Dr. T.E. Koshy, me, and Pastor Jay Koshy, on a preaching tour through Koshy’s beloved homeland of India.

My dear friend and spiritual mentor, Dr. T.E. Koshy, went home to be with the Lord Jesus Christ this morning at 12:52 a.m. eastern time. I just got off the phone with Mrs. Koshy, his son Jay, and Jay’s wife, Susi. While Koshy had been very ill for the past ten months, he had actually improved rather dramatically in recent weeks. But he suddenly reversed course after midnight and the Lord took him home.

What a wonderful home-coming he must be having today. He is finally face to face with His Savior and Lord Jesus Christ whom he loved so dearly and preached so faithfully all over the world. He’s also getting to see so many family members and friends – including his dear friend and spiritual mentor, Brother Bakht Singh – that he hasn’t seen in so long. Lynn and I are so glad Koshy is in heaven and is no longer suffering, but we are grieving his family’s loss and ours.

Lynn and I and the three younger boys are in Honolulu at the moment where I’m preaching at a conference this week. We so wish we could be in Syracuse right now to hug the Koshys and our friends there. But we’re grateful that at nearly the exact time Koshy went home to be with the Lord, we had the joy of seeing a dozen people pray to receive Christ as Savior. We’re trying to put into practice what Koshy modeled for us. We weren’t scheduled to get back to Virginia until Saturday, but we’re in the process of trying to re-route our flights so we can get to Syracuse, Lord willing, by Friday afternoon or evening, The memorial service is expected to be on Saturday morning at North Syracuse Baptist Church.

Please join us in thanking the Lord for the remarkable life of Dr. T.E. Koshy. He was a brilliant man, with five university and Bible college degrees. He was a great evangelist, disciple-maker, church planter and was one of three senior elders overseeing some 6,000 New Testament-model church congregations in India, Pakistan, Europe and Asia. He was especially dear to us. He discipled Lynn and me when we were students at Syracuse University and was the pastor of the congregation we attended, International Assembly. He founded a ministry called International Friendship Evangelism and encouraged/trained pastors and ministry leaders all over the U.S. and the world to love, care for and minister to international students and business leaders. He performed our wedding ceremony. He was the Pastor-At-Large for The Joshua Fund and spoke at several Epicenter Conferences. I also had the great joy of preaching with him when we — and Jay, his son who is also a pastor — traveled together through India, Israel and Iraq.

Next week, Tyndale House Publishers is actually releasing a book that Dr. Koshy and I wrote together, The Invested Life: Making Disciples of All Nations One Person At A Time. It is based on the very process of personal discipleship the Koshy taught us and modeled for us. It includes a good deal of his testimony, and his wife’s, and the story of how he discipled Lynn, me, and others, and how we have sought to disciples others based on the Biblical principles he taught us. I hope the Lord will use it to extend the remarkable legacy of Dr. Koshy, a man who was more like the Apostle Paul than any person I have ever personally known. When you read the book, you’ll understand why I say this.

Please also join us in praying for the rest of the Koshy family, and for the staff and congregation of the International Assembly in Syracuse who will miss Koshy dearly. Please pray for the congregations around the world that Koshy helped oversee. Pray that the Lord raises up the right man to replace Koshy as an elder. Please pray, too, for the Lord to provide for all the many medical and funeral expenses that the Koshy family has accumulated over the past ten months of this very long and challenging ordeal. Thank you so much. We love you and we’re grateful to all of you who have been praying for Koshy over the past year.

Lynn and I will miss Koshy a great deal, and we can’t wait to see him in glory one day soon.

P.S. – All proceeds from the sale of The Invested Life will go to the Koshy family. Not a dime will go to us. So one way that you could support them and extend Koshy’s legacy is to purchase a book – or a box of books – and give them to family and friends whom you are discipling. To purchase through Barnes & Noble online, please click here. To purchase through Amazon, please click here. Or you can purchase the book through your local Christian bookstore. Thanks so much.