The People's Church Assembly of God, Colombo, Sri Lanka, hosted an international missions conference, titled 'Asia Arise '08' from 3rd - 6th March 2008, at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

The conference brought together missions minded Christians both lay and full time from Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan Diaspora, the SAARC region and other areas. Participants were challenged by experts and practitioners, and explore the opportunities for cross cultural church planting, and partnership arrangements in missions.

The motive of mobilizing the greatest missionary force in fulfilling the commission of Jesus Christ from the Asian sub continent was emphasized.

A group of participants who met in Colombo that time felt that there is a need of networking among the members of the Asian countries for better cooperation and help in order to expand the kingdom of God beyond borders. Rev. Augustine Jebakumar suggested this idea and people like Ps. Niroshan, Rev. Irfan Jamil, Rev. Asa Kain, Dr. Rajesh Duthie, Bro. Prem Kumar, Mr. Arun Venkit, Mr. Dinesh Chandran met after and thus the SAMA Link was birthed. Dr. Rajesh Duthie, Mr. Arun Venkit, Mr. Dinesh Chandran and Mr. Prem Kumar prayed a small prayer at the end of the Asia Arise 08 conference in faith trusting in our great God to take it beyond.

Meanwhile, Rev. Augustine Jebakumar, Dr. Rajesh Duthie, Rev. Niroshan, Rev. Ivon Poobalan and Pas. Asa Kain met and decided about the first official meeting to be held in Chennai. The idea was followed up later through India Mission Association (IMA) which came forward to give its umbrella and Gospel Echoing Missionary Society (GEMS) who took the initiative to host it in Chennai to accelerate the momentum.