Our Story

As a Sunday School teacher in 1981, Suresh Babu Gurindapalli used a CEEFI (Christian Education Department of the Evangelical Fellowship of India) handbook for systematic teaching and witnessed a tremendous transformation among his students. It was a turning point in his life – he began to believe that raising genuine teachers could bring sound biblical teaching to the whole congregation. He worked quietly on the idea for two years.

On 24 June 1983, through his devotion in 2 Corinthians 11:28, God spoke to him: “Raise faithful teachers to provide sound biblical teaching to all age groups in all denominational churches.”

On 11 July, he met with like-minded believers, and together they named the effort ViSSTO (Vijayawada Sunday School Teachers Organization). By November 1983, the team had grown to 18 people, dividing into six groups to visit every church in Vijayawada – 84 churches in all – to assess the state of Sunday School teaching.

A first five-day training camp ran 9–14 January 1984, led by CEEFI resource persons, with 64 participants from 24 churches. Within three years, the ministry had spread to 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh, and the organization was renamed GMC (God’s Messengers for Children), becoming a state-wide ministry by 1987.

As the work grew far beyond children’s ministry, the name TEEM (Teaching, Equipping and Empowering Ministries) was adopted in the silver jubilee year of 2007–2008, with six independent ministries streamlined under it. TEEM was registered as a Trust in 2010, and ‘Great Commission in Action’ was added as a seventh ministry in 2019.