From Blog to Book.

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Contents

1 2008 5

1.1 October . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

1.1.1 The Deal of a Lifetime (2008-10-21 03:40) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

1.1.2 Anand Mahadevan (2008-10-24 08:42) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

1.1.3 Share Your Story (2008-10-24 12:31) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

1.2 November . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

1.2.1 Dr. Srinivasa Bhattacharya (2008-11-03 12:18) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

1.2.2 Sundar Selvaraj (2008-11-05 12:49) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

1.2.3 Sundar Selvaraj (2008-11-06 12:29) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

1.2.4 Nagma (2008-11-06 12:31) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

1.2.5 Amavasikan Perumal (2008-11-06 12:32) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

1.2.6 Sadhu Chellappa (2008-11-06 12:33) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

1.2.7 Sadhu Sundar Singh (2008-11-06 12:34) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

1.2.8 Pandita Ramabai (2008-11-06 12:35) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

1.2.9 Paul Biswas (2008-11-06 12:38) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

1.2.10 Raman Kutty (2008-11-06 12:39) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

1.2.11 Hema John (2008-11-08 13:20) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

1.2.12 A V M Rajan (2008-11-08 13:23) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

1.2.13 Shekar (2008-11-08 13:26) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

1.2.14 Anil Kant (2008-11-08 13:26) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

1.2.15 Sungeeta Jain (2008-11-10 12:18) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

1.2.16 Amar Singh (2008-11-10 12:19) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

1.2.17 Shivanshu Aggarwal (2008-11-10 12:20) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

1.2.18 Aditya Bhadra (2008-11-10 12:21) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

1.2.19 Sister Nirmala Joshi (2008-11-25 12:35) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

1.2.20 Naveen Balakrishnan (2008-11-25 12:36) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

1.2.21 Inderpaul Singh (2008-11-25 12:37) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

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1.2.22 Rabi Maharaj (2008-11-25 12:39) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

1.3 December . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

1.3.1 Bro. Anil Kumar (2008-12-12 05:40) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

1.3.2 (2008-12-12 12:43) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

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Chapter 1

2008

1.1 October

1.1.1 The Deal of a Lifetime (2008-10-21 03:40)

The Deal of a Lifetime

—A MESSAGE FROM JESUS

Ask Me to prove I’m real, ... that I will do all the things I say I can do,

And then stand back and watch Me come through for you!

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,

I have the deal of a lifetime for you! I started off in Construction and now I’ve also moved into Recyclingand Repair. My name is Jesus and I’m the best in the business. Here’s My free trial offer: I will fix whateveryou most want mended! But before you answer too quickly, listen to this: I mean anything! Go a few stepsbeyond thinking of a broken television or your car problems.

Think big!—Your health, your life, your broken heart, any impossible situation you’re caught in—anything!

Of course, it’s hard for you to believe My claims if you don’t know for sure that I’m on the level, that I’mreal and ready to back up everything I say. So I’m also making you another free trial offer: Test Me! Youcan put Me in a test tube and see if I work! And you are the test tube! Just ask Me to come into your lifeand change things for the better. If I can’t do it, then you can forget about Me and this offer. But if I comethrough for you, if I prove to you personally that I’m real, think of what you will have gained!

And what do I want from you in return? The only thing I want from you is your love. I want for you tochoose Me to solve your problems before you choose any other solution, and I’ll get you to feel like that byactually fixing each problem you bring to Me. This is not a promise for the future, although I have lots ofthose as well. This is for right now, and for each and every time you put Me to the test. I mean it! Does itsound too good to be true? I said it’s the deal of a lifetime! You’ll never get a better offer than this—and

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you haven’t even heard all of it yet!

What did you do to deserve all this?—Nothing! When you’re in love with someone, they don’t have to doanything to get your favor; you want to do things for them. And that’s why I want to do this for you, becauseI love you! I also have a lot of other unbeatable deals for you, and you can find many of them in the Bible.But I’m no fool; I know you won’t even bother to read it if you don’t first know that I’m real and that thosepromises are not just a bunch of sweet words.

So do this one thing: Ask Me to prove I’m real, that I am who I say I am, that I will do all the things I say Ican do, and then stand back and watch Me come through for you! I promise you I will do it for anyone whohonestly asks Me. And I promise you this, you will be glad you did!

On to the next step: After you put Me to the test, if you are satisfied with the results, then I would ask onesmall favor of you: Pass this offer on to someone else, or to as many as you will. Word-of-mouth advertisingfrom a satisfied customer is the best kind, and that’s what I like. Now that’s asking no more than anyonewould when they’ve given you a good deal on something or provided good reliable service. And like goodbusinesses, each time you refer someone to Me by giving them this offer, I’ll mark it up to your credit andI’ll repay you for it. How’s that for a deal? You can’t lose!

I’ve been around a long time and, believe it or not, this dynamite offer is the same one I’ve always offered.I’m just stepping up My advertising a little to keep up with the changing times. Time is short and times arechanging. Do yourself a favor and try it. You’ll be glad you did. And so will whoever else you tell aboutthis offer, if they’ll try it too.

Don’t forget, this offer is only the introduction. There’s a lot more—and I mean a lot more! And it’s all foryou and your good! First try this, and then I’ll show you some more.

So, ask Me to come into your life and fix whatever is broken. I’ll move in with a complete program of repair,restoration, and even some new improvements if you want them. I have a whole new range of possibilitiesfor you to choose from. Is that a good deal? It’s the best! Try it!

Do it now and let’s get started! Just tell Me right now, “Jesus, it’s a deal! I’ll take Your offer. Come in andlet me see what You can do. If I’m satisfied with the results, I’ll refer others to You!”

With love, your heavenly repairman,

Jesus

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1.1.2 Anand Mahadevan (2008-10-24 08:42)

I was born a Brahmin and am the grandson of a priest whom I dearly loved. I am educated and my currentprofessional standing indicates that I am reasonably intelligent. I am also affluent and my income would put

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me distinctly in the upper middle class bracket. I guess that would make me high-caste, rich and smart. Inother words, I am not a tribal, or poor or dim-witted. And yet, I chose to become a follower of Jesus Christ.

The world would call me a convert to Christianity. I have no problems with that, though I see myfaith more as a relationship with God through Jesus Christ than as a religion. And for the record, I cantruthfully claim that no one financially induced or threatened or deceived me into converting to Christianity.

I am fiercely proud of my national identity as an Indian and I am completely at peace with my cul-tural identity as a Hindu. I retain the name my parents gave me. My wife, who also shares my faith,continues to go by her Hindu name. We have two children and we have given both distinctly Hindu names.In fact, many of my colleagues and acquaintances who may happen to read this column are likely to besurprised. They have no inkling about my faith, for I generally don’t go about announcing it. But if someonedoes ask me the reason behind the joy and hope that is everpresent in my life, I am always delighted toshare it with them.

I write this piece to make one point—that my conversion was not a change of religion but a changeof heart. To explain this, I need to go back to my childhood in Chennai, similar to that of so many otherTamil Brahmin boys like me. My grandfather, every bit the virtuous priest, had enormous influence overme. I absolutely adored him and as a toddler, always clung to him. He too loved me to a fault. There wasno wish of mine that he would not rush to fulfil. But even in my early, formative years I was unable to relateto the religion he fervently practiced. Later, in my school days, I once spent my summer holidays with himin Trichy. Memories of dawn walks with him, for the ritualistic dip in the Cauvery river, cow in tow, arestill fresh in my memory. I learnt many shlokas, some of which I still remember. But I never understoodany of it and none of it helped me connect with God.

When I was 19, a Christian friend with whom I used to play cricket invited me to his house forprayer. If he had invited me to a pub, or party, I would have gone too. At his home, he and his sisterprayed for me. It was a simple yet delightful conversation with God that lasted all of five minutes. I don’tremember it verbatim, but they articulated a prayer of blessing on my life, future, career and family. It wasa simple affair—no miracles, no angels visiting. All they did was utter a deep human cry out to the creatorGod and His only son Jesus Christ. When they said Amen, I felt in my heart a desire to follow Jesus.

