MMPC hosts missionary from India
By Michael Atmar
Matthews Memorial Presbyterian Church had the honor of hosting a missionary from India named Shaju Easo this past Sunday. Shaju and his two brothers lead a ministry called Soul Winners India, which exists to “reach the unreached with grace and compassion.” In addition to their Bible School, which trains pastors to take the gospel to remote villages in northern India, Soul Winners India also operates five orphanages, which they call “Children’s Homes.” In total, they care for 122 children who have been welcomed into loving homes where they hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Soul Winners India was started by Shaju’s father, K.G. Easo, who went to be with the Lord in 2016. K.G. Easo was born in Kerala, a Christian-majority state in the south of India with a rich history of Christianity that dates back to the apostle Thomas bringing the gospel there in A.D. 52. At the age of 12, K.G. Easo heard the gospel from an evangelist and trusted in Jesus as his Savior. In 1972, K.G. and his wife Annamma moved to a city in north India called Barwaha, where he worked for the government as an engineer. At that time, in that entire district with a population of 2 million people, there was not a single church or even another Christian that K.G. and Annamma knew. But the Lord made it clear to K.G. that he was not only there to work for the government, but also to win souls for Christ.
In 1995, K.G. started the Bible School to train pastors to preach the gospel to the unreached villages of India. Since then, Soul Winners India has trained over 2,000 pastors. These pastors have started over 5,100 churches over the past 30 years. In 2024, the believers in these churches shared the gospel with over 3 million people. As a result, 20,000 people accepted Christ and 9,000 people were baptized. Furthermore, 500 new churches were started. While these statistics are wonderful, Shaju pointed out that the population of India is over 1.4 billion people. As Jesus said, “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Matthew 9:37). Therefore, we must continue to “pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:38). If you would like to learn more about how to partner with Soul Winners India, please contact Michael Atmar (matmar@mmpcalbany.org) or Shaju Easo (shaju@swindia.us).
