A Faith-Fueled, All-Nation Journey

10 September 2011

International Troubadour Crisscrosses Globe

By J. Thomas Rogers and Raymond Billy | ResonateNews.com

During his formative years in India, Dr. Benny Prasad thought of himself as a shame and a failure. He didn't have great expectations for his life. He hoped to one day catch a mere glimpse of the world outside his native Bangalore — just one other nation would have sufficed.

At the aged of 16, wracked by depression and a sense of aimlessness in his life, Prasad contemplated suicide. But, instead of returning to the Earth, he circumnavigated it, crisscrossed it, and became an ambassador to every nation in it.

Prasad — whose life was salvaged after he became a Christian as a teenager — joined Youth With A Mission in 1998 with heart for music ministry. He would soon find his calling as an international troubadour. Prasad said that ambition — which he attributes to a commission from God — seemed unlikely to be fulfilled when he first received it.

“I couldn't understand how that was going to be possible because my monthly missionary support was $25,” Prasad said. “But God said 'I will provide for you and I will take care of you.'”

By 2010, Prasad, 36, had reached all 195 sovereign nations, 54 dependent countries and Antarctica — 250 territories in all.

“God gets the glory for fulfilling what he started,” Prasad said.

He said that the transformation in his life — from being a hopeless youth to becoming a world traveler — is attainable for everyone.

“If God could take an Indian to the nations, and use my life to be a blessing, no one is exempt from seeing God transforming their lives,” he said.

Prasad said one of the major challenges of traveling with limited resources is penetrating the corruption that travelers encounter when seeking to enter some countries. There are times when bribery is the only key to access such nations. Prasad said he has been able to avoid that pitfall.

“I went to every country and I've never ever given a bribe in any form in any place,” he said.

But although Prasad hasn't had to pay bribes, he says he travels with the mindset that he may one day have to pay for his mission with his life.

“When I go, I go as if I'm not going to return back. I inform my parents, I inform my base and tell them that this is my situation,” Prasad said, speaking of some of the dangerous places he's visited. “So far God has kept me alive for a reason, for a season and for a time. So I'm fine if I have to leave this earth. But I want to really be his light and his salt where ever I go.”
For further information, visit BennyPrasad.com

In this interview, Benny P. tells how he survived rejection and suicidal thoughts to become the fastest traveler to all 250 nations of the world--without wealth or payment for his innovative musical performances with the "ben-tar", a hybrid instrument of guitar, tabla/drums and lyre.