It was a faith encounter with God that I shall not even attempt to understand, rationalise or ex-plain. I simply accept it. It is my faith. It is what I choose to believe. That evening I did not change myreligion, for in reality I had none. Hinduism was my identity, not my religion. It still is.

The Christianity I acquired that evening is not a religion. On the contrary, it is an intensely inti-mate relationship with Jesus. Over the past fifteen years, I have come to know this Jesus even closer. Iknow Him as the pure and sinless Son of a Holy God. And I know Him as a dear friend to whom I pray andtalk to every day—about my career, my dreams, successes, failures, finances and even my sexuality.

If I read a good book, watch a good movie (Rock On is terrific, mate), or eat a good meal at a newrestaurant, I would naturally tell my friends about it.In Jesus, I have discovered a truly amazing friend,guide, leader, saviour and God. How can I not tell all my friends about Him? And if anyone does listen andhe too comes to believe in Jesus, I am delighted. The world would call it a conversion; I call it a change ofheart, like mine.

But I would never force anyone to listen to me, leave alone financially induce, coerce or con himinto believing. That to me is pointless and against the very grain of my faith. But I do have a constitutionalright to practice my faith and to preach it without deception, force or bribery. It pains to see such basic

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rights of mankind being cruelly violated every day in this great Hindu nation.

God bless India.

(Anand Mahadevan is the editor of Outlook Business.)

Source: http://www.outlookindia.comhttp://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20081027 &fname=Conversions+(F) &sid=5

knat (2008-11-01 09:43:24)Dear Anand, It is good to know that you are able to connect with Jesus and that you are happy to have had thischange of religion, nay, heart. However, I disagree with you when you say that the basic rights of mankind are beingcruelly violated in India. I believe you mean that people are not being allowed to practice their faith and/or preach it.If that were true, how do you explain the countless number of churches in every city, town and village? There are tonsof Christians doing well in all spheres of life in India with absolutely no discrimination. In fact, the only discriminationI have seen is in the convent schools where the people of other religions (especially Hindus) are discriminated against.This has happened to me in Don Bosco High School, Perambur where I studied and had a bad experience. Also, tosay that money is not offered to convert hindus to christianity is like being an ostrich with its head buried in thesand. It is quite well known that different amounts of money is offered to people based on their caste and standingin society. Educated people like you obviously cannot be tricked into accepting a new faith and that is why you havenot gone through that experience. A simple fact is that there is one god above us who is called by different namesby different people. Every religion prescribes a way to reach out to God and connect with Him. To say that callinghim Jesus and going to Churches is the only way to becoming a better person is plain ludicrous. That tells me thatthe Christians are patronizing and intolerant of other religions. Lastly, Hinduism does not have one set of rules to saythat the only way to pray is to have these ritualistic dips or chant Shlokas. thanks for your time, -krishna

Sridhar Rajendran (2008-12-03 12:17:04)Hi Anand, I am a son of Brahmin mother. My real conversion,/ change of heart happened after meeting number ofBrahmin friends at Chennai. I have mentioned their names in my blog www.jesusridhar.blogspot.com. I agree withyour point that as we share the best food we had or good movie we watched, we have to share our relationship withJesus to others. This is as good as introduing my friend to you. I think our missionaries should also avoid tempintingpoor people by money. They are not ramping up their project or organization. I think our missionaries should alsoavoid tempting poor people by money. They are not ramping up their project or organization. People like you and Ican be the light and salt to our friends, neighbors and the society which we belong. God bless you. Regards Sridhar

Alby P Vincent (2008-12-11 14:07:06)Dear Sir I would like to get your photograph to be used in the x’mas issue of sunday shalom magazine. could youplease forward it at the earliest. alby@nirjhari.net, pvalby@yahoo.com thanking you alby

Soumya (2008-11-13 09:53:13)Yes there is only one God. If there is one God, then the way to him is also one. Anand, I have also(along with myfamily) have accepted Jesus Christ as the Lord. regards, Soumy Rajaram(nee Benavides)

1.1.3 Share Your Story (2008-10-24 12:31)

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1.2 November

1.2.1 Dr. Srinivasa Bhattacharya (2008-11-03 12:18)

”Good morning. How many of you are really happy this morning? I am Dr. Srinivasa Bhattachary. If Iappropriately introduce myself stating my full name it is too long. I come from the 145th direct generationof Sri Vaishnam Bhattachary priesthood community. Even today, grandfather, Raghu Bhattachary is thechief priest in Srilakshmaneshaswamy Devasthanam at Ponvanugalathoor. I come from a family backgroundof priests and today my whole family are Bhattacharyas for the gods who have eyes but cannot see, whohave ears but cannot hear, who have noses but cannot smell, who have hands but cannot touch, who havelegs but cannot walk, but I by the grace of Jesus Christ, have come among you as a Bhattacharya for LordJesus Christ.

At the age of six I wore the sacred thread (poonool) according to the Hindu tradition. I was givento the Gayathri Diksha, ombhoohu, Ombhuwaha, Om subhaga, ommaha, Omjanaka, Om thapaka, Omsathyam, Om thathuservdarinam, Om barbudevastimagam, Om diviyayonagam,Om prajothaya, Omjothirasakam, Om amarthavaram, Om burbosaram. I was sent to an ashramam for my studies. Right frommy childhood I studied the Rigveda, Yegurveda, Samarveda, Adarvarnaveda, Nalayiram Lijya Prabhandtha,Ethihasa, Purana Ramayana, Mahabharatha, Bhagvatgeetha etc etc in the Hindu mythological subjectsin Sanskrit as well as in the Grandha Language. Once my early education was over in Hindu philosophyin south India, I was sent to North India, Uttar Pradesh to do my doctorate in the Banaras University. Iwent there and did my siromony in Sanskrit and PhD in Grandha. While I was studying in the BanarasUniversity the destruction of the Babri Masjid took place at Ayodhya. Since I was a Bhattachary and sinceI was doing my double PhD in a famous Hindu University, I was chosen by the RSS as their national youthleader. The objective of the RSS, as you all know, is to stop foreign religions coming to India. They areespecially dead against Christ and Christianity being proclaimed in the land of India. When I was in thisorganization as their national Youth leader, my personal commitment was to destroy the mosque then andthere. In those days my faith in the Hindu religion and their gods was very strong and so I went all theway to France and I peddled a dynamite bomb and I brought it to India and set it off at the tomb of themosque, using my personal computer from my cabin. At that time many Islamic fundamentalists cameforward to stop us in our activities. In retaliation our Hindu parishad people chopped their hands and legsand chopped off their heads and killed not less than 3000 people and flung their bodies into the SarayoorRiver. I recall this, as I was totally submerged into the sinful way of life right from the beginning. That washow strongly I believed in the Hindu philosophy.

After this incident I was doing the research work in my university library. The research topic that Ihad taken for my thesis was ”How will man go to the kingdom of God after his death?” How will a manreach the Brahma patha or Sivan Narayan Patha or how can we go to the kingdom of God. While I wasgoing through many books in the library, a very old sanyasi came to the library and called out to me. Hewas having a long beard and very long hair. He was wearing only an ordinary dhoti. He called me out,and giving me a small piece of paper he walked out. I did not know who he was or where he came from.After he left I looked at the small piece of paper and on it was written the verse from John chapter 3verse 16. ”For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, for whosoever believeth shouldnot perish but shall have everlasting life”. The more I read this scripture the more it began to inspire mein the very depth of my heart. My dear brothers and sisters why did this particular scripture inspire meso much? The word of God says in John, chapter 1 that the word of God consists of life. I went to allmy gurujis and asked them who is this begotten son. All they could tell me was that the begotten son isKrishna Paramatma and Rama Paramatma etc etc but nobody told me that Jesus is the only begottenson. For one month I was desperately hunting for the answer. After one month, one particular morningI was sitting in my dormitory going through this piece of paper once again. Tears started to gush out

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my eyes to know who this begotten Son of God is. Then I heard a voice telling me to read the rigveda.Upon opening it what I read in Sanskrit was ” Santhakaram purakasayanam, pathmanabam suresham,vishwakaram…….mekavarnam….lakshikanthan…yogikirtham vandal bishnumbam, survalokayika….” whichmeans, ”The God so loved the world , that he gave his only begotten Son of God that whosoever believes inHim will have everlasting life”. When I read the bible scripture in my own Rigveda I decided that even if Idie I must obey this only begotten son and that I must surrender my life to Him.

