Making vision practical
Translating purpose into shared direction, accountable systems, and cultures where people can contribute their best thinking.
Christian development leader · educator · author
Lasting change begins with the people closest to the work.
Jaisankar “Jai” Sarma brings four decades of experience from grassroots practice to global leadership—helping people and organizations pursue development that is relational, faithful, and lasting.
Worked in more than 80 countries, connecting field realities with global strategy.
Development is more than a project to manage.
It is a holy collaboration.
01
About
Faith, development, and the dignity of those who serve.
My vocation has taken me from a farm serving deaf adults in South India to community work in Cambodia, regional leadership in Asia, and global responsibility at World Vision International.
Across those settings, one conviction has deepened: meaningful transformation cannot be engineered from a distance. It grows through people who listen, build trust, exercise wise agency, and remain present with communities over time.
Today I bring that field-tested perspective to organizational strategy, leadership formation, doctoral mentoring, teaching, and writing. My work holds together what institutions too often separate—the physical, social, and spiritual dimensions of life.
40+years in Christian development
80+countries worked in
1,500+development programs supported
4countries called home
02
The book
Pickwick Publications · 2025
Transformational Frontiers
Bridging Communities and Christian NGOs in Practice
A call to re-center fieldworkers in Christian development—not simply as implementers of strategy, but as people who carry trust, presence, agency, and witness into the daily work of restoration.
Drawing on research and stories from the field, the book asks leaders, practitioners, and donors to see development as a relational and spiritual collaboration rather than a system of projects, metrics, and managerial control.
View book & purchasing options 212 pages · Paperback, hardcover, and eBook
“This is a remarkable and long-overdue work.”
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Selected reflections
Writing at the meeting place of faith and practice.
Short essays on formation, leadership, poverty, Scripture, and the interior life of those who seek to serve well.
When Development Tools Shape the Soul
Without tending to the soul, our tools begin to shape us more than we shape them. Good development eventually teaches humility.
Quick Impact or Lasting Change?
Development is not a quick-impact project. Deep change asks us to balance tangible progress with patient, long-term formation.
From Merit to Gratitude
Christian obedience is not a ladder toward earning merit. It is a grateful response to grace—a life we learn to live.
Leadership, Authority, and the Freedom of the Team
People are not instruments. They are agents. The issue is not title but posture, and the nature of the authority we carry.
Understanding Poverty Beyond Case Studies
Research helps us analyze poverty. Stories can place us inside another person’s fears, hopes, wounds, and contradictions.
Growing Old
If youth is marked by ambition, perhaps later years are marked by clarity and surrender. And in that surrender, there is real freedom.
Open any reflection to read the complete essay. New writing will be added as the library grows.
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Experience
From the grassroots to the global table.
A career shaped by field presence, organizational stewardship, cross-cultural leadership, and a commitment to help others grow.
- 1982–1989
Beginnings in South India
Managed a working farm training deaf adults, then developed staff across hundreds of community programs for World Vision India.
- 1989–2000
Field leadership in Cambodia and Asia
Led food-security and community programs before serving as World Vision Cambodia’s Country Program Director during a turbulent post-conflict era.
- 2000–2020
Global leadership at World Vision
Shaped transformational development practice, field operations, sponsorship services, technical support, and evidence-based programming across a worldwide partnership.
- 2021–today
Teaching, mentoring, and service
Teaches transformational development at Fuller Seminary and serves with Heaven’s Family, integrating community development with disciple-making movements.
Forming thoughtful practitioners
Teaching global development and guiding doctoral students through research, interpretation, and rigorous scholarly writing.
Joining evidence with wisdom
Strengthening design, monitoring, evaluation, and learning while keeping relationships and local agency at the center.
Conversation & collaboration
Let’s talk about work that seeks lasting change.
I welcome conversations about transformational development, organizational strategy, leadership formation, teaching, mentoring, and the role of faith in community change.
jsarma2@gmail.com