The Impact of FOI: Naveen Tiragati
“... Even before America was part of my plan, God had placed people in my life who pointed me toward Him.”
Why did I come to the USA?
I grew up in Yeleswaram, a small town in Andhra Pradesh in southern India. Like many young people where I grew up, I had big dreams of going abroad. When I thought about the USA, I thought about good roads, beautiful parks, less traffic, traveling, and experiencing Western culture. My plan was pretty simple: come to the United States, get my master's degree, find a good job, and experience Western life.
But even before America was part of my plan, God had placed people in my life who pointed me toward Him.
I grew up in a Christian home. My parents never forced Christianity on me, but they faithfully took me to church every Sunday. One of the strongest spiritual influences in my childhood was my grandfather on my dad's side. Whenever he visited us, or when I stayed with my grandparents during school holidays, he would wake me up early in the morning to read the Bible. Before I could read anything else, he would make me read Psalm 1. I read it so many times that I practically memorized it in the language I speak (Telugu).
After college, my grandfather passed away. Around the same time, COVID disrupted my plans to come to America. I was working from home and suddenly had a lot of time. My grandfather's death made me think more seriously about faith. Why had this mattered so much to him?
So I started reading the Bible again. I had read the Bible before, and I had believed in Christ during college, but my spiritual life was filled with confusion. I would try to live a holy life, fall into sin again, feel guilty, and then try to make things right with God by being better. I thought maybe if I prayed more, read my Bible more, or did enough good things, I could get myself back into good standing with God.
I knew that Jesus died for our sins, but I had never really understood the weight of my own sin and what His sacrifice meant for me!
“Would I graduate? Would I find a job? Would I ever pay off the huge education loan I had taken? I felt like a failure.”
I also had many questions about Christianity. Much of what I had experienced in church back home during high school focused on things like physical healing, financial blessing, success, good grades, and prosperity. I had questions about spiritual gifts, prophecy, and even how I could know what was truly from God. Much of the Christianity I had experienced was very closely associated with pagan belief, with people talking gibberish by constantly shaking and saying that God is in them. I used to have so much sin in my life, but when I went to church, the pastor and his wife used to lay hands on my head and talk gibberish (which they called speaking in tongues) and say that I am going to receive good grades and reach a good level in my career. But I did not have someone who would patiently sit with me, open the Bible, and let it answer those questions. Later, we left that church and joined a different one where I learned some scripture, but I didn't get clarification to most of the confusion I had.
After COVID, I planned to move to the USA for my master’s degree. Before leaving India, I was baptized (my mom insisted that I should). Even that caused me to think more seriously about what I actually believed. Not long afterward, my visa was approved, I got into UMKC, and on August 6, 2021, I came to Kansas City.
I thought, "This is my new start." It was, but not in the way I expected.
How I got connected to FOI, and what God gave me through friendships in FOI
I had studied English throughout my life, so I thought communicating in America would be easy. It wasn't.
I could understand what people were saying, but forming sentences quickly was difficult. Even when I did, sometimes people struggled to understand my accent. That hit my confidence hard. I had come hoping to travel, explore, and experience American culture, but suddenly I was wondering whether I could even make it through my master's degree.
Would I graduate? Would I find a job? Would I ever pay off the huge education loan I had taken? I felt like a failure.
Before coming to Kansas City, while researching how I would get from the airport to where I was staying, I found Friends of Internationals. FOI offered free airport rides for international students, so I signed up and got connected with Danny Earla.
During one of our early conversations, I told Danny I wanted to find a good church in Kansas City.
His response was like, "Bro, you are coming to the right place."
He sent me the Midtown Baptist Temple (MBT) website.
Because my flight changed, Danny wasn't able to pick me up, but later that day another FOI member, Bryan Khoo, soon reached out and asked if I wanted to come to church that Sunday. I was already looking for a church, so I said yes.
“That day gave me an understanding and assurance of the Gospel that I had never had before.”
After the C&YA service that Sunday, Bryan asked me a simple question.
"Do you know the Gospel?"
I said yes.
Then he asked, "Can you show me from the Bible?"
I was confused and a little surprised. In Telugu, I knew the word Suvartha, meaning good news, but at that moment I didn't connect it with the English word "Gospel." I opened to the Gospel of John. Bryan asked if I could show him a specific verse. After thinking for a few seconds, I turned to Psalm 1.
Bryan gently told me that wasn't the gospel and asked if he could show me. We opened the Bible together and he showed me Romans 3:23: "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Then Romans 6:23: "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." We went to Romans 10:9; Rev 20:15, and then Ephesians 2:8-9.
That last passage especially changed the way I understood my relationship with God: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."
I had known that Jesus died for sin. What became clearer was that He died for my sin, and I could never make myself righteous enough for God. When I sinned, my answer had always been to try harder and somehow earn my way back. But salvation had never been something I earned in the first place. It was a gift.
I believe I had trusted Christ back in India, but that day gave me an understanding and assurance of the Gospel that I had never had before.
I remember praying in Telugu afterward, thanking God for bringing me to a good church where I could hear about Him.
“I wasn’t just hearing that Christians were supposed to love one another. I was experiencing it.”