My exams got over and after finishing my thesis I registered the same with the registrar of the uni-versity. When the result came, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ I came first in the whole of Indiain both my doctorates. I was invited to Delhi to be awarded the presidents Gold medal in the Indianparliament amidst all the distinguished parliamentarians. But all this did not give me any joy. Here I wasborn into a royal family of Nepal, with my family breeding 13 elephants and having 108 divine templesacross the world where we are the chief priests, having obtained double doctorates and double gold medalsfrom the president and yet having no peace nor joy in life. The bible says, ”If a man gains the whole worldand yet loses his soul what is the use?”

There was a great vacuum in my life. I still did not know Jesus as the saviour of the world, nor asthe prince of peace, nor as the redeemer of the world and in such a state I found myself making preparationsto return to Tamil Nadu. I booked my ticket on the Ganga-Kaveri express. At Varnasi station I boardedthe train and subsequently arrived in Madhya Pradesh. All the while I was reading John 3:16. Somethingtold me that I should keep meditating on this verse and I did so till the train pulled into Madhya Pradesh.The railway staff went for a coffee break and at the same time I heard a voice telling me to get down at thisstation. I was wondering why I should do this for I did not have any relatives there. The more I refused tolisten to the voice the more persistent it became. Finally I gave in and got off the train. After a few minutesthe train left the station and I was left alone on the platform. Again I heard a small voice telling me to startwalking. I started to walk. After walking for nearly 3 kilometers I came to a place called Baratpur. Mapiertown in Jabalpur city. The moment I came to this particular spot, where there was a cement arch, I sawthe same old sanyasi who had come to my college library, 800 kilometers away, coming towards me pointinghis fingers at me. Putting his hand on me he said, ”The Lord who you wanted to know in your life is JesusChrist. The only begotten son whom you are seeking is Christ. He loves you and forgives your sin and heis going to cleanse you from all your sinful natures. He is going to give you a new life”. When he said allthat I could not control myself. Here was a very simple man, very old and ordinary, but yet filled with theresurrected power of the Lord, preaching the gospel to me. I humbled myself and yielded to that saint.

From there he took me to a place called Bidagarh. That is where the Narmada River flows into avery high velocity. We crossed the river and went to the other side where we could find no human beingsat all. He took me into the forest and he took me inside a cave. With a great burden he knelt in the caveand opening the bible he started to preach the gospel. He told me how God created the heavens and theearth, the rivers and the seas, the plants and the animals and how he created human beings. He told me ofthe fall of man into sin and how the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world as the Messiah, how much Hesuffered on the cross at Golgotha and how he finally died. When I heard all this I could not control myselffor in Hinduism there are 33 crores ( millions) gods. But none of the gods came to die for me and my sins.But here I found the Jesus came and died for my sins. Even Hinduism says very sincerely in the Samaveda,”Every man is a sinner and unless he is cleansed by the precious blood he cannot go into the kingdom ofGod”. But we find that no one came to shed their blood in Hinduism but we find Christ having done it. Iopened my heart to the Lord and cried, ”Lord I am very sorry . Lord I open my heart unto you. Lord itwas for my sins that both your hands and your legs were nailed to the cross. It was for my sins that youwore the crown of thorns on your head. It was for my sins that a spear was thrust into your right ribs. LordI am sorry and please forgive me Lord”.

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The Lord was merciful to me . As it says in the bible ”He that covers his sin shall not prosper butwhosoever shall confess it and forsake it shall have mercy”. Again it also says, ”If you confess your sins, Heis faithful and just to forgive you all your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness”. I did it in thepresence of the Lord. I wept bitterly for all my sinful activities right from my childhood to that day. Godheard my prayers for in the bible it is written in revelation chapter 3:20, ”Behold I stand at your door andknock, and if any man heareth my voice, open the door. I will come to him and will sup with him and hewith me”. He stands at your door and knocks. It is because when he chooses a son or a daughter for hiskingdom, he has the courtesy to knock. Satan never knocks. For him a small ventilator is enough to creepin through. Lord Jesus alone can bless. That is how I came to know the Lord. After accepting Jesus as mypersonal saviour, He showed me many areas in my life where there was still sin and on my part I confessedand prayed and got myself cleansed by the blood of Jesus.

I stayed for two months with the old man in the forest. Every morning we used to kneel togetherin the presence of the Lord for hours and pray and meditate upon the word of God. After 2 months one dayhe took me to the Narmada River and baptized me in the name of the Father and the Son and the HolySpirit. It is very difficult for me to say everything that happened to me that day. As David says in the 23rdPsalm, he prepared a table for me in the presence of my enemies and he anoints my head with oil. My cuprunneth over, surely goodness and mercy will follow all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house ofthe Lord forever. That was the assurance I got. After I received the Holy Spirit, the old man told me ”NowGod has brought you to Judea and then he will take you to Samaria and from there to the uttermost partsof the Earth”. He explained to me that Judea meant him, Samaria meant my hometown and community.He told me that I was to go back to my community and preach to them the gospel. I went back to Nepal.

The moment I reached home my parents were standing outside. My father did not allow me to goinside the house. They said to me. ”We sent you to get a higher education in the most famous university.You received 2 gold medals from the president of India. After all this you are returning as a poor,downtrodden, inferior untouchable caste. What happened to you?” They left me standing at the door andafter asking for some Ganges water from the temple my father proceeded to give me a bath as I was defiled.He poured that water over me. Even then according to them I was still impure for only external purificationhad taken place and I still needed internal purification. So he sent another priest to the backyard of thehouse and asked him to bring a glass of cow’s urine. I was told to drink this by my father. In our familyour father is very revered and in no way do we show any disrespect to him. Therefore when he commandedme to drink I had to obey. I silently received this and saying ”victory in the blood of Jesus”, over and overagain, I silently drank it. Only then was I allowed to enter.

My parents were still afraid that I might sneak out and join some Christian church in Nepal, andonce or twice without my father’s knowledge I did visit a faith home in Nepal. Thus my father started togive me so much work that I would always find myself to be busy. I was given lot of chores to do, even inthe temple mainly cleaning and washing various idols housed there. All this I did obeying my father, alwayssaying ”Victory in the name of Jesus”. Wanting to punish me he left me behind in the temple one night.

