Biography

Evangelist Sebastian Sugiarto is an ordained Minister of the Assembly of God (AOG) Indonesia/Gereja Sidang-Sidang Jemaat Allah di Indonesia. He received Jesus as his Lord and Savior in Jakarta in 1974. Sebastian was still very productive in his secular work as a businessman when God called him to do His work. The call started when he followed a pastor on a mission trip to Kalimantan and East Timor, and it was in Kalimantan that God confirmed His calling for Sebastian to reach the natives Dayaks in that region for Him. The calling to minister to the Dayaks grew stronger and stronger after Sebastian and his family migrated to Australia in 1995. One morning, God appeared strongly in his prayer to reconfirm His calling on his life. Since that day, Sebastian gave his commitment wholeheartedly to serve His Lord.

Sebastian began his ministry by sharing his testimonies from house to house in Kalimantan. In addition to that, he was also ministering in the AOG churches throughout Indonesia. The calling as an Evangelist is very evident in his life and God has continued to bless and increase his ministry in many profound ways.

It has now been some thirteen years since Sebastian founded Dehes Ministry, which he operates from Indonesia and Australia. The focus of Dehes Ministries was to reach the lost in Kalimantan. Since the start of the new millennium, through a host of major events in Central Kalimantan, God stirred Sebastian’s heart to build a mission base in Dehes. The vision was strategic as interior Kalimantan was very remote and it would be extremely difficult to minister in this region without a base to stopover whilst traveling from village to village along the Samba River. A mission base would also be ideal as a gathering place for the pastors who are serving the Lord in Kalimantan to come together to be built up and refreshed.

In 2001, Dehes Ministries purchased a block of land of approximately 6.5 hectares. In Oct 2001 Sebastian commissioned the construction of the mission base and with the support of God’s faithful believers, the mission base was completed by June 2005. It was a watershed year for Dehes Ministries because it defies the skepticism of many people who thought the project was impossible to complete when it was initiated.

“TO WITNESS, TO SAVE and TO BUILD FOR CHRIST” – that is the vision and focus of Dehes Ministries. Since the completion of Dehes Mission Base, Sebastian has continuously run discipleship programs for the local believers and new converts in Kalimantan. As part of these discipleship-training programs, Sebastian has been inviting pastors from Indonesia, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia to build-up and prepares God’s people in this region to reap the harvest for Him in Kalimantan. Besides these, Sebastian has also conducted soul-winning projects which include open air crusades and city-wide meetings in Kalimantan.

Sebastian Sugiarto is known as one with a burning passion for the Gospel, a vision for Kalimantan and a message for the region. His heartbeat is to inspire the next generation of evangelists to reach the unreached, to further the Kingdom and to see the Gospel message proclaimed throughout world.