HOW WE STARTED

At the age of 15 Leanna Cinquanta, an atheist at the time, experienced a dramatic encounter with Christ. Her life was radically changed. After graduating from college she attended the Youth With A Mission discipleship school. There she experienced another encounter with the Lord in which He commissioned her to bring Jesus's love to the most needy areas of the world starting with India. Throughout her years in college, Leanna's father had built a 200 by 70 foot freespand riding arena with adjoining home and stable as her college graduation present. One of the most difficult steps for Leanna in accepting God's calling was to phone her dad and tell him, "Please sell the horse facility. I won't be training horses anymore; God has just called me to go to India." The facility was sold and Leanna began to ask the Lord to show her more specifically what she was to do in India. Through very specific and detailed dreams the Lord said to start in the Ganges River area in north India, and also showed her not to join a missionary team but to live directly with the nationals.

In September 1996 she set out for India with a one-way airline ticket, leaving a will for her parents to find, having been persuaded by elders that going to the wilds of northern India without a missionary team was crazy. Her first three years in India were spent living directly with a few existing believer's in the villages and small towns participating fully in their austere lives of poverty and persecution.

Leanna's early days in India - with the nationals in a remote village

It was through this experience that the Lord showed her that she was not to be a missionary, but to start an organization that would be "a servant of the native believers." She saw that ministry is far more effective when done by the natives, but also realized that they are in need of funding for evangelism, ministry resources, Bible training and facilities.

In 1997 Leanna sold her last horse to purchase a second-hand jeep for an Indian pastor. TellASIA Ministires was registered the same year. Kathy, Leanna's mom (pictured) at age 60 studied how to start a nonprofit organization, wrote the bylaws, and taught herself how to use a computer and did all the accounting and newsletters for many years.

In October 1998 Leanna recognized the need for a native leader to guide the evangelism and church planting work. The Lord led her to a Hindu-background believer to whom, due to the prophetic nature of their meeting, she gave the prophetic nickname David. David was from a very dark and unreached area of India. He had suffered beatings and other abuse at the hands of his father and elder brother on account of his commitment to Christ. He had also forsaken a chance to go to England, remaining true to his calling to bring the Gospel to his own popele in north India.

David with his wife Renu became TellASIA's native director. Under his and Leanna's leadership the minstry began to grow. Leanna's routine became to spend about six months in India and six months in the US raising funds for the growing ministry. Meanwhile, David was constantly training young believers in three-month discipleship schools, or else on his motorcycle visiting the churches being planted in the remote villages.

these strategies were implemented.The result was dramatic; the gospel began to spread even more rapidly.Young believers, miraculously healed through prayer in the name of Jesus, began to go out spontaneously sharing their faith. Healing of cancer, epilepsy and paralysis became common. Demons were cast out. Thousands committed their lives to Christ and churches were established in hundreds of villages. At the same time, vicious persecution arose. Anti-Christian groups vowed to kill David. On several occasions they had to vacate the house in the middle of the night, expecting a mob attack. Numerous times our national church planters were severly beaten and thrown into prison. Despite all this the work continued to accelerate.

In 2001 and 2004 two organizations were registered as TellASIA's Indian agencies - - Living Hope Trust and The Alliance - under the directorship of our national executives David and Alok. Through these agencies TellASIA is developing facilities in India for churches, pastoral training and humanitarian projects.

In 2004 the Tsunami struck southern India and TellASIA conducted an outreach to the worst hit areas. That marked the beginning of a social dimension, Living Hope Alliance. Projects that first year included the Tsunami Relief Project, sewing schools, micro-business project for destitute women, and Blue Haven Children's Home, directed by Alok's wife Ricky (pictured). Today one of our most exciting projects is the expansion of the children's home, with the construction of a self-sufficient children's home and school to accomodate 200 destitute and orphaned children.

The year 2007 was a record year for the Gospel work with over 17,000 people making a committment to Christ and 3,255 of them being baptized. 250 new village churches were planted making 1,100 churches in villages that formerly had no Gospel witness.

In 2008, the 2020 Network was launched (pictured). This is a united vision to see the Ganges River plain of north India grow from current 1% to 20% of the population following Christ by Year 2020. TellASIA Ministries is providing assistance and training to over 1,000 native pastors and leaders. In 2009, this multi-denominational team led 75,000 people to Christ and planted 1,791 new house-based churches. The coporate goal in 2010 is 112,500 new believers, 2,600 new house-based churches and training provided to 3,000 upcoming leaders/pastors.

Be a part of this exciting movement that is transforming thousands of lives.