These temples were constructed 2000 to 3000 years ago and right from the entrance to the MolaSarpa Graha, we had to walk not less than 3 km. The ceiling is 100 to 120 ft high and at night there areno lights as there were no electricity connections. The temple was also infested with poisonous snakes andscorpions. For many days I was not given any food nor did I have any proper clothing. But amidst all thesedangers I knelt down and prayed, ”Lord without your will I can never be here. I do not know for whatreason you have kept me here but help me to proclaim and lift your name to these people. Lord open thedoor where I can proclaim the good news for David said in the scripture, ”What shall I do unto the Lordwho has given me the joy of salvation?” Again in the very next scripture he says,” I will offer to thee thesacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord, I will pay my vows unto the Lord in the

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presence of all his people”. The next morning about 60 bhattacharyas came to open the temple early in themorning and doing so they came inside. I was on fire and at that moment called out to the bhattacharyas.”Come here. What does your Vedas say about God? What does Hinduism say about God? Who is trueGod in Hinduism? What are the characteristics of God mentioned in Hinduism? What does Hinduismsay about how a man can go into the kingdom of God? Who is the true god that can bring salvation tomankind? For example Om Shri brahmaputhraye namaha- what does this mean? The only begotten son Iworship thee. Who is the only begotten Son? It is the Lord Jesus Christ. Om shri Martha Namaha- theHoly Spirit of God I worship thee. Who is the Holy Spirit of God? Again it is the Lord Jesus Christ. Omshri Kannisuthayeha namaha-which means the Lord who is born to a virgin. Om vidyshtayaha Namaha-the Lord who had the circumcision I worship thee. Om shri Panchkayika namaha- the Lord who had thefive injuries for the sake of mankind. Om shri vriksh shula arudayaka nama vrisha pondha marthil shulathilsiluthayil baliyanavare, umbaye nan namaskarikunen. Who is the Lord who died on the cross of Calvary?All this is our Lord Jesus Christ. Our God is not a dead God. It is true that he came as a messiah tothis world. He preached the gospel. He cancelled the devils and the demons. He healed the sick people adbrought salvation to so many people and finally he died on the cross of Calvary, he was buried but he didnot become sand. Om Shri mrithyu nayaya namaha meaning the Lord who resurrected from the depths ofthe Earth on the third day I worship thee”. By the divine grace of God 13 people accepted the Saviour.Out of them 6 took baptism. Today they are strong believers. All this God did for His glory.

Like this I was inside the temple with these people for 6 months and in the meantime the RSS peo-ple came to know about me and so did the BJP and the Shiv Sena along with a lot of other Hinduorganizations. They came to Nepal and pulled me out of the temple and thrashed me mercilessly. Theyfractured both my hands. Today the hand you see is not the real one but an artificial one. In one hand Ihave 16 screws fixed in my elbow and steel plated within. They poured acid all over me and threw me intothe streets. They told me that if I preach Christ anymore then they would kill me. My parents asked meto get out, as I had become a danger to their survival. I was shunned by my family, community, friend andvillagers. At a total loss as to what to do then and there I knelt and prayed to the Lord and asked him whatHe wanted me to do. I claimed His promise where He said that in the days of your trouble I will deliveryou and you will glorify me. The Lord told me that along with Judea even Samaria was over and so ”Stepout in My name and I will take care of you”. I asked for confirmation from the bible if God wanted me togo out for full time mission work and the scripture given to me was John chapter 1:5 ”In the beginning wasthe word and the word was with God. All things are made by Him and with Him not anything made or wasmade. In Him was life and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness and the darknesscomprehendeth it not.” ”But as many received Him to them He gave power to become the sons of God evento them that believe on His name” (John 1:12). Based on this scripture I was convinced that I was truly achild of God.

Slowly I made my way to the faith home in Nepal. There God miraculously provided me first aidand a plane ticket to the Bombay Navarathna hospital for treatment. I took complete treatment for 6months and now I am all right. After that I went back to Nepal once again. My household did not open thedoor and they told me to leave. I did not do what to do with my life. There were so many denominationsin Christianity like Roman Catholics, Jehovah witnesses, Marthomites etc etc. All I knew was the FatherGod, the Begotten Son and the Holy Spirit. After this I went into many parts of Nepal and interior villagesto proclaim Christ. I was expelled from Nepal for preaching the Gospel. I went to Tibet and from therecame to North India. Finally today I am in South India. Today right from Kanya Kumari in the southto Kashmir God has taken me to proclaim the good news. Other than parts of India, God took me toSinapore, Malaysia, Hongkong, France, Sweden,Germany and Czechoslovakia. I came without anything yetI lack nothing. When I came into the ministry I did not have any money on me yet I cannot say that I havegone hungry even once. God provides me with everything that I want day by day. I am also on the RSS hitlist. Ten days ago I was coming back to Tamilnadu from Rajastan and I was circled by the RDD people

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and I lost all my properties to them. By the grace of God I am well today.

My dear brothers and sisters all this while you have been listening to my testimony fro the glory ofour Lord Jesus Christ. I request you to get a step closer to the cross of Calvary so that your life would beblessed more. I also humbly request you to uphold me in prayer because the word of God says, ”He thathas put his hand on the plough and withdraws is unworthy for the kingdom of God” Today you and me,we have put our hands on the plough of our Lord Jesus Christ. Come what may we must till the Christianground to produce thirty, sixty and hundred folds of fruits for the glory of Lord Jesus Christ. Then only wecan boldly say like Paul said ”I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith;henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge shall giveme at that day: and not to me only but unto all them also that love His appearing”. Initially Paul was alsotorturing and persecuting Christians and the early churches.

Then on the road to Jericho near the city of Damascus he was touched by the power of God. Rightaway he fell flat on the road. When he got up he was blind. God told him to go and get healed by Annaias.Annaias laid his hands upon Paul and prayed and Paul got his sight back. He understood the power of Godand accepted the Lord. He committed his life to the Lord. And he came all over Asia and proclaimed thegood news of our Lord Jesus Christ. He led thousands of people to the kingdom of God. That was thereason why he could say that he has fought the good fight. It is true in our cases also, dear brothers andsisters. There is a crown of life awaiting each and every one of us. In order to receive it we must run agood race and we should fight a good fight. It is not enough just accepting the Lord as our personal saviouror being baptized, nor is it enough that we receive the f=gifts of the Holy Spirit. What is your personalcontribution to the church of God? How much are you contributing to the church of God? The Lord hasput you in such a beautiful and affluent place, what are your commitments to the Lord? In how many waysare you robbing God in the church?

(This testimony is being disputed for authenticity, pls contact the following address for further de-tails)

(A free cassette copy of this testimony can be obtained by contacting :-GOSPEL MISSIONS OF INDIAP.O. Box 1043, Warren, MI 48090, U.S.A.Telephone: 586-247-7924 (day) / 586-939-7468E-mail:email@gospelmi.orgWebsite: http://www.gospelmi.org

DISTRIBUTOR : Bangalore regency Developers (P) Ltd.

Modern Regency Projects (P) Ltd. Regency Constructions

No. 58, Banaswadi Main Road, Jai Bharath Nagar, Bangalore – 560 033, India. Office: 5479344,5465851)

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1.2.2 Sundar Selvaraj (2008-11-05 12:49)

Sundar Selvaraj was born on 17 March 1962 into a Catholic family. He has two sisters and a younger brother.When he was about seven years old, his father embraced Hinduism and became a layman priest.

Young Sundar being the first born male child followed his father’s footsteps and became a devout Hindu.He gave himself to the study of mantras and was versed in performing pujas (religious ceremonies). He evencarried the kavadi - a form of Hindu penance, for three years. When he was about 16 years old, there arosea question in his heart about karma, life after death and nirvana. He sought the favours of the Hindu deitiesthrough fastings, penances and pujas, to be set free from the cycle of rebirth and to be one with Brahma -the union with the cosmic energy. But all his efforts were futile. After six months of fervent futile prayers,he came to the conclusion that he had been fated to be reincarnated again and again in this world due tohis bad karma.

About this time in June 1978, he attended a religious-cum-science lecture at a public auditorium. Thedistinguished speaker was speaking on the subject of evolution. Young Sundar had great fascination forscience and was planning on becoming a neurosurgeon. After speaking for half an hour on evolution, thespeaker then compared the science of evolution to the science of creation by God. The topic though inter-esting disliked Sundar because the speaker introduced Jesus Christ. The speaker said that because of God’sgreat love for man, He came down to earth as a man to die for the sins of the whole world. And only bybelieving in the Lord Jesus Christ can a person be set free from sin and the cycle of death.

After the message, the speaker gave an invitation to all those who wished to receive Jesus Christ as theirSaviour to come forward to the stage. Though Sundar felt a nudge to go forward, being a staunch hindu, herebelled against the nudge. Suddenly, from deep within him, he heard a clear voice and audible speaking tohim. The voice said, ”This is the true God. Go and follow Him.” Sundar was astonished to hear the voicebeckoning him to go forward and accept the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour and God. He ignored the voice.But, like an auto reverse cassette player, the voice kept on repeating, ”This is the true God. Go and followHim.” Sundar then experienced another supernatural experience. The chair on which he was sitting beganto vibrate. It was as if the chair was prompting him to get up and go. He grabbed the handles of the chairand would not budge an inch.

