Dr. Pradeep Stephen
Pastor and President

Dr. Pradeep Stephen co-founded EL Bethel International Ministries (ELBIM) with his wife, Dr. Kiruba Stephen, in 2011. Since the year 2000, Pastor Pradeep has authored various articles on important Biblical topics, which has drawn many to the Heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. Dr. Stephen has preached domestically and internationally in the United States from New York to California, as well as in Canada and India in various churches on a visit to the sub-continent in 2000. In addition to this, he has taught anger management classes and preached the Gospel in Sunday chapel services to drug addicts and the incarcerated at Crossroads Inc., a secular rehabilitation center in Connecticut. Pastor Pradeep has ministered at numerous faith-based rehab centers as well, such as Teen Challenge Centers across the states and Rescue Missions from Las Vegas to New York. He has also ministered to the men at the NYC Bowery Mission during their Sunday night chapel services and has seen the Lord work in many lives. Pastor Pradeep and his blessed wife share a deep burden for the lost in their immediate community and as a result, have hosted a lecture series on Biblical history and have also led, Life-Transforming Bible studies at their local YMCA.

Dr. Stephen was born in a traditional Christian home and was baptized as an infant. He was afflicted with severe, chronic asthma at the age of eight. This period of suffering and uncertainty drew him to seek comfort and meaning from the pages of the Holy Bible. Consequently, he began reading the Book of Proverbs.

Growing up with a fear of the future due to the debilitating illness, he began to read books on managing the disease, including the use of self-hypnosis. He was also heavily involved in learning all he could about the martial arts and trained as able, during this time, but without any real sense of relief, fulfillment, or security.

Engaging in youth ministries and teaching Sunday school spurred his desire to learn as much as he could about the Lord from the Bible and spiritual books. Salvation through Jesus Christ made him aware of eternity and the hunger and thirst for His Righteousness increased all the more. Pastor Pradeep also began to actively support ministries and missions as the Lord gave him a burden for the lost. He was mentored by seasoned ministers during his adolescence and partook in the NYC Billy Graham Crusade in 1990 as an usher through his home church in Brooklyn, NY.

Although, he desired to be a missionary, Pastor Pradeep was still apprehensive about the asthma potentially becoming fatal if one of his two potent medications should become unavailable while on the mission field. At this time, undergoing great anxiety over this condition, he was introduced to the Divine healing power of the Lord Jesus Christ by an older brother in Christ named Wally, who had previously been his piano instructor during his childhood. Following a brief session of exhortation to trust the Word of the Lord in Matthew 18:19 and a simple, faith-filled prayer, Dr. Stephen was assured of his healing, although it was yet to be manifest physically. While he felt the sickness still present in his body, he faithfully followed brother Wally’s counsel to read the portions of Scriptures on healing to strengthen his faith as well as to praise God for the healing even before feeling it in his own body. Dr. Stephen was miraculously healed of the 11-year scourge of asthma in May of 1990!

Pastor Pradeep sought the Baptism of the Holy Spirit following this great deliverance and was blessed with the power to witness more effectively for the Lord and believe God for the supernatural. While ministering in college and on his job, the Lord gloriously saved a number of young men. During this time, the parents of the young men (mothers and fathers who ranged from heart surgeon and engineer to former mafia gang member and hailing from various cultural backgrounds), requested him to help their sons to get closer to the Lord. This led to weekly Bible studies in the local community center and in various homes. For a season, he also helped local homeless missions and church planters in NYC.

Dr. Stephen received his Bachelor of Science from Brooklyn College, NY and received his Master of Science Degree in Childhood Education (MS.Ed.) from Metropolitan College of New York. He served as a teacher at Calvary Christian Academy in NJ, where he had the joy and privilege of not only teaching his students their academic subjects, but also in leading them to the Lord Jesus Christ. He earned his post-master's degree as an Educational Specialist (Ed.S.) from Liberty University, Virginia after completing his studies from 2008-2010. By the grace of God, he also earned his Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) degree in Educational Leadership from Liberty University following the completion of his studies there from 2010-2017. He is an ordained minister credentialed by the Association of Evangelical Gospel Assemblies (AEGA International).

