This month, I’d like to introduce Sundeep Malickal. He is one of the eight brothers in this year’s Church Planter Cohort. I initially connected to Sundeep through an Indian church planter whose son attends our church. Redeemer Church is sponsoring Sundeep while he attends the Cohort. Sundeep was part of many church plants in India before moving to Dallas. The Malickals are planting a church for international students at the University of Texas at Dallas. Sundeep says, “My dream is to plant a local church that is a miniature of the future Kingdom of God – people “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (Revelation 7:9), and the best place to see this image is a University Campus. I look forward to planting a church near UT Dallas where more than 5,000 international students from over 100 countries attend, and my vision is to expand this team across all universities that have a major international student population.”
Sundeep is married to Pranutha. They have two children, Pauline (15) and Abigail (10), and a baby boy due in March. Pranutha is a PhD student at UTD. The Malickals originally moved to Dallas for Sundeep to attend Dallas Seminary. While at DTS, he was the Chaplain for the Spiritual Formation team. Sundeep graduated with a ThM in Systematic Theology with Honors from DTS in 2022. He also began working at UTD through International Students Inc. in 2020.
Through their work with International Students, several Indian students have been gathering weekly and have professed faith in Christ. The Malickals are now establishing their group of believers into a church. Further, they are working to establish a reproducible house church model for those who return to India. He said, “I am excited about this Cohort as it will give me the tools, expertise, and training from a cohort of other like-minded planters and mentors who have planted churches that I can use in my proposed church plant.” Sundeep’s church plant is a strategic opportunity to spread the gospel around the world.
Sundeep is beginning to develop prayer and support partners. When I asked Sundeep how our churches can pray for them, he said, “I came to the United States as an international student, and so, being a first-generation immigrant, the greatest challenge for me is to start building from scratch the network of support and resources that is needed for a church plant.” Please commit to praying for the Malickals. If you want to connect with Sundeep or have him meet with your Missions Team, please email me at Micah@DentonBaptist.org.