On their way back home: Chris Gnanakan, Class of 1985.

Many Christians pray for the people around the world who haven't been reached for Christ. Others have gone, leaving the places they know as home, to tell others of true hope. But often, despite years of training or persistent traveling, some areas remain closed to the Gospel.

That is, unless the Christians already there know how to spread the truth — from the inside out.

Chris Gnanakan grew up in Bangalore, India. His great grandfather was the first in his ancestry to become a Christian, and Chris was saved at 15 when a message about God's love changed him.

Chris became very aware of his sinfulness, but that realization was also met with the truth of God's mercy. Compared with India’s prevalent Hindu idea of karma, which atones for sin with punishment, a Savior Who would actually forgive a sinner filled Chris with hope.

But Chris hadn't considered Christianity's reach beyond the life he knew. He was building a career as a skilled technician in Bangalore, the "Silicon Valley of the East" — until, one day, he was moved to make his faith the focus of his life.

Chris was being discipled by Gene Tozer from New Brunswick Bible Institute in the late 1970s when he met Wendell Calder, who taught at Word of Life's Bible Institute and had founded a ministry called Local Church Evangelism. Wendell, who was visiting India, had been working with Jack Wyrtzen and Word of Life on reaching more countries for Christ. At that time, missionaries from the West weren’t allowed in India — but there was nothing to keep a native Indian from sharing his faith.

Chris knew he could make a difference in India if he could just get the training. Jack offered him a scholarship to the Bible Institute in Schroon Lake, and Chris took it. That choice began his journey toward reaching a country that now holds more than one billion people of various religions, vices, and creeds.

Chris left for the United States in 1984, arriving in Schroon Lake just in time for winter Snow Camp.

“It stays at about 75 degrees in Bangalore year-round, and I left for New York in January,” Chris says of his first time ever leaving his village. “I thought I would die. I wore two pairs of pants at once. I had only seen snow on postcards!”

Chris grew to love Schroon Lake, from its four distinct seasons to what he found in fellow students and faculty members.

“They loved me, cared for me, prayed for me — I saw the beauty of Jesus through the people,” Chris says. “I will never forget.”

Adjusting to a new physical climate was just the beginning. At Word of Life, Chris saw for the first time that Christian ministry was international — and growing.

“I realized it was going global, and I was part of it,” he recalls.

His daily life was filled with “a wonderful blend of intimacy with God and involvement with the world.” Evangelism became his main focus.

Chris first had to practice planting churches in the United States, and his ministry at the Bible Institute was doing just that. Every weekend for six months, he went with a team led by Brian Gower to Fair Haven, Vermont, where the students planted a church and developed a congregation. Family Bible Church remains today in Castleton, led by Pastor John Longaker.

Chris next went to Tennessee Temple University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in pastoral studies and psychology. In 1990, it was back to Bangalore, to reach fellow Indians for Christ.

Chris had trained for evangelism knowing what his home country was like, but reality was still harsh. Militant Hindutva extremists used their “India is Hindu only” ideology to intimidate Christians.

“You’ve got to go out on a limb, take risks for your faith, venture out into the deep, even though you might not come back,” Chris says.

The possibility of moving out and not returning is a reality in Chris’ field of work. His church-planting efforts have included beatings, and his team members have served jail time.

“You’ve got to thrust yourself out and keep going — and not be ashamed of the Gospel,” he says.

Chris worked hard to make connections in India, and by the end of his first year there, he’d established a church, Banaswadi Bible, where he served as pastor for more than 10 years. That first church eventually led Chris to his current ministry, Outreach to Asia Nationals, which trains natives to return to their home countries to share the Gospel.

“What do you do if missionaries can’t get there?” Chris asks. “You bring them to the United States, light a fire in their hearts for the Lord, and send them back.”

For Chris and other nationals, it’s a powerful mission. Rather than taking a foreign message to a country that’s never heard God’s truth, the missionaries leave their home country for a bit of training and then return to the lives they’ve always known. They use their inherent knowledge of culture and customs to form solid relationships.
The nationals adapt the message of Christ to these unique settings, but they're driving at the same place as anyone who shares the Gospel. Every lost soul, no matter where they have turned to find truth and hope, has a hole deep inside — a feeling that something is missing.

These missionaries use the ways of their native lands to show people that their only true home is in Christ.

Chris became Outreach to Asia Nationals’ director of training in 2009 and was named the executive director this year. Outreach to Asia Nationals’ mission is similar to that of Word of Life’s in that it trains those who are native to the countries they are reaching. Chris developed the organization’s slogan: “Doing what others don’t, won’t and can’t.” The group makes disciples of nationals (what others don’t), focuses on unreached or least-reached people groups (what others won’t), and takes advantage of Asians’ ability to access these groups (what others can’t ).

Chris’ reach has expanded far beyond India. In his position, he now ministers to nine countries that limit Christian work, including China, North Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Nepal. He hopes to expand the organization’s focus to Muslim nations, beginning with Egypt and Pakistan.

Chris lives a global, fast-paced, often distracting lifestyle (see sidebar). His prayer for himself and fellow Bible Institute alumni, most of whom he knows live the same way, is to follow a principle taught by Dr. Charles Ryrie called the “three-legged stool.” The “legs” include an intimate relationship with Christ, a Christian home to foster and cherish, and evangelistic outreach. With balance, all aspects of life can be kept in harmony, and Christians can focus on God’s will.

For Chris, God's will was to leave his home for a time and find a way to take the hope of the Gospel back to it. Now, he's seeing that decision stretch across a continent, as he ministers to many people who are on the same mission.

“We trained a lady from China, and over the past 20 to 30 years, her faith community has planted 6,000 churches,” he said. “They went to village after village, telling the story of Jesus — and it’s still happening. It’s just such a simple thing: We learn to know we sin and can be saved.”

Saved. Saved from darkness to light. Saved from a wandering existence where people can’t ever quite know if they’ve found what they need. Saved from the wilderness of sin, and reintroduced to true home through the one and only Savior.