What happened next:
I began experiencing the love of Christ through people in Caya and FOI
When I needed a car, Carlos Vasquez would pick me up from my place in Midtown after he finished work. My budget was only about $2,500, so finding a decent car was not easy... For almost two weeks, we drove around Kansas City looking at dealerships and random Facebook Marketplace listings. We went to Overland Park, Olathe, and other places, sometimes looking at one car and realizing it wasn't going to work.
Carlos lived in Raytown, in almost the opposite direction. After spending his evening helping me, he still had to drive all the way home.
I remember thinking, "Why is this guy doing all this for me?"
I never actually asked him, but the question stayed with me.
And it wasn't just Carlos. Danny helped me get groceries and get to college. Bryan took me to classes before I had a car. Li helped me move from temporary housing into a permanent place. Later, I moved in with Jie and Li, which became one of the best decisions I made. Living with believers brought accountability, fellowship, and encouragement into my everyday life.
Coming from a culture where I had often experienced the majority of friendships as transactional, this was different. These people had nothing to gain from helping me.
I wasn't just hearing that Christians were supposed to love one another. I was experiencing it.
“... Discipleship changed the direction of my life.”
Jesus said in John 13:35, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."
FOI also connected me with Bible studies where I met people like Danny, Chengye, Isai Delatorre, Ediban Delatorre, Blake Sidebottom, Jie Zheng, Argel Moncayo, John Herschberger and many others who had a great impact on my walk with God.
What stood out to me was how willing they were to open the Bible.
Blake was our Bible study leader back then, and he was super patient with every question I brought him, whether it was small, serious, or probably a little silly. He met with me 1 on 1, took me out to eat, shared his testimony, listened to mine, and helped me search the scriptures.
For years I had questions. Now, instead of someone simply telling me what to believe, I had people willing to sit beside me and say, in effect, "Let's see what the Bible says."
Eventually, Isai and Li discipled me, and discipleship changed the direction of my life.
“The joy I felt that day was hard to describe.”
Before, my idea of a successful life was education, a good job, money, marriage, a house, traveling, and enjoying as many experiences as possible. None of those things are necessarily wrong, but they had become the purpose of life.
Through discipleship, I began understanding that my life belonged to Christ. I wanted people around me to know what Christ had done for them. Matthew 28:19 says, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations." That stopped being merely a verse I knew and began becoming something I wanted my life to be about.
Even Psalm 1 began to mean more to me. My grandfather had made me read that chapter again and again as a child:
Psalm 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
The next verse describes that person as a tree planted by rivers of water that brings forth fruit in its season. Now, years later, I began to understand what my grandfather had been trying to teach me. We draw our strength from God's Word, and what God puts into us through His Word is meant to bear fruit.
My First Experience of sharing Gospel and serving at MBT/FOI
In Sep 2022, I had an opportunity to go on an FOI mission trip to Boston with Jie Zhang. At an FOI event at Living Faith Boston, I met an international student named Francis.
Francis was from Kerala, India, so we immediately had something in common. As we talked, he told me about his Catholic background and explained that he believed if his good works outweighed his bad works, he would go to heaven.
For about thirty minutes, I had the opportunity to open the Bible with him.
I explained that salvation wasn't about making our good works outweigh our bad ones. We are sinners, and we cannot make ourselves righteous before God. Jesus Christ paid for our sin, and salvation is a gift received by faith, not a reward we earn through works.
At first, Francis wasn't sure. But as we continued talking, I watched him begin to understand that salvation was not dependent on his works. He told me he believed, and we prayed together. Immediately afterward, I took him to Pastor Mike Reneau and introduced them to each other. I later connected with Francis on Instagram, and he told me he was doing well and attending a church near him when he could.
The joy I felt that day was hard to describe.
“I came to the USA looking for the American dream ... Through FOI, God gave me something I wasn’t looking for. ”
God had allowed someone like me, a sinner like me, with all my failures and weaknesses, to open His Word and share the gospel with someone else.
Since then, the things God taught me through FOI and discipleship have continued shaping my life. They affected how I approached marriage, how I understand my responsibility as a husband, how my wife and I think about our finances, how I approach friendships, and even how I think about my career.
After getting married to my beautiful wife (Priya) in April 2024, we have become involved in FOI while also serving in AV and C&YA. Now we have opportunities to welcome international students, pick them up from the airport, take them places, invite them to church, build friendships with them, and share the Gospel.
Sometimes I think about an international student arriving at MCI today.
Maybe he has never been to America before. Maybe his English isn't coming out the way he practiced it in his head. Maybe he doesn't have a car. Maybe he is worried about his education loan, his classes, his career, and whether coming to America was a huge mistake. I know that student because I was that student. I want to welcome him.
Because people loved me when I had nothing to give them in return, I want him to experience the love of Christ in the same way.
Because someone patiently opened the Bible when I had questions, I want to be willing to open the Bible with him.
And because someone clearly shared the gospel with me, I want him to know that he needs a Savior and that salvation cannot be earned. Jesus Christ has already paid the price.
I came to the USA looking for the American dream. I wanted a degree, a good job, beautiful places to visit, and a comfortable life.
Through FOI, God gave me something I wasn't looking for. He gave me friends for life who showed me the love of Christ, pointed me to His Word, and helped me understand why I am here. Now I want to do the same for someone else.
Naveen Tiragati is a member of Midtown Baptist Temple and a part of C&YA. He serves in the AV ministry and is a part of a Friends of Internationals Bible study.