TEEM International

As a Sunday school teacher in 1981, Suresh Babu Gurindapalli used a CEEFI (Christian Education department of Evangelical Fellowship of India) handbook for systematic teaching and witnessed a tremendous transformation. The congregation was excited after hearing the testimonies of the students. It was a turning point in his life. He witnessed how young lives were transformed through dedicated teaching. Thus came the thought - By raising genuine teachers we could provide sound biblical teaching, so that the congregation could be influenced at large. So he silently worked on it for 2 years.

June 24, 1983 was a special day - when God spoke to brother Suresh through his daily devotion in II Corinthians 11:28. God spoke to him saying, "Raise faithful teachers to provide sound biblical teaching to all the age groups in all denominational churches."

Then he met some like-minded believers on July 11th and they were all excited. As the dream was to provide comprehensive Christian education in all churches, they named it, ViSSTO (Vijayawada Sunday School Teachers Organisation). Though it started off with a bunch of youngsters, it quickly became popular. They met once monthly and started mobilizing born-again Sunday school teachers.

By Nov 1983, the team grew to 18 people. The plan of action was to divide themselves into 6 groups and visit all the churches in Vijayawada, to identify the need and also identify genuine Sunday school teachers and to know the present status of teaching (If they had Curriculum or not). They visited 84 churches and realised that they need to conduct a proper Sunday School Teachers Training.

A first 5-day training camp was organized in Jan 9-14 1984, where resource persons from CEEFI took charge. 64 participants from 24 churches attended. The same year they organized an additional 3 training programs. Within 3 years, it spread to 13 districts in Andhra Pradesh. As the work was being done in places other than Vijayawada, they decided to change the title of the organisation to GMC (God's Messengers for Children) and made it a state-wide ministry by 1987. It later evolved into TEEM.

During the first 3 years, acceptance was the first challenge. People from different denominational organizations had to accept them. Ironically, those who didn't accept them in the beginning later came requesting them to conduct training programs in their churches. Since most of the youth who were in the ministry as Sunday School Teachers were not much educated in receiving and understanding the concepts, it was difficult to communicate their thoughts to the participants. It was the second challenge they faced as an organization.

The first milestone was when ViSSTO,Vijayawada became the state-wide VBS ministries (Bangalore) supplies center in 1985 for 10 years for all denominations in the State. Another important day was when the National Associate Director of VBS, Rev. Arthur Raj observed their organization and took them from coast to coast. 4 members were sent to Pune for 3 month Diploma Course. That's how it became a state-wide ministry in July 1987, and then they held the first state level VBS Directors Training and the first full-time Staff Worker Mr. Pushpa Kiran was appointed. The same year, 4 departments were established and the work began in earnest. In 1988, the first leadership training was organized for 64 participants from 13 districts. In 1989, 4 regional programs were conducted.

As we concentrated on training Sunday school teachers in the first decade of the ministry, and as GMC had the word Children in it, it was mistaken to be a children's ministry only. Then it forced them to adopt a name that is broad and encompasses all aspects of the ministry they were involved as time passed by. A much relevant name was chosen - TEEM (Teaching Equipping Empowering Ministries) - in the silver jubilee year 2007-2008, and 6 independent ministries were streamlined under TEEM. Later it was registered as a Trust in 2010.

Timelne & Milestones

• 1990 - Grew into a nationwide ministry. It began with Teacher training programs in Chennai and Bangalore.
• 1990 - First tri-annual conference. From throughout the state 130 delegates attended, and the very same year, publication work had started. A Sunday school Hymnal was published and soon became popular.
• 1991 - National promotional staff members were appointed.
• 1992 - GMC was registered as a society.
• 1983 - State level Bible Exam for all age groups.
• 1994 - Training was given for pastors and evangelists.
• 1995 - VBS Curriculum for Indian Pentecostal Mission was developed.
• 1996 - First international platform at Singapore.
• 1997 - GMC introduced in USA.
• 1999 - Collaborations with GLINT International were established.
• 2000 - Partnership with Seva Bharat
• 2001 - Curriculum developed by GMC translated and produced in 18 languages through Seva Bharat.
• 2003 - Pre-marital and marital seminars started.
• 2004 - Mrs. Bhanu sent to Nigeria as a resource person. AP ministry decentralized.
• 2005 - Kotha Keratam, the complete Christian Mag was launched Christian Education Center was established.