Pumza Tombing, the son of an animistic priest was born in a poor village of India without knowing the destiny that God had in store for him. At the age of 4, Pumza got a boil in his right side of his face and later got worst and threaten his life. Unexpectedly, Pumza recovered with the use of herbal medicine. Now each time he sees or touches his scar, Pumza recalls of why he is the trophy of God’s amazing grace.  Pumza lost his father at the age of 9. In his teenage years, Pumza left his high school to be one of the leaders of the political army to liberate his tribe, the Zomi, from the oppression of the India’s and Burma’s government . This is because the Zomi tribe was divided by the international boundary. While liberating his people from oppression, God liberated Pumza from the hands of Satan.

Through a native preacher influenced by the American missionaries, the Lord saved Puma at the age of 19 to become the first generation Christian of his family. Although he was born in a heathen home, his whole family converted to Christianity after his father died. Later the Lord called Pumza to minister to his people and to the nations through jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

Pumza has served as a pioneer missionary since 1968 and thousands of people came to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ in the North East India and the Chin state of Burma. During preaching the gospel, Pumza was in prison twice and experienced torture for the sake of the Gospel; one was in Mizoram, India and the other was in Chin State, Burma, The Lord was with him in the jail and his inmates were convicted of their sins through his witness. They received Christ as their personal Savior and Lord. At present, many of the spiritual leaders among the Zomis in India and Myanmar were saved through his preaching of the Gospel. 

Pumza is married to Than Ching Tombing and they’ve been blessed with their daughter, Lydia Kim Tombing. Than Ching has been working faithfully along her husband in Gilead Ministries as the Administrator and Campus Management. In Gilead Home, Than Ching is well known as “aunty” as she is ever ready to provide hospitality to the students, church members, and visitors spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Lydia Kim works as the Operating Officer in Gilead Ministries. Lydia works closely with her father in analyzing, evaluating, and formatting of Gilead inistries’ strategies.                                                                                      Because
Because of God’s amazing grace, God opened an opportunity for Pumza to further his education to the United States through a minister from Burma. This minister got saved in one of the crusades that Pumza conducted in Burma in 1975. Later, Pumza earned his Master of Arts in Missions in 1998 and Doctorate of Ministry (D.Min) in 2002. While working on his dissertation for his D.Min and praying earnestly for God’s will, Pumza heard a clear call from the Lord to start Gilead Ministries in Bangalore, India. As Bangalore is the melting pot for the young generation from the states of India to obtain higher education in pursuit of esteem positions, Pumza strongly believed that God instrumented him to invest and equip these young people to reach the nation with the gospel. In response to God’s call, Pumza and Than returned from the US in September 2003.

The Lord birthed Gilead Ministries with three attributes: as the place of healing, to bring healing to the spiritually sick; the place of refuge to offer security and safety to the poor, downtrodden and orphans; and the place of training to produce modern prophets to speak for God as did Elijah. 

Pumza and Than started Gilead church two months later with only 8 members and now has it expanded to more than 70 members. Then, in 2004, GETS was founded with 7 students. At present the seminary has 32 students from 6 states of India and 3 states of Burma.  
 
Because of God’s amazing grace and faithfulness, Pumza and Than are more than committed to continue to advance the kingdom of God in India. This is because they know that only the resurrected power of Christ can transform more than 97% of Indians who are still unreached.