Meet Sue Pushkaran

Suvarnamala Pushkaran, cofounder of Partners India International, was born and brought up in Andhra Pradesh, India. She and her family migrated to the USA in 1992.

She was born into a very conservative Christian family where the name of Jesus and the Bible were an every day occurrence. Although she believed in a God, she often questioned the existence of God. Who was this God? Why are there so many religions? Are all gods the same? Were some of the questions she asked herself. She wouldn’t dare ask anyone at home because she knew the answer she would get. “Jesus is the only true God and no other.” She wondered why Jesus would be the only God and no other? She often asked God to do some miracles in her life. For example, when she lost her favorite Barbie’s little slipper, or when she would loose her home work she would ask God to help her find it and her prayer would be answered in minutes. Through these small encounters with God, Su realized there was some one or something who was listening and watching her.

She had to know who this God was. Although, her family members were devout followers of Jesus Christ, she had friends who were Muslims and Hindus. She was very curious to know if this God who was answering her and almost talking to her was a Hindu God or Muslim God or the Christian God. She asked God to reveal Himself to her. She didn’t know how that would happen but she wanted to know. She went to some of her friend’s houses sometimes wondering if one of the Gods on the walls would speak to her. She didn’t hear them? She didn’t feel the presence of God there. So she started reading the Koran and didn’t really feel God talking to her anymore. Then one day Su went to a week long Christian crusade. Her parents would drag her to these events all the time. When she was there every night she saw people crying around her. She saw people getting healed, the lame were walking the sick were getting healed. But there were many more who were just crying. She wondering, and some times even giggled at the crying people, because she didn’t understand why they were crying.

On the last day of the crusade, Su was pretty happy that it’s all over. She didn’t pay any attention to the person who was preaching, she was too busy looking around for people who would start crying. She knew little that day would be the day that God would reveal Himself to her. At the end of the meeting, the closing prayer, Su felt chills going down her spine. She was so cold she fell on her knees with her face in her palms to the dry ground. She wept. She didn’t know why she was crying. Tears rolled down her face she still felt very cold. After sometime she got up, wiped away her tears and sat down, when her father signaled to her that they should be leaving. Then she heard the preacher speaking, he asked, were you feeling very hot tonight or very cold tonight, more than what you normally feel? Su stopped to listen. He said, then know that today God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit has passed by you.

She couldn’t believe her ears. She felt it, she felt cold, and she felt God pass by her. She knew then that this God was not a joke. The God who she talked to and who answered her prayers was indeed the Christian God. The LORD Jesus Christ is the true God. He showed Himself to her just as she asked of Him. She believed. She felt her heart racing that night, her heart was filled and over flowing with joy that she could not explain.

From that day on Su was a new person. She met her God so personally that she stopped questioning Him and started to talk to Him more and more. She read the Bible in a way she never has before. She heard God talking to her though the Bible. When she went to church, she felt a different joy instead of hating to go. She wanted to learn more and know more about her God, Jesus Christ. She realized God loved her so very much that HE not only would die for her but He would take time to talk her, listen to her and answer her questions.

After that encounter with God Su thought that life would be great now because she knew the real God personally. But it was not so. Su struggled a lot, in school, at home and with her friends. She cried to her only friend, Jesus, many nights on her bunk bed. She wanted a new start for her life. She felt helpless and stuck. She wanted to desperately get out of her home land, India. So God answered her, yet again. Week before she took her dreadful high school board exams, in an amazing way God brought her family and her to the USA.

Su got her new life, a new start, a clean slate. Su thrived in the USA. She asked God what He would have her do for the rest of her life. God put a passion in her heart, a desire to go back as a missionary to India, the country which she wanted to desperately get out of for new start. She heard God telling her that there are many like her in India, who want to know God but don’t know where to go. There are many people suffering and don’t have the opportunity that she had for a new start. She decided then and promised God that she would go back to her home land and reach people with Gods love. Su finished high school and college with flying colors. She was doing her Masters when she met her husband to be, Ashish Pushkaran.

Su became the wife of Ashish Pushkaran on Nov. 29th, 2003. God literally held Ashish’s hand and dragged him from Cincinnati, OH to Edison, NJ to meet the woman He has prepared for him. But Su, being the doubter she is, was not sure if Ashish really was the one that God brought for her. She questioned God and Ashish a lot. Ashish would answer atleast 20-30 questions that Su had every night they talked. Their conversations would last 8-9 hours everyday. After six months Su was convinced that indeed Ashish was the man that God wanted her to spend the rest of her life with.

Su and Ashish have a vision, to love people by building relationships, to love people by serving, and to love people by reaching out to them with the love of God, Jesus Christ. That’s what PARTNERS INDIA is all about.

Please click here to read more Ashish's testimony