All the while, the voice kept repeating. ”This is the true God. Go and follow Him”. Sundar was nowexperiencing two unexplainable supernatural experiences. Then without any warning, he felt a real tangiblehand below his back. The hand gently lifted him up to his feet. Puzzled, Sundar stopped resisting. Theunseen but real hand then clasped his hand and gently led him down three flight of stairs to the front of thestage.

He joined about 50 other people who had come forward to receive the Lord Jesus as their Saviour. Lookingupwards, Sundar said, ”Jesus if you are the true God, please help me be set free from the cycle of rebirth.”He then mechanically uttered that which the speaker had asked all those who came forward to the stage tosay, ”Lord Jesus come into my life.”

As soon as he said those words, he least expected another supernatural experience. He felt someone pouringwhat he felt like oil on his head. It dropped on his head and began to flow downwards all over him. As theoil was flowing down over him, he felt a cleansing taking place inside his heart. Like all his sins and filthynature being washed and cleansed. The oil kept flowing down to his toes. When the oil flowed out of histoes, a great indescribable peace filled his entire being. This last supernatural experience together with theother three experiences, totally convinced Sundar that the Lord Jesus Christ is truly The One True God.He then sincerely gave his life to the Lord Jesus Christ and became His devoted disciple.

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Sundar is now active in evangelism in India and Tibet. For more information about his ministry visithis website http://www.jesusministries.com.sg/

1.2.3 Sundar Selvaraj (2008-11-06 12:29)

Sundar Selvaraj was born on 17 March 1962 into a Catholic family. He has two sisters and a younger brother.When he was about seven years old, his father embraced Hinduism and became a layman priest.

Young Sundar being the first born male child followed his father’s footsteps and became a devout Hindu.He gave himself to the study of mantras and was versed in performing pujas (religious ceremonies). He evencarried the kavadi - a form of Hindu penance, for three years. When he was about 16 years old, there arosea question in his heart about karma, life after death and nirvana. He sought the favours of the Hindu deitiesthrough fastings, penances and pujas, to be set free from the cycle of rebirth and to be one with Brahma -the union with the cosmic energy. But all his efforts were futile. After six months of fervent futile prayers,he came to the conclusion that he had been fated to be reincarnated again and again in this world due tohis bad karma.

About this time in June 1978, he attended a religious-cum-science lecture at a public auditorium. Thedistinguished speaker was speaking on the subject of evolution. Young Sundar had great fascination forscience and was planning on becoming a neurosurgeon. After speaking for half an hour on evolution, thespeaker then compared the science of evolution to the science of creation by God. The topic though inter-esting disliked Sundar because the speaker introduced Jesus Christ. The speaker said that because of God’sgreat love for man, He came down to earth as a man to die for the sins of the whole world. And only bybelieving in the Lord Jesus Christ can a person be set free from sin and the cycle of death.

After the message, the speaker gave an invitation to all those who wished to receive Jesus Christ as theirSaviour to come forward to the stage. Though Sundar felt a nudge to go forward, being a staunch hindu, herebelled against the nudge. Suddenly, from deep within him, he heard a clear voice and audible speaking tohim. The voice said, ”This is the true God. Go and follow Him.” Sundar was astonished to hear the voicebeckoning him to go forward and accept the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour and God. He ignored the voice.But, like an auto reverse cassette player, the voice kept on repeating, ”This is the true God. Go and followHim.” Sundar then experienced another supernatural experience. The chair on which he was sitting beganto vibrate. It was as if the chair was prompting him to get up and go. He grabbed the handles of the chairand would not budge an inch.

All the while, the voice kept repeating. ”This is the true God. Go and follow Him”. Sundar was nowexperiencing two unexplainable supernatural experiences. Then without any warning, he felt a real tangiblehand below his back. The hand gently lifted him up to his feet. Puzzled, Sundar stopped resisting. Theunseen but real hand then clasped his hand and gently led him down three flight of stairs to the front of thestage.

He joined about 50 other people who had come forward to receive the Lord Jesus as their Saviour. Lookingupwards, Sundar said, ”Jesus if you are the true God, please help me be set free from the cycle of rebirth.”He then mechanically uttered that which the speaker had asked all those who came forward to the stage tosay, ”Lord Jesus come into my life.”

As soon as he said those words, he least expected another supernatural experience. He felt someone pouring

15

what he felt like oil on his head. It dropped on his head and began to flow downwards all over him. As theoil was flowing down over him, he felt a cleansing taking place inside his heart. Like all his sins and filthynature being washed and cleansed. The oil kept flowing down to his toes. When the oil flowed out of histoes, a great indescribable peace filled his entire being. This last supernatural experience together with theother three experiences, totally convinced Sundar that the Lord Jesus Christ is truly The One True God.He then sincerely gave his life to the Lord Jesus Christ and became His devoted disciple.

Sundar is now active in evangelism in India and Tibet. For more information about his ministry visithis website http://www.jesusministries.com.sg/

1.2.4 Nagma (2008-11-06 12:31)

God’s hand was on me all along:

POPULAR actress Nagma opened up about her faith and mission in her life for the first time tothe media in an exclusive interview with The Christian Messenger.

This newspaper’s founding editor Robin Sam spoke to her for close to five hours in an exhaustive in-terview concerning her faith, the recent issue over her testimony at Nalumavadi in Tamil Nadu, the risingviolence against Christians, her personal life and plans for the future. Excerpts:

When did you come to realize the saving power of Jesus Christ?

I was born on Christmas to a Muslim mother and a Hindu father. I went to a convent school fromchildhood. I was exposed to Christianity from a young age. I went to Mount Mary Convent School inBandra, Mumbai. There, Mass was a routine feature. I always thought I am very special to God because Iwas born on Dec 25th - perhaps because the world celebrated the day.

Even though I was not a believer then, I still enjoyed a constant companionship and relationshipwith Jesus Christ but never really mentioned this as it would have seemed odd then.

A bit later in life, I came across a book called ‘Conversations with God.’ That confirmed to me thatthe power that was speaking to me all along was God Himself. Now when I look back, I feel that God’shand was strongly upon me all along even though I hadn’t realized it then.

As God is just and fair, He has given us a free will to decide and make our choices whether good orbad because of His mercy and compassion.

There was a time in my life when things were going on really well. Yet, there was this big vacuum.There was no all-encompassing peace though life was busy and my job competitive. It went on like this forseveral years. After 15 years of my career, I started feeling the futility of it all and began asking myselfquestions like ‘Why am I here?’, ‘What’s God’s plan for me in my life?’ and ‘What’s the purpose of myexistence?’ I asked myself these questions when I was doing really well in life just like how King David felteven when he had everything going his way.

Since I was spiritually inclined I read a lot of books in that genre. I also started practicing medita-tion. I was teaching Art of Living for nearly 12 years. But Jesus continued to intrigue me. Since one of

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my aunties was a Christian, I kept urging her to tell me more about Christ. In the year 2000, in one suchdiscussion, I said my salvation prayer.

Like it took the Israelites 40 years to reach the promised land that should have been covered in just11 days I took nearly about five years to submit completely to the will of God. Just like Jonah, I was goingon my own trip.

But in 2006, I became ill. I had a viral fever that the doctors weren’t able to diagnose. I had hightemperature and was hospitalized. That’s when a Punjabi guy in my fraternity who was married to aChristian woman visited me and gave a CD. It contained a sermon titled ‘Freedom from fear’ by BrotherJohnson, an evangelist in Goa. For the next six months I kept listening to the CD. Like the Bible says:‘Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of God.’ After six months, I told myself: ‘Now, I wantto read the Word.’ I began with the New Testament. I told God: ‘I am going to read your Word. Help meand be my teacher.’

