusk, why he sits on the floor with widows, why he teaches the village pastors who teach their own. The mission is the man, and the man is faithful to the call.
He invites cross-cultural missionaries, teachers, nurses and intercessors to come and see for themselves . He invites them to walk a few of those roads alongside him.
His Story
In his own words, Pastor T. John Ravi Chandran shares the story of how God reached him in a hospital bed in Vellore, called him into the ministry, and built the work that is today Hallelujah Village Church Trust.
I am Reverend T. John Ravi Chandran, senior pastor of Hallelujah Village Church Trust in Vellore District, Tamil Nadu. This is my testimony of God's grace and sovereignty in my life. I was born into a very poor family. Every day, my parents had to search for whatever food they could find. I knew hunger before I knew much else.
By the time I was fourteen, my body was failing. My veins were damaged and my stomach had swollen to enormous proportions. I underwent many surgical operations at the Christian Medical College Hospital in Vellore. My parents would beg in the streets, and every paisa they earned went straight to the hospital. It was through prayer that God restored my life. The Lord Jesus Christ healed me, and that healing became the foundation of my ministry. From that moment, my life was not my own. It belonged to the One who saved it.
In time, the Lord called me into His work. I attended Bible college, devoting three and a half years to the study of God's Word. I now serve alongside my wife, Evangelist Mrs. Vijayakumari Ravichandran, and our son Daniel. Together we labour in the rural and slum villages of Vellore and Tiruvannamalai districts. We serve the Dalit families and the communities the world overlooks, the forgotten, the unseen.
In December 2009, we held a Christmas Gospel healing crusade in a rural village. We faced strong opposition from local young men, but the Lord moved with power. People were healed of fevers, stomach pains, and chest pains. The Gospel went forth in that village for the first time. The following year, we returned to another village to distribute clothing and food. From those small beginnings, the Lord built what is today Hallelujah Village Church Trust.
By His grace, we now hold Sunday church services in two villages, a children's ministry for boys and girls aged 3 to 17, Saturday prayer and fasting meetings, a "Watch Night Prayer Fellowship" prayer vigil every third Friday, pastor training programs for rural village pastors, welfare ministry for widows and orphans and the aged, weekly food distribution, and tract and magazine distribution in Tamil and English. A house church is also being established as the work grows. Every offering, every gift, every prayer goes into this rural mission. One hundred percent of it.
If the Lord is leading you, please come and visit us here in Vellore. Walk the dusty roads with us. Hold meetings with our village pastors and new believers. If you cannot come, please send us Bibles, used Christian magazines, and Gospel tracts in Tamil and English. Most of all, please pray for us. Pray for our villages. Pray for the widows, the orphans, and the rural pastors who carry the Word into places no preacher has ever gone.
To God be all the glory.
Baptisms in his ministry
Each one a soul, each one a story. These are some of the believers Pastor John has baptized in lakes, baptismal pools, and village churches across Vellore and Tiruvannamalai.
His credentials
Pastor John has been studying, preaching, and serving since 1981. Below are the formal credentials he has received over forty years of ministry, from Bible colleges in India and ordaining bodies in the United States.
About HVCT
Hallelujah Village Church Trust is a Pentecostal fellowship gathered under the grace of God and the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Our heart is the Great Commission of Mark 16:15, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”
We work to conserve the unity of the Church as the body of Christ, uphold biblical principles, and honor the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4). Our labour is among the least and most needy: widows, orphan children, rural pastors, people affected by leprosy, the elderly, and Sunday school children.
We ask for your prayer and partnership in three urgent works. Leadership training for rural pastors, education for orphan children, and a sustaining ministry for widows and Bible women.
Our Mission
Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
Mark 16:15What we do
Free camps and care for those without access in rural Vellore and Tiruvannamalai.
School, food and a future for orphan children in our care, and a sponsor program for partners.
Open-air meetings, evangelism and discipleship in villages across two districts.
Preaching, Bible teaching and leadership training for rural pastors and Bible women.
Walking alongside widows, the elderly, people affected by leprosy and the most vulnerable in our community.
An open invitation for cross-cultural missionaries to come, stay, and serve alongside us.
North India Missionary Ministry
Through our network missionary, Pastor Koilraj Moses, the ministry of HVCT now reaches nearly two thousand kilometres north of Vellore, into Uttar Pradesh in North India. Families gather in house churches, new believers are added, and on 8 July 2026 a new church was dedicated to the glory of God.
On 8 July 2026, believers gathered at Gandhi Gram Colony in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, for the dedication of Christ the Savior Church. With church leaders and the sponsoring family present, Rev. Koilraj unveiled the dedication stone, wrapped in marigold garlands. The stone is engraved with the words of Genesis 28:17. This is the house of God, this is the gate of heaven.
In North India, most weeks the church is not a building. It is a brick room where mothers, children, and neighbours sit on the floor to hear the Word of God. Pastor Koilraj Moses and his team go village to village, preaching, praying for the sick, and gathering new believers into house churches. Please pray for this ministry.
