| MMN

Sozos and Des Sozou live in Cyprus and, together with their team, commenced their ministry in India with the goal of helping to relieve the poverty and misfortune they witnessed on their first trip to that country. With the support of a small group of partners the doors have been opened to help the underprivileged by supporting humanitarian programs, offering medication and vaccinations, as well as education to deprived children. This is their story:

We grew up in the UK where we lived for thirty years. We studied, married and started our own family. They were good times but thirty years ago we emigrated to the small island of Cyprus where we are now based with our two sons and grandchild. In 2019 ‘Transforming Lives Today’ (TLT) became a UK registered Charity and we are privileged to have a strong team working with us.

It had always been our heart's desire as Christians to be in a ministry to serve and in 2010 we had the opportunity to travel to India with an organisation to see how the less fortunate lived. We were able to share our testimonies and encourage fellowships in their churches and their villages but at the same time were very saddened to see how people lived. The poverty and pain we witnessed was too much to bear and we were deeply moved; we could not look away or forget as we met people with no hope or dignity. This is where it all started for us.

It was a breath of fresh air for both of us to know we were venturing into the unknown, but at the same time to see the poverty was overwhelming and our hearts were moved in such a big way that we wanted to do something to make a small difference to the under-privileged. We wanted to provide love, hope and dignity through our Lord Jesus. And so it was that in 2011 we asked the Lord to make it possible for us to go back to India and serve the people by reaching out with the Gospel through medical camps where we offered simple medication and vaccinations that could save a life from a curable disease. We also provided food programs, offering a warm meal while at the same time establishing small learning centres for children to educate them and encourage them towards a better future and for them to know they were in a safe and clean environment.

Thus God has opened doors within India for the past ten years. We visit every year, we partnership with local hospitals and pastors, and through donations received we have been able to organise medical camps, offering simple medication, vaccinations and eye surgeries for the poor. Over the years many lives have been saved due to these medical camps, TLT has reached men, women and children in slum areas, orphanages, leprosy colonies and schools, and has also reached the isolated mountainous areas of Uttrakhand Chamba where there is only one hospital in the area. For the people who have committed to helping financially over the years, together with ourselves, it has been a blessing to know that lives have been saved both spiritually and physically.

In 2019 our visit to India was very encouraging, as we have started a learning centre in Coimbatore and Uttrakhand Chamba, and our medical camps continue every six weeks in these areas. TLT completed another three medical camps with the assistance of our doctor team while we were there. The hospital in Chamba had been running for many years with insufficient equipment for surgeries, but this year, with support from Medical Missionary News, we were able to equip the hospital with a hydraulic operation table for surgery. We have visited homes and villages as the thought of men, women and children being critically sick but not being able to travel to a doctor or have the finance to see a doctor is very distressing. The good news is that the medical camps have decreased the sicknesses in the surrounding village where TLT operates. A new learning centre has been set up in Sri Lanka and we are looking at setting up further medical camps in that country if God opens the doors for this to happen.

All that has been accomplished over the years is due to the Lord leading us and going before us. He has kept us safe and has blessed us tremendously; all we do is for His glory. We are grateful to our Lord for answering prayers.

’Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him’. (Colossians 3:17).