While reading the New Testament, I realized the importance of baptism and also of joining a church.Therefore, I immediately joined Pastor Shekhar Kalyanpur’s New Life Fellowship in Juhu, Mumbai. I tookbaptism on Jan 4. Since 2007 was a year of rest I decided to take a break from films and continued myBible study fervently.

Source: The Christian Messenger, India’s Evangelical Newspaper, taken from the linkhttp://www.christianmessenger.in/interviews/nagma1 011008/453.php

Taken on: October 04, 2008

1.2.5 Amavasikan Perumal (2008-11-06 12:32)

AMAVASIKAN Perumals story of transformation would sound like an incredible tale if one did not approachit from the realm of faith.

Born into a family of peasants to illiterate parents in Salavedu, a small hamlet near Vandavasi inTamil Nadu, Perumal studied up to 8th standard and dropped out of school due to poverty at home.

A single child, he did not want to burden his mother who had been at his birth abandoned by herhusband. In abject poverty, the mother and son eked out a living and hoped for a better future.

Ponnammal, a Catholic by birth, came into Perumals life like a breath of fresh air. They soon gotmarried against the wishes of the brides family. Three girl children were born to them.

Neither fatherhood nor his new set of responsibilities seemed to have the desired effect on Perumal,who was living a reckless life given to country liquor, gambling, stealing and rowdyism in the village.

It was then Gods first clarion call to Perumal came. He was afflicted with a swelling of his privateorgan. No amount of treatment or medicines could cure him of the ailment. His misery grew day by byuntil a travelling Christian missionary from Chennai prayed over him and God healed him of the illness.

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Gracey Ponnammal, by now a convert to the faith, could not persuade her husband to turn to God.Perumals belief in the true, living God was short-lived. He continued to be a tyrant at home and hooliganin the village.

One day, a drowsy and drunk Perumal kicked Ponnammal for praying aloud when he was asleep athome. Hours passed before Perumal was down with a severe bout of diarrhea.

Unable to even lift his head or move from his sleeping position, Perumal was touched by Gods amazinggrace that saved his life that day and his wifes relentless prayers to God for his healing.

Neighbours were quick to notice the difference in Perumals household - in place of Ponnammalswails and the childrens plaintive cries they now heard loud prayers by Perumal and his family.

Perumal kicked all his vices and turned a new leaf. In 1997 after he had a vision from God in thesame manner that the Lord called Samuel (1 Samuel 3:10), Perumal (now baptised as S A Peter) started anindependent church in his village.

The familys faith in the almighty God grew manifold when the Lord saved Peters eldest daughterGetzial after she was bitten by a venomous snake during a Sunday worship. While almost all elders in thevillage and the congregation stood around a dying girl and urged Peter to take her to the nearest hospital15 km away from the church, he stood his ground and knelt down in prayer. The God who saved Danielfrom the lions den heard the fathers prayer and spared Getzials life. Getzial is in her second year of theologystudies in a seminary in Rajapalayam now.

Pastor Peter, who says his life and family run on faith, is a fulltime evangelist who ministers in andaround Salavedu. His mission is to reach the unreached in the surrounding villages of Reddypalayam,Ottakoil and Singapalli and plant churches for new believers. He may be reached at Shepherd Christ Church,Zion Street, Salavedu Village Post, Vandavasi Taluk, Thiruvannamalai District, Tamil Nadu 604403.

Source: Saved by grace, walking by faith,Abhilash Pulichanickal The Christian Messenger, India’sEvangelical Newspaper, taken from the linkhttp://www.christianmessenger.in/testimony/submission/Amavasikan %20Perumal %20 12.phpTaken on: October 04, 2008

1.2.6 Sadhu Chellappa (2008-11-06 12:33)

Growing up in a Hindu temple in South India, Sadhu Chellappa mastered the Indian Scriptures. In thetemples, he found practices and beliefs contrary to the scriptures. This led to his asking many questions tohis teachers and masters. Not satisfied with answers he left the Hindu faith and became an atheist. After aseries of failures he decided to commit suicide.

In a dramatic conversion, as he planned to jump from a train in the city of Madras, he heard a versefrom the Bible being quoted by a preacher in a Christian meeting. ”He who conceals his sins will not pros-per, but he who confesses and forsakes them will receive pardon” (Proverbs 28:13). He immediately got downat the next station and walked to the meeting and he found the Lord Jesus Christ in his life. This was onMay 14th 1967.

Soon after, he started sharing his testimony and preached the Gospel everyday. Within a few years, he

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had preached in all major cities, towns and villages all over Tamil Nadu. Thousands were saved and bap-tized and added to the churches.

In the year 1982, he started publishing the Agni (fire) monthly magazine in Tamil, which now is readall over the world by Tamil speaking people. In 1974, he became a full time Evangelist and started the AgniMinistries. In the year 1995 God gave him a new vision to plant churches. Now he has 27 churches andpastors, four full-time Evangelists and an office with four faculties. He has sent one missionary to NorthIndia in Uttar Pradesh State in a small village by name Padampuri where there are no Christians at all.Now after two years there are eight Christians.

A profile writer, Sadhu Chellappa has written more than twenty-eight books in Tamil and two in English.His most popular book ”IS CHRISTIANITY A NECESSITY?” is always in demand and will go into reprintfor the fifth time. His English book BIBLE AND BAGAVAT GITA, VARANASHRA DHARMA (Castesystems) are sold like hot cakes.

In 1983, Sadhu Chellappa met Dr. Billy Graham at the itinerant Evangelists conference at Amsterdam.He was then interviewed and his life story appeared in the ”Challenge” magazine published by CampusCrusade, U.S.A. A regular speaker at the Impetus conference in Colombo for the Third world Pastors andEvangelists, Sadhu is a close friend of Dr. Colton Wickramaratne, the Senior Pastor of People’s Church,Colombo and his ministry has seen numerous Buddhists and Hindus saved in Srilanka. Most of the SrilankanTamil Hindus who are scattered as refugees through out the world became Christians through Sadhu‘s min-istries.

Sadhu Chellappa’s life story has appeared in ”The Edge” a leading British Christian magazine in its May1996 issue. Rev. Colin Dye, the Senior Pastor of Kensington Temple, London, the largest church in England,interviews him.

Sadhu Chellappa’s message is ”Christ and Him crucified”. He is the only way, the truth and Life. TheVedhas, the ancient Indian sacred writings had anticipated the coming of Christ to take away the sins ofman. They call Him Purusha Prajapati the creator God who would come as a man to offer himself as asacrifice. Jesus Christ came to fulfill the Vedic quest of the Indian people, because the Vedhas are incompletewithout Him, just as the Old testament was fulfilled at the coming of the Messiah.

Source: The Agni Ministries Website, Testimony - Sadhu Chellappa, taken from the linkhttp://www.agniministries.org/Testimony.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSup port=1Taken on: October 04, 2008

Srilanka » DSCN1569 (2008-11-07 09:30:21)[...] Sadhu ChellappaColton Wickramaratne, the Senior Pastor of People’s Church, Colombo and his ministry hasseen numerous Buddhists and Hindus saved in Srilanka. Most of the Srilankan Tamil Hindus who are scattered asrefugees through out the world became … [...]

1.2.7 Sadhu Sundar Singh (2008-11-06 12:34)

Sundar was raised a member of the Sikh religion. (Sikhism is a sect within Hinduism that was foundedabout 1500 A.D. that teaches belief in one God and rejects the caste system and idolatry.) Prior to hisconversion, Sundar attended a primary school run by the American Presbyterian Mission where the NewTestament was read daily as a ”textbook.” Sundar ”refused to read the Bible at the daily lessons...To some

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extent the teaching of the Gospel on the love of God attracted me, but I still thought it was false.” Thoughaccording to another testimony, Sundar confessed, ”Even then, I felt the Divine attractiveness and wonderfulpower of the Bible.”

In the midst of such confusion and while only fourteen years old, his mother died, and Sundar un-derwent a crisis of faith. His mother was a loving saintly woman and they were very close. In his anger,Sundar burned a copy of one of the Gospels in public.

