Dishan DeSilva

Victor Nazareth

David Sagar

KB & Sushilla Basil

Safeer Akhtar

It’s All About Leaders

When Bev and I launched ChurchAsia in the year 2000, we took a huge risk and attempted something that I had never seen or heard anyone doing in missions.  We invested our time, resources, energy and love into developing an indigenous leader and hoped for the best!  The Lord honored that tentative venture of faith and has helped us to duplicate that model all over South Asia.  We are beginning to sense a building momentum in our work, but we are careful not to forget what got us to this point … young, energetic, opportunistic, spirit-led leaders – and a merciful God!

Every success begins with a leader.  I want to share a brief update this month on each of our key leaders and their wives, and I want to thank you for helping us develop these deserving, capable young couples.  I recently did a survey of the churches we planted through them during the past ten years, and I discovered that we are pastoring over 15,000 believers in Nepal, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka.

Dishan & Stephanie DeSilva, Colombo, Sri Lanka – When we first started our work with Dishan, he was an inexperienced young cell leader.  But his passion and enthusiasm was contagious.  He is still one of the hardest workers I know and oversees a growing congregation of 750 adults.  He has planted twelve congregations and is mentoring over thirty additional pastors.  I’ve lost count of the number of nations Dishan has ministered in (I think ten!), and his influence continues to grow.

Victor & Esther Nazareth, Delhi, India – Victor & Esther are a couple seasoned in ministry who could have done well without our assistance.  But the Lord was able to use Bev and me to help them operate in another level of effectiveness in their work.  We were instrumental in helping them relocate to Gurgaon, a developing city south of Delhi.  As we focus on India, this year and next, I will be relying heavily on Victor’s advice.  He is pastoring over 1,000 believers in seventeen congregations, and he is beginning to develop a solid base in north India.

David & Sony Sagar, Bhaktapur, Nepal – David and Sony oversee our children’s home on the outskirts of Katmandu.  They are one of the most compassionate and serving couples you will ever meet.  The atmosphere they have carefully constructed in the children’s home is beautiful.  I plan to use their ministry as a model in developing other homes where abandoned children can be raised in a true family environment.

K.B. & Sushilla Basil, Nepalgunj, Nepal – K.B. and Sushilla have been the focus or our efforts over the past three years, and it has paid off.  We now have 121 churches in West Nepal, and K.B. is beginning the construction of an expanded main church building that will seat 1,000 when completed.  We continue to look more and more to K.B. for help with our other works.  He is a “master administrator”, and his ideas are helping our other works to expand their vision.

Safeer & Shamsah, Islamabad, Pakistan – Safeer and Shamsah are consummate pastors.  Safeer was an architect before he surrendered to the Lord, and his skills saved us about $30,000 when we built our church building outside Islamabad.  Safeer now pastors 1,500 adult believers.  I want to give this church about two more years to mature and then use it as a model for other church plants in Pakistan.  Shamsah is walking through a serious health issue right now, and the doctors suspect that she may have intestinal cancer.  I’ll know more in a few weeks and will keep you posted, but please pray with us for her healing.

It is Shamsah’s need for a miracle that prompted me to write about our leaders this month.  As Pastor Safeer shared out of his brokenness and concern for his wife, I was reminded of how valuable each of the leaders are and how worthy they are of our continued investment.  There is nothing more precious in the Kingdom!

Amazing Footnote! - I received a text from Safeer just a few days ago that on a return visit for further testing, the doctors could not find any evidence of cancer in Shamsah. We are marveling over this report and of course Safeer and his family are overjoyed.

Many Thanks – Rick, Bev & Shane

rick@rickzachary.com - bev.zachary@gmail.com - shane.zachary@gmail.com

ChurchAsia - P.O. Box 82080 - Baton Rouge, LA 70884

changing the world...one congregation at a time