From One Evangelist to the Salvation and Discipleship of Many

By Melissa Nordell

In India, where arranged marriages are common, Prakash’s Hindu mother had no idea that her intended husband was Catholic – until her wedding day!

Prakash’s father went to a Catholic school as a young man and “lived without any knowledge or understanding of salvation,” Prakash reports. As many others who live without Christ, Prakash’s father was arrogant and addicted to alcohol and cigarettes, states Prakash. Their marriage was stormy from the beginning.

Prakash Daniel was born to this Hindu mother and Catholic father in India in 1978. Even though Prakash’s father wasn’t following Christ, he chose to give Prakash a biblical name: Daniel.

Due to several family problems, Prakash’s family had to escape from their village in the middle of the night to the city of Chennai, formerly called Madras. “Then, when we lived in Chennai, we had some very hard times and it seemed like everything was continually going wrong. We even lost our house which we built new” due to a court ruling that two families owned the same home at the same time, so it was intentionally burned down.

“But amazingly during that difficult time in 1980, my father got saved, baptized and filled with the anointing of the Holy Spirit.” Evangelists had come to their village to share the love of Jesus Christ. “If it had taken that loss in their previous village and the move to Chennai, it was well worth it,” believes Prakash. “From then on, our lives turned around and things were going more smoothly. That group’s visit to Chennai changed our entire family forever.”

Soon Prakash’s mother accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior as well. Prakash’s father was hungry for more of the Lord, eager that other souls would be saved and that other families would be put back together like his. Soon, he became Pastor Kulandairaj.

Thankfully, Prakash was sent to a Methodist school as a child where he accepted the Lord. “I was saved at the age of nine when the Methodist school I attended took me to a children’s camp for 3 days. I confessed my sins and asked Jesus to come into my heart at the end of watching the film: ‘Pilgrim’s Progress.’” 

“Then, at the age of thirteen The Lord God Almighty anointed me with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. From that moment the Lord started using me for His kingdom and I decided to become a living witness for Jesus Christ for the rest of my days.”

In pursuit of his calling, he studied and served as pastor in several villages in parts of Tamil Nadu, South India. Prakash went on to graduate with a Master’s in Arts in Biblical Studies from The Renowned Seminary in India, then went further to receive his honorary Doctorate in Divinity at the Academy of Global Peace in India as well.

Soon, Prakash noticed that people reported being healed as he was ministering in North India. Many were healed from various sicknesses and diseases, with some also reporting new jobs and other answers to prayer at each meeting. 

This continued as he traveled to more crusades and conferences, with attendance growing to the thousands in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Nepal, Africa, Australia, the Middle East, and more.

As Prakash looks back at his life, he sees God’s providential hand in all this in preparation for a worldwide ministry – with his father giving him a biblical name, his parents becoming saved, being sent to a Methodist school in India, learning English from an early age, and finding a wife with a heart for India.

Also in God’s providence, the very city where Prakash grew up, Chennai, is the city where Thomas, one of the twelve original disciples of Jesus, came to India as a missionary in 52 A.D. The Apostle Thomas planted seeds of evangelism that have reached the world. It is also where Thomas was martyred. History tells us that Thomas was struck with a lance to his back as he was praying at the top of what is now called “Thomas Mount.” He was buried nearby.

Prakash humbly told me that years ago he asked the Lord to give him “one person a day to minister to” which he does daily, no matter what, no matter where he is…and now he ministers to thousands. He has ministered throughout the United States, including Glory of Zion International in Corinth, Texas. There he was invited to speak by Dr. Chuck Pierce and Dr. Peter Wagner who also commissioned him as an Apostle Evangelist. He also began Reclaiming Business Association (RBA) whose focus is to reclaim what the enemy has stolen in businesses, bringing his prophetic and evangelistic gifts to the marketplace (www.reclaimingbusiness.com).

Prakash has done this despite tragedy along the way. He married his sweetheart, Charity, in February 2016; however, she was instantly killed while they were returning from a ministry engagement in February 2018 – just two years later. However, this has certainly not slowed Prakash from bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ to millions.

At age 12, Charity was greatly impacted when her mother taught her in Sunday school about the Irish missionary to India, Amy Carmichael, and wished to so the same. After Prakash and Charity were married, they traveled to India and visited mission sites that Amy had started in India. Later, as Prakash was preparing for the Celebration of Life service for his wife, he found a video with Charity speaking while in India at a mission site, explaining the legacy of works that Amy started. On the video, Charity declares that “If Jesus doesn’t come back soon, I want to do the same that Amy has done by starting orphanages, schools and homeless shelters.” Moved to tears in watching the video, Prakash vowed to continue this work in his wife’s honor, using a bad situation for good.

It is more than amazing that when a missionary reaches just one, thousands can then be reached exponentially. From Thomas the disciple and Amy Carmichael who brought the gospel to India, to evangelists many years later in the same city, to a pastor in that city, to a Methodist Church children’s camp, to a national ministry, then to a worldwide evangelism ministry two thousand years later it all had a beginning with the disciple Thomas. All these ministers have had a part in saving so many souls.

We praise God for those who dedicate their lives to evangelism and service to the Lord. To God be the glory as we all trace our salvation legacy to those who sacrificed. May we support and pray for those who do so, as well as evangelize wherever we go.