Our Beliefs
Our doctrine is rooted in Scripture, the inspired Word of God. The summaries below are the core convictions that shape our worship, our witness and our work.
The Bible is the inspired Word of God, the product of holy men of old who spoke and wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. The New Covenant, as recorded in the New Testament, we accept as our infallible guide in matters pertaining to conduct and doctrine.
2 Tim. 3:16 · 1 Thess. 2:13 · 2 Peter 1:21
Our God is one, but manifested in three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, being coequal. The Father is greater than all, the Sender of the Word and the Begetter. The Son is the Word flesh-covered, the One Begotten, who has existed with the Father from the beginning. The Holy Spirit proceeds forth from both the Father and the Son and is eternal.
Deut. 6:4 · Phil. 2:6 · John 14:28 · John 16:28 · John 1:1, 14, 18 · John 14:16 · John 15:26
Man is a created being, made in the likeness and image of God, but through Adam's transgression and fall, sin came into the world. “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was manifested to undo the works of the devil and gave His life and shed His blood to redeem and restore man back to God. Salvation is the gift of God to man, separate from works and the Law, and is made operative by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, producing works acceptable to God.
Rom. 3:10, 23 · Rom. 5:14 · 1 John 3:8 · Eph. 2:8–10
Man's first step toward salvation is godly sorrow that worketh repentance. The New Birth is necessary to all men, and when experienced, produces eternal life.
2 Cor. 7:10 · John 3:3–5 · 1 John 5:12
Baptism in water is by immersion, is a direct commandment of our Lord, and is for believers only. The ordinance is a symbol of the Christian's identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. The baptismal formula: “On the confession of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and by His authority, I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.”
Matt. 28:19 · Rom. 6:4 · Col. 2:12 · Acts 8:36–39
The Baptism in the Holy Ghost and fire is a gift from God as promised by the Lord Jesus Christ to all believers in this dispensation and is received subsequent to the new birth. This experience is accompanied by the initial evidence of speaking in other tongues as the Holy Spirit Himself gives utterance.
Matt. 3:11 · John 14:16,17 · Acts 1:8 · Acts 2:1–4, 38–39 · Acts 19:1–7
Without holiness no man can see the Lord. We believe in the Doctrine of Sanctification as a definite, yet progressive work of grace, commencing at the time of regeneration and continuing until the consummation of salvation at Christ's return.
Heb. 12:14 · 1 Thess. 5:23 · 2 Peter 3:18 · 2 Cor. 3:18 · Phil. 3:12–14 · 1 Cor. 1:30
Healing is for the physical ills of the human body and is wrought by the power of God through the prayer of faith, and by the laying on of hands. It is provided for in the atonement of Christ, and is the privilege of every member of the Church today.
James 5:14,15 · Mark 16:18 · Isa. 53:4–5 · Matt. 8:17 · 1 Peter 2:24
His coming is imminent. “The dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” Following the Tribulation, He shall return to earth as King of kings and Lord of lords, and together with His saints He shall reign a thousand years.
Acts 1:11 · 1 Thess. 4:16–17 · Rev. 5:10 · Rev. 20:6
The one who physically dies in his sins without accepting Christ is eternally lost in the lake of fire. The terms “eternal” and “everlasting” carry the same meaning of endless existence used in denoting the joy of the saints in the Presence of God.
Heb. 9:27 · Rev. 19:20
Sponsor an Orphan Child
For many of the children in our care, the local church is the only family they have ever known. Your monthly sponsorship provides food, schooling, clothing, and the quiet love of a community that knows their name.
We are honoured to walk with sponsors from around the world. The monthly amount will be confirmed by Pastor John when you reach out, together we'll find a way of giving that works for your family.
Make a Mission Trip
We extend an open hand to cross-cultural missionaries, pastors, teachers, nurses, and resource persons. Come and visit the mission spots, stay for a time, and take part in the ministry firsthand.
Gallery
Moments from our village ministry, from the Roadside Camp outreach at dusk to Vacation Bible School with our children.
Free Tamil Bibles placed into the hands of new believers and village pastors.
Monthly support, food, and prayer for widows, orphan children, and the aged in the villages of Vellore.
Visiting a blind family in their home with groceries and prayer.
Sharing the Gospel, distributing food, and praying with the roadside community at Roadside Camp.
Our network of village pastors gathered together, with a shared meal.
Pastor John sharing God's Word at the village pastors meeting.
Vacation Bible School with our children.
Watch the ministry
Short clips from the Roadside Camp Outreach and a Pastors Teaching session, please be patient as videos load on slower connections.
Frequently asked
Most of the questions we hear from sponsors, missionaries and friends, with the answers Pastor John would give you if you reached him on WhatsApp tonight.
