Who we are

Sewa is an indigenous pioneering mission organization in the foothills of Himalayas. It is started with the vision to reach the remote villages of India with the enlightening and awakening message of Christ Jesus.

It was on January, 1978 that a soldier in the Indian Army, serving his country in the Himalayan Mountains of North India, had a personal encounter with the Lord Jesus that changed his whole life. This soldier was none other than Pastor. S. Thankraj. One night in 1987 while he was Praying, he heard a voice from God asking him to resign from the Army and join His Army. He was shocked at the beginning because he had three little kids with him, who were in the beginning stages of their schools. The question that tormented him again and again was ‘who will look after my children?’, ‘will they be able to get good education?’, ‘who will feed us?’ Again the spirit of the lord compelled him to resign the job and be His missionary. Obeying to the lord’s call he went to his superior with the voluntary resignation letter.

That same year he entered into the lord’s ministry as a pastor. He ministered as a pastor in a city church in Pathankot for seven years. During his ministry there, God used him in many amazing way. God anointed him to exorcise evil spirit from the demonic possessed people. Many were set free from the tangles of the devil and were added to the church.

One night the lord showed him a vision of a village, during this time he was searching for a piece of land. One night in a vision God showed him a river which is flowing with water; lord brought him to the bridge and showed him the whole village which was green with the paddy field. God told him, ‘this is your land’. One day as he was searching for this piece of land, one of his friend directed him to this particular place, on his arrival to the bridge of the said place, again the whole vision came clear to him as a movie is replayed. He stood there on the bridge to see the whole replay of the vision again. And it was confirmed that this is the Promised Land village CHOTTEPUR

In the year 1993 our whole family shifted to Chottepur. There was not even a single believer family in this village when the land was bought. This village of low caste people were dominated by the Natives. Slowly the lord started to move in this village and touched lives. The first person to come out to accept Christ from this village was the Pradhan of the village temple. His whole family got saved. There started the opposition. Although no one ever dared to vent physical harm but were very much annoyed by this new chapter in their village. They started to do sorcery against our family and the believer’s family but God always saved us from all harms. What started in a Kuccha shed has became a church building today. Where one family sat and worshipped the lord on a Sunday today it has grown into more than 52 families. God has been faithful in this journey.

Taking Village Chottepur as the model church for the missions the Holy Spirit guided us to pioneer a new ministry. This vision came forward in the light of the great commission in Acts 1:8, To fulfill the vision that the lord has put in our hearts, we started an organization in 2009. This organization is called as Society for Enlightening, Witnessing &Awakening (SEWA). Chottepur is a model village for our vision.

– Vinod Abraham

This is the story of humble visionary beginning of Pastor. S Thankaraj, whose mother’s prayer God answered. God protected him from all the harms to fulfil his eternal plan. He fought in the two wars with Pakistan as an Indian soldier in 1965 and 1971, during one of these wars he was about to be killed by the enemy’s bomb, but God protected him as the bomb did not explode as it reached close to him. God has kept him for the execution of his plan in the villages of north India. He has travelled extensively in the villages of Punjab, Himachal and J&K to share the Good News of Christ.

Taking Village Chottepur as the model church for the missions the Holy Spirit guided us to pioneer a new ministry. This vision came forward in the light of the great commission in Acts 1:8, To fulfill the vision that the lord has put in our hearts, we started an organization in 2009. This organization is called as Society for Enlightening, Witnessing &Awakening (SEWA). Chottepur is a model village for our vision. If God could do such a marvellous transformation then He is able to do such a thing in other villages too.There are lots of villages in North India that have not been reached by the gospel. This organization is adopting different ways and means to reach the villagers with the message of Christ, which will enlighten their hearts and mind and bring about a spiritual awakening within them. We want to be the agents of change wherever we can so that the lives of people may be enlightened, so that they would be able to realize their real worth.