"Who despises the day of small things? Men will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. "(These seven are the eyes of the LORD, which range throughout the earth.)" (Zec.4:10)

Dr. Manickam Prakash was born in 1949 in a once obscure South Indian village. The statement "nothing good can come out of Nazareth" aptly describes that village in those days. He was the eldest of six children and his entire family including himself were atheists. From early childhood, Dr. Prakash experienced the worst end of poverty. His greatest challenge was how to survive. Having found no hope to his social and spiritual miseries, he decided at the age of sixteen to commit suicide. He was on his way to a nearby water reservoir where he wanted to drown himself after drinking a bottle of poison that he had purchased. God miraculously intervened in his life through an Evangelist who was preaching the gospel to people not too far from this reservoir.

The Evangelist beckoned the teenager to come to him and asked him why he wanted to end his life. This young candidate for suicide was absolutely astonished and stunned that the Evangelist knew what his intensions were. The Evangelist then prayed with Dr. Prakash who experienced a deep encounter with Jesus Christ and knew from this moment that Jesus Christ is his Saviour and the Lord of his life.

A few days later while praying in his home at 4 O' clock in the morning. Dr. Prakash had a life impacting experience with the Holy Spirit very similar to that of the 120 on the day of Pentecost. His life was revolutionized and gripped by a compelling passion to preach the Gospel through out all the villages in India. The first believers in his village were his three friends and together they started to read the only Bible they had that was given to them by one of the local church pastors. Persecution, hunger and daily trials did not quench the love in his heart to take the gospel to the villages. Signs and wonders followed his ministry. In one instance, the people of one particular village wanted to beat him up and kill him. At this moment the Lord revealed to him that the village did not have rain for five years. The angry mocking non-Christians observed with curiosity what would happen after the prayers of this crazy man who believes in Jesus Christ. God indeed opened the heavens and a few hours later, dark clouds gathered and it began to rain. Almost the entire village got saved and baptized.

Full of the Holy Spirit and armed with a flaming testimony, he started going from village to village in South India and moving to North India, preaching the gospel and baptizing the believers. Dr. Prakash then received a vision to start New Vision Bible Camps. The emphasis was on preaching the Gospel and receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The first camp was held with 300 people attending from various religious backgrounds. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the salvation of those attending was so awesome that it could be literally compared to the experiences recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. It grew to an annual event with up to 30,000 attending the evening meetings. Although Dr. Prakash had very little resources, his faith, passion and zeal to see people find hope and healing through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour did not diminish.

In 1975 Dr. Prakash founded SISWA with five fellow believers. The vision was to train young men and women to become missionaries who will plant churches throughout the 650, 000 villages in India. This multifaceted ministry has now grown to become a powerful movement literally impacting millions of lives.

Dr. Prakash and his lovely wife Esther have three children, Sharon, Enoch, Angel and his brothers. Together they are strongly committed to SISWA and shoulder many responsibilities.