You commit to a monthly gift that goes directly toward an orphan child's food, schooling, clothing, and care. Pastor John will confirm the monthly amount with you personally when you reach out . We keep it flexible so it works for your family. We'll share which child you are supporting, photos and updates from time to time, and you can write to them through the church.
Every gift goes into three works: rural pastor training, orphan education and care, and the widow & Bible-women ministry. Gifts given for a specific child or pastor are used for that purpose. Pastor John is personally accountable for the funds and is happy to share details on request.
Yes . We warmly welcome cross-cultural missionaries, pastors, teachers, nurses, and intercessors. You can come for a few days or stay longer. Reach out on WhatsApp first and we will plan the trip together . We'll suggest the season, arrange accommodation, and walk you through what to expect at the Roadside Camp, the pastors meetings, and the village churches.
Yes. Hallelujah Village Church Trust is the registered name of the ministry. Pastor T. John Ravi Chandran is the founding pastor and steward. For formal documentation or large gifts that need a receipt, please reach Pastor John directly and he will provide what you need.
Absolutely. One-time gifts are deeply appreciated and stretch a long way in the villages of Vellore. You can also share this site with people who might partner with us, or simply pray for our pastors, our widows and our children. Prayer is the first work of every mission . Please pray for us.
WhatsApp on +91 98428 91578 is the fastest . He replies personally, usually within a day. Email at johnrchandran@gmail.com works too. Please be patient on slow-network days; Vellore villages aren't always covered.
Our ministry network
For over forty years, the work of HVCT has been shaped, supported, and sent out by a fellowship of Christian institutions across India and the United States. These are the churches, seminaries, and ministries that have walked with Pastor John, taught him, ordained him, and continue to stand with us in prayer.
Pentecostal church fellowship
The church where Pastor John was baptized on 10 September 1981, planting the seed of a lifetime in ministry. Based in Chennai, with congregations across South India.
Connected since 1981Bible college, Madras (Chennai)
Founded by Rev. Dr. P. Sam Chelladurai Sr. Pastor John studied here from 1982 to 1984, where he received his Diploma of Biblical Studies and was prepared for full-time ministry.
Studied 1982 - 1984Church of South India, Diocese of Vellore
The historic seminary of the CSI Diocese of Vellore, where Pastor John completed his theological course from 1984 to 1985. The Diocese covers North Arcot Ambedkar District.
Graduated 1985Open theological university, Pollachi
A wing of CMF Trust, affiliated with ICCC Netherlands. Pastor John was conferred his Bachelor of Theology here, completing decades of formal theological preparation for the work.
Conferred 2011Ordaining body, Duluth, Minnesota
The international ministry that ordained Pastor John to the work of the Gospel, recognizing his calling and authorizing him to preach, baptize, and shepherd in the name of Jesus Christ.
Ordained byOrdaining body, Cleveland, Tennessee
A second ministerial association that recognized Pastor John's call. Founders: Rev. and Mrs. H. Richard Hall. Reaffirms his ordination across the Pentecostal fellowship.
Authorized 2006Local sending church, Vellore
The home parish that commended Pastor John for ministry. Pastor in charge in 1996 was Rev. Y. James Pragasam. Located in North Arcot Ambedkar District, Tamil Nadu.
Commended 1996North India network missionary, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
Our network missionary carrying the Gospel through Uttar Pradesh in North India. He plants house churches village by village, and on 8 July 2026 dedicated Christ the Savior Church at Gandhi Gram Colony, Lucknow.
Serving in North IndiaMission hospital, Vellore
One of India's most renowned Christian hospitals, founded by Dr. Ida Scudder in 1900. Pastor John was treated here as a boy. He calls this hospital the place where the Lord saved his life.
Healed atHVCT is also building a network of rural village pastors across Vellore and Tiruvannamalai districts. As that brotherhood grows, you will see their names and villages listed here. To be added, please contact Pastor John directly.
Sign the guest book
If our story reached you today, please leave a note for Pastor John and the family. Your name and message will go straight to his phone on WhatsApp. He reads every one, often the same day, and he prays over every guest by name.
Notes from our friends
As your messages arrive, a selection will be shared here. Be the first to sign.
Helpful links
A few official resources connected with our region and the ministry, for visitors, supporters, and those planning a mission trip to Vellore.
Partner with HVCT
Every gift, however small, goes a long way in the villages of Vellore. You will be feeding a child, schooling an orphan, encouraging a rural pastor and sending the gospel further into Tamil Nadu.
PayPal
International giving
A PayPal.me link will be added when ready. For now, use PayPal's "Send Money to a Friend" feature.
Open PayPalBank / Wire Transfer
For larger or recurring gifts
Thank you for your prayers and your partnership. "Every good gift… cometh down from the Father of lights." James 1:17
Find us
A village church on Church Street in Melmonavur, Vellore district, the heart of our ministry.
Contact
Whether you are sponsoring a child, planning a visit, or just want to say a prayer with us, we'd be honoured to hear from you.