Dr. Pradeep Stephen is forever grateful to the Lord for bestowing His wonderful mercy upon him in giving him salvation, healing, and the calling to shepherd and strengthen the local body of believers as well as to reach the world for Christ. Sound exposition of the Word is a great concern for him, as many have sadly, “turned away from the truth” in our generation. His prayer and vision is to see many desire and flourish under true Spirit-led preaching manifested in the, “demonstration of the Spirit and power” in these last days before the Lord’s return. By the grace of God, he continues to minister through preaching, teaching, and writing for the glory of his Lord.

 

Dr. Kiruba Stephen
Pastor and Executive Director

Dr. Kiruba Stephen is an ordained minister whose earnest desire is for the people of her generation to know the awesome love and power of the Resurrected Christ. She is the founder and executive director of EL BETHEL INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES and co-pastors ELBIM church in Port Jervis, NY along with her husband, Pastor Pradeep Stephen. She has witnessed the mighty move of the Lord in bringing conviction, repentance, deliverance, salvation, healing, and anointing to many men, women, and children of all ages in her ministry travels to over 32 states in the United States, Canada, and India.

Dr. Stephen was born and raised in a godly home. In her early years, she was very close to her godly, anointed grandmother. Her grandmother went to be with the Lord on January 26, 1985. After this, Pastor Kiruba underwent a year of torment in which she could not sleep properly, because of the fear of death.

She was led to salvation by her mother on the night of January 26, 1986, at the age of ten as she received Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. The Lord removed the fear of death that had been tormenting her and replaced it instead with great joy and peace. The following May, as she attended Vacation Bible School, the Lord blessed her with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Since that time, the Lord began to use her over the years in grade school and college to bring many students from various religious backgrounds to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Dr. Stephen obeyed the Lord in the waters of baptism on August 18, 1991. She received a B.A. in Liberal Studies from the State University of New York and a Dual Masters in Childhood Education and Special Education from Long Island University, NY. Pastor Kiruba earned her Ph.D. in Leadership with a specialization in Ministry Administration from Carolina University, NC following her studies there from 2016-2023. She is an ordained minister credentialed by the Association of Evangelical Gospel Assemblies (AEGA International). Her greatest joy comes from worshipping the Lord in spirit and in truth. She happily shares the ministry calling with her husband in reaching out to hurting souls.

She has ministered in faith-based drug and alcohol rehabilitation institutions, including over 35 Teen Challenge centers from NY to California and the Walter Hoving Home in NY, CA, and Las Vegas, NV. Dr. Stephen also ministers at secular drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, homeless missions, nursing homes, state universities, and has seen many come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

As a gifted and anointed singer/songwriter who operates in the prophetic call, she has a great passion for churches to be strengthened and to fulfill their God-ordained destiny as well. Aside from a great love for the Body of Christ at large, Dr. Stephen has a special heart to train girls and women to serve the Lord in their unique, God-given role as Spirit-empowered vessels of honor to usher in His Presence and His Kingdom at home and wherever they are situated.

For Dr. Stephen, an effective personal prayer life is the key to transforming one to a, “Proverbs 31- kind of woman.” True godly fulfillment for a daughter of the King of kings and Lord of lords is derived from doing the Will of God, both in caring for one’s own physical family as well as in caring for the spiritual family of Jesus Christ. This wonderful Life in Jesus can genuinely show forth in the daily life of a servant of the Lord, provided our understanding, loving and sacrificial attitude, and faithful diligence all draw on the generous and powerful Presence of God through seeking Him with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the mind, and with all the strength.

“I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13), must be the true and continuous confession, day and night, of the one who trusts Christ to empower her, just He has promised. Such a person will have a, “performance of those things that were told her.” - Luke 1:45.

Dr. Kiruba Stephen is blessed to be a wife and a mother of five precious children, and is a firm believer that a woman’s first ministry is to her own family in the home. She cheerfully takes on the privilege of meeting the spiritual, physical, and emotional needs of her husband and children. Thus, as a family, they share the overflowing joy of serving the Lord together in these exciting end times before our Lord’s triumphant return!