An Unlikely Mission Leader

(Pictured above: A joyful believer among Sushant’s people.)

Sushant was just two years old when his father died. Because his mother married another man and became unwanted, his uncle took him in to raise him.

It was his uncle who gave Sushant a Bible and introduced him to Jesus. When he was 19, he received the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and wanted to go to Bible School to learn more about his new life in Christ. Sushant’s uncle (whom he called father) didn’t want him to go to Bible School but Sushant prevailed and went to study in central India.

After completing his studies and getting married in the early 1980s, Sushant received a number of ministry invitations because he had received training. (Very few in those days in his region had received formal Bible training.) Some invitations came to pastor established churches in large cities but the Lord gave Sushant a burden to reach his own people with the gospel.

Sushant and his wife accepted an invitation from a group of 16 rural churches from their own people to become their area minister and missionary. Immediately they began a work of evangelism.

Because they had no transportation in the early days, they would need to walk everywhere they wanted to go. They would enter into new villages together with local believers from the area who would have some contact with the new villages and share about the Lord Jesus Christ. The local believers would follow up from the initial visit and Sushant would be called when they were ready for baptism.

Of course, many of the seekers would face much opposition from their community when they contemplated following Jesus. Their neighbours would ask them, “Why are you leaving our traditions to follow another religion?” The community often would refuse to help new believers and even hinder them from using the community water well, for example. Following Jesus immediately came with a cost.

The churches in Sushant’s region have faced much opposition over the years. From personal threats and targeted ambushes to community mob violence and much destruction of property and the taking of lives. The Lord has sustained Sushant and his family through all these things; not only surviving in the ministry but they radiate with joy.

When Sushant was with us in Canada in October he repeatedly said that “without persecution the church will not grow”.

Sushant understands the joy and cost of following Jesus and he is eager to see the remaining unreached hear about Jesus. Those 16 small churches in the early 1980s have now grown to become 200 churches. Currently, 70 missionaries are serving under the leadership that Sushant is providing to them.

Engage Today has partnered with Sushant in order to strengthen their mission of reaching out to the unreached of their people and the neighbouring unreached people groups close by in their region. You can partner together in bringing the gospel to the unreached with Sushant through Engage Today by supporting their outreach initiatives.