Kaushal dreamed of going to school.
From the moment he arrived in the crowded, bustling city, sent by his father to earn money for his impoverished family, he thought of the open-air village school he had never been able to attend. He longed to study instead of working long shifts in the factory.
Kaushal slept in a local slum. As he settled into the community, a group of professionals visited the slum to offer medical care and educational programs for families. Noticing the inquisitive young boy, the ministry directors, ABWE Live Global missionaries John and Lydia, approached him and asked if he would like to attend school.
Astounded, Kaushal eagerly exclaimed that he would. The next instant, his face clouded with hesitation. How much would it cost? he wondered. John assured him that they would provide the necessary resources, along with advocating for his admittance to a local school and enrolling him in the ministry’s tutoring center.
Kaushal thrived in school, eventually becoming the first in his family to graduate high school—and then to complete college and obtain a job at a multinational corporation.
More significant than his educational success, however, was his decision to attend John’s church plant, where he heard the gospel for the first time. Although a devout Hindu—originally from a region so hostile toward Christianity that it was known as “the graveyard of missionaries”—Kaushal’s heart softened through the care he received. He surrendered his life to Christ as a teenager.
“Many of the kids accept our invitations to church, where we talk about Jesus and why we do what we do,” explained John. “And many of them come to know the Lord.”
Another of these children was Sita, who attended the tutoring program after John convinced her father that the best way for her to overcome poverty was through education rather than an early arranged marriage. She too placed her faith in Christ and later directed a similar ministry for young girls. Her friendship with her classmate, Kaushal, blossomed, and they married after graduation.
Kaushal currently serves as a church-planting pastor and coordinates Bible translation projects, while gaining additional theological education and ministry training at the church planting institute John launched in 2024.
“Many of the kids accept our invitations to church, where we talk about Jesus and why we do what we do. And many of them come to know the Lord.”
John
“There’s an army of young kids that, over the last two decades, we’ve seen grow up to be leaders in our churches,” said John. “Many are planting churches in various parts of the city.”
Education and pastoral training play foundational roles in John and Lydia’s initiative to develop national church planters and missionaries to share the gospel among the 519 unreached people groups in their city and throughout South Asia. Their ministry spans all strata of society. Their slum ministry, college student outreach, business as mission endeavors, and church plants each advance their goal of sustainable church multiplication and their vision to engage 20 unreached people groups and plant 30 churches by 2030.
“Our city has such a great spiritual need and so many people,” said John. “But the gospel crosses all barriers, and we are seeing how Christ promised to build his church.”