”Although I believed that I had done a very good deed by burning the Bible, I felt unhappy,” hesaid. Within three days Sundar Singh could bear his misery no longer. Late one night in December 1903,he rose from bed and prayed that God reveal himself to him if he really existed. Otherwise – ”I planned tothrow myself in front of the train which passed by our house.” For seven hours Sundar Singh prayed. ”OGod, if there is a God, reveal thyself to me tonight.” The next train was due at five o’clock in the morning.The hours passed.

Suddenly the room filled with a glow. A man appeared before him. Sundar Singh heard a voicesay, ”How long will you deny me? I died for you; I have given my life for you.” He saw the man’s hands,pierced by nails.

Jesus was the last person Sundar was looking for. After all, Jesus was the ’foreign god’ of the Christianteachers at his school… Amazed that his vision had taken the unexpected form of Jesus, Sundar wasconvinced in his heart that Jesus was the true Savior, and that He was alive. Sundar fell on his knees beforeHim and experienced an astonishing peacefulness which he had never felt before. The vision disappeared,but peace and joy lingered within him.

To meet Christ was only the beginning for Sundar Singh. He was a Sikh. Sikhs had endured terri-ble persecutions in their early history. As a consequence they were fiercely loyal to their faith and to eachother. Conversion to Christianity was considered treachery. Now every effort was made to woo or coerceSundar Singh back to his ancestral faith.

Despite his family’s please, bribes, and threats, Sundar wanted to be baptized in the Christian faith.After his father spoke words of official rejection over him, Sundar became an outcast from his people. Hecut off the hair he had worn long like every Sikh man. Against great opposition, he was baptized on hisbirthday in 1905, in an English church in Simla.

Conventional Indian churches were willing to grant him a pulpit, but their rules were foreign to hisspirit. Indeed, he felt that a key reason the gospel was not accepted in India was because it came in a garbforeign to Indians. He decided to become a sadhu, so that he could dedicate himself to the Lord Jesus. Hewas convinced that this was the best way to introduce the Gospel to his people since it was the only waywhich his people were accustomed to. As a sadhu, he wore a yellow robe, lived on the charity of others,abandoned all possession and maintained celibacy. In this lifestyle, he was free to devote himself to theLord. Dressed in his thin yellow robe, Sundar Singh took to the road and began a life of spreading thesimple message of love and peace and rebirth through Jesus. He carried no money or other possessions, onlya New Testament.

”I am not worthy to follow in the steps of my Lord,” he said, ”but like Him, I want no home, nopossessions. Like Him I will belong to the road, sharing the suffering of my people, eating with those whowill give me shelter, and telling all people of the love of God.”

Sundar journeyed much. He traveled all over India and Ceylon. Between 1918-1919, he visited Malaysia,

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Japan and China. Between 1920-1922 he went to Western Europe, Australia and Israel. He preached inmany cities; Jerusalem, Lima, Berlin and Amsterdam among others. Despite his growing fame, Sundarretained a modest nature, desiring only to follow Jesus’ example: to repay evil with kindness and to winover his enemies by love. This attitude often caused his enemies to feel ashamed of themselves, and causedeven his father to become a Christian later in life, and to support Sundar in ministry.

He was quite independent of outward Church authority in all his religious life, thought, and work.He dropped out of a Christian seminary that he briefly attended. Neither did he attach much importanceto public worship because in his experience the heart prays better in solitude than in a congregation. Hewas also highly displeased with what he found when he toured western nations that for centuries had thebenefit of the Bible and whose central figure of worship was Jesus. Sundar proclaimed almost propheticdenunciations upon Western Christianity, and laughed at the way the West looked down upon religious menof the East as mere ”pagans” and ”heathens.” ”People call us heathens,” he said in a conversation with theArchbishop of Upsala. ”Just fancy! My mother a heathen! If she were alive now she would certainly bea Christian. But even while she followed her ancestral faith she was so religious that the term ’heathen’makes me smile. She prayed to God, she served God, she loved God, far more warmly and deeply thanmany Christians.”

On another occasion, Sundar said, ”I have seen many Christian women, but none of them came upto my mother.” And, conversing with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sundar said: ”If I do not see my motherin heaven, I shall ask God to send me to hell so that I may be with her.” Sundar also made plain his viewthat, ”There are many more people among us in India who lead a spiritual life than in the West, althoughthey do not know or confess Christ. It is of course true that people who live in India worship idols; but herein England people worship themselves, and that is still worse. Idol-worshippers seek the truth, but peopleover here, so far as I can see, seek pleasure and comfort. The people of the West understand how to useelectricity and how to fly in the air. The men of the East have sought the truth. Of the three Wise Menwho went to Palestine to see Jesus not one was from the West.’”

He travelled India and Tibet, as well as the rest of the world, with the message that the modern in-terpretation of Jesus was sadly watered down. Sundar visited Tibet every summer. In 1929, he visited thatcountry again and was never seen again.

Sundar’s Faith for All Mankind

Few Christians know that Sundar was not afraid to raise his voice in favor of ”universalism.” Hecould never deny to all non-Christians the possibility of entering heaven. In 1925 Sundar wrote, ”If theDivine spark in the soul cannot be destroyed, then we need despair of no sinner... Since God created mento have fellowship with Himself, they cannot for ever be separated from Him... After long wandering, andby devious paths, sinful man will at last return to Him in whose Image he was created; for this is his finaldestiny.”

In February, 1929, the year Sundar disappeared on his final missionary trip to Tibet, he was inter-viewed by several theology students in Calcutta, India, where he answered their questions:

(Question #1) What did the Sadhu think should be our attitude towards non-Christian religions? –The old habit of calling them ’heathen’ should go. The worst ’heathen’ were among us [Christians]...

(Question #2) Who were right, Christian Fundamentalists or Christian Liberals? – Both were wrong. TheFundamentalists were uncharitable to those who differed from them. That is, they were unchristian. TheLiberals sometimes went to the extent of denying the divinity of Christ, which they had no business to do.

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(Question #3) Did the Sadhu think there was eternal punishment? – There was punishment, but itwas not eternal...Everyone after this life would be given a fair chance of making good, and attaining to themeasure of fullness the soul was capable of. This might sometimes take ages.”

—This article was primarily written by Edward T. Babinski, with further editing and additions byMercy Aiken

Additional Quotes by Sadhu Sundar Singh

”He was searching for me before I sought Him. Christ whom I had never expected came to me. Iwas praying, ’If there be a God, reveal Thyself’...I was praying to Hindu gods and incarnations. But whenHe came there was no anger in His face, even though I had burnt the Bible three days before. None of youhave ever destroyed Scripture like me. He is such a wonderful, loving, living Saviour...”

”There is a great difference between knowing about Jesus and knowing Him... If we only know ofJesus as a good man, a great example, it is no help to us. Those who know Him know Who He is. When weknow Him everything is different and we are living in a new world – a new atmosphere. Heaven begins onearth for us. Those who know Him know that Jesus is everything to them. They can bear witness becausethey have been living with Him...If we live in Him He will reveal Himself to us and we shall bear witness –not for a day or a night only...”

”For the first two or three years after my conversion, I used to ask for specific things. Now I ask forGod. Supposing there is a tree full of fruits – you will have to go and buy or beg the fruits from the ownerof the tree. Every day you would have to go for one or two fruits. But if you can make the tree your ownproperty, then all the fruits will be your own. In the same way, if God is your own, then all things in Heavenand on earth will be your own, because He is your Father and is everything to you; otherwise you will haveto go and ask like a beggar for certain things. When they are used up, you will have to ask again. So asknot for gifts but for the Giver of Gifts: not for life but for the Giver of Life – then life and the things neededfor life will be added unto you.”

”Salt, when dissolved in water, may disappear, but it does not cease to exist. We can be sure of itspresence by tasting the water. Likewise, the indwelling Christ, though unseen, will be made evident toothers from the love which he imparts to us.”

”From my many years experience I can unhesitatingly say that the cross bears those who bear thecross.”

”While sitting on the bank of a river one day, I picked up a solid round stone from the water andbroke it open. It was perfectly dry in spite of the fact that it had been immersed in water for centuries. Thesame is true of many people in the Western world. For centuries they have been surrounded by Christianity;they live immersed in the waters of its benefits. And yet it has not penetrated their hearts; they do notlove it. The fault is not in Christianity, but in men’s hearts, which have been hardened by materialism andintellectualism.”

”When Jesus entered Jerusalem the people spread their clothes in the way and strewed branches be-fore Him in order to do Him honour. Jesus rode upon an ass, according to the word of the prophet. His feetdid not touch the road which was decorated in His honour. It was the ass which trod upon the garments

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and the branches. But the ass would have been very foolish to have been uplifted on that account; for theroad really was not decked in its honour! It would be just as foolish if those who bear Christ to men wereto think anything of themselves because of what men do to them for the sake of Jesus.”

”A newborn child has to cry, for only in this way will his lungs expand. A doctor once told me of achild who could not breathe when it was born. In order to make it breathe the doctor gave it a slightblow. The mother must have thought the doctor cruel. But he was really doing the kindest thing possible.As with newborn children the lungs are contracted, so are our spiritual lungs. But through suffering Godstrikes us in love. Then our lungs expand and we can breathe and pray.”

”Just as the salt water of the sea is drawn upwards by the hot rays of the sun, and gradually takeson the form of clouds, and, turned thus into sweet and refreshing water, falls in showers on the earth (forthe sea water as it rises upwards leaves behind it its salt and bitterness), so when the thoughts and desiresof the man of prayer rise aloft like misty emanations of the soul, the rays of the Sun of Righteousness purifythem of all sinful taint, and his prayers become a great cloud which descends from heaven in a shower ofblessing, bringing refreshment to many on the earth.”

Source: From the Biography page of Tent Maker website, the link can be accessedin:http://www.tentmaker.org/biographies/singh.htmAccessed on: October 4th 2008.Follow the link for the ’pdf’ version of ”Wisdom of the Sadhu, Teachings of Sundar Singh”www.plough.com/ebooks/pdfs/WisdomSadhu.pdf

Francisco (2008-11-08 00:19:22)”A Simple and Spiritual Life is the only Life that will survive”! Such was the testimony of The Hopi people in AZin their ”Declaration of Peace”. http://asimpleandspirituallife.blogspot.com/2008/07/hopi-declaration -of-peace.htmlYet the Hopi peoples of today seem to have given up and given in to ”progress”, yet i believe there are those Hopi whoyet await the coming of the One they call their ”True White Brother”. And i believe the One called The Messiah is”The True White Brother” of the Hopi peoples and that His Life example and Teachings bore witness to The Truthof ”A Simple and Spiritual Life is the only Life that will survive”! John The Baptist had testified, ”He(The Messiah)Whom The Only True GOD(Great Spirit) has sent speaks The Words of GOD: for GOD does not give The Spirit bymeasure unto Him.” (John 3:34) The Messiah testified, ”I have greater witness than that of John: for The Works whichThe Father(Great Spirit, GOD,Creator”) has given me to finish, are the same Works that I do, and they bear witnessof Me, that The Father has sent Me.” (John 5:36) The Messiah also testified, ”I have not spoken of Myself; but TheFather WHO sent Me, HE gave Me a commandment, what I should say, and how I should speak.” (John 12:49)” AndThe Messiah, the spokesman for ”Our Father(Great Spirit, GOD, Creator”)” bore witness to ”A Simple and SpiritualLife” and revealed that a man’s sufficiency is of Creation, of The Creator! ”Do not lay up treasures for yourselvesupon earth, for that is what moth and rust can corrupt, and where thieves can break through and steal: But lay uptreasures for yourselves in Heaven, where neither moth or rust can corrupt, and where thieves can not break throughand steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore youreye is single, your whole body shall be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body shall be full of darkness. Iftherefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters: for either hewill hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You can not serve both TheOnly True GOD and money. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what youshall drink; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not The Life more than meat, and the body than clothes?Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Fatherfeeds them. Are you not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?And why do you take thought for clothes? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do theyspin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these flowers. Wherefore,

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if The Only True GOD so clothes the grass of the field, which to day is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall HEnot much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, Whatshall we drink? or, how shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the worldly seek) For your Heavenly Fatherknows that you have need of all these things. But seek first the Kingdom of GOD, and HIS righteousness; and allthese things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for tomorrow: for tomorrow shall take thought forthe things of itself. Every day has evils enough of it’s own.” (Matthew 6:19-34) Simply, sad for all those who believein ”self-sufficiency” ;-( Yet, i believe that is just a term that has been used in ignorance by many who in Truth areliving The Life that bears witness to Creation sufficiency. Now The Only True GOD, Father(Creator) of ALL, HEpromised to ”fulfill all the needs of HIS Children richly, through HIS Son The Messiah”! The Life is sustained by OurFather(Creator), in Creation as we now experience it, through The Spirit. Simply, Creation is sufficient! Once again,The Messiah testified, ”I have not spoken of Myself; but The Father(Great Spirit, GOD, Creator”) WHO sent Me,HE gave Me a commandment, what I should say, and how I should speak.” (John 12:49)” ”Don’t you believe that Iam in The Father, and The Father in Me? The Words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: but The FatherWHO dwells in Me, HE does The Works.” (John 14:10) ”He that loves Me not, does not keep My sayings: and TheWord which you hear is not Mine, but The Father’s, HE WHO sent Me.” (John 14:24)” I have manifested YOURName unto the men WHO YOU gave Me out of the world: YOUR’s they were, and YOU gave them to Me; and theyhave kept YOUR Word.” (John 17:6)” Then answered The Messiah and said unto them, Truly, Truly, I say unto you,The Son can do nothing of Himself, but that which He has seen The Father do: for whatever things The Father does,those things The Son also does.” (John 5:19)” I can of Mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and My judgmentis just; because I seek not Mine own will, but The Will of The Father WHO has sent Me.” (John 5:30) And TheTestimonies bear witness to The Messiah being ”a servant” of ”The ONLY TRUE GOD”. (Isaiah 42:1) Hope is, therewill be those reading this who will no longer deny and defy their Creator(Father), for The Creator, The Only TrueGOD(Great Spirit) and Father of All, HE knows what is best for HIS Creation. So There Is Hope! For Miracles dohappen! Hope is there may be those who experience The Miracle that is ”receiving a love of The Truth”, for they will”Come Out” from among those who are destroying and perverting Creation(land, air, water, vegetation, creatures,Light, Truth, Life, Love, Peace, Hope, Faith, Miracles, .etc.) Those who ”Come Out” will desire but ”A Simple andSpiritual Life”, and they no longer will be of those The Creator is going to ”destroy because they are destroying theearth(HIS Creation)”. (Revelations 11:18c) And they will have Peace, in spite of the dis-ease(no-peace) that is of thiswicked world and it’s systems of religion, for ”The WHOLE world is under the control of the evil one”(1John5:19)indeed and Truth...... Truth is never ending....... (thedestructionoftheearth.wordpress.com)

1.2.8 Pandita Ramabai (2008-11-06 12:35)

Introduction

Among great social reformers in India, one cannot easily forget the name of Pandita Ramabai, whoseimmense contributions in the field of education and emancipation of women played a pivotal role inreforming India.

Born to a very rich orthodox Hindu family on 23rd April 1858, in Karnataka, Ramabai, became ahousehold name, whose transformation through Christ and life–changing testimony, for decades have beenmotivating and encouraging people.

To the astonishment of Hindu pundits, at the age of twelve, she had committed to memorise eigh-teen thousand sacred verses from the Hindu Puranas, and gained exceptional knowledge in Sanskrit (sacredlanguage of Hinduism), which eventually gave her the title ”Pandita” which means ’mistress of wisdom’.

Inspired by God, whom she found in Jesus Christ after trying all the religions at her disposal, she

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founded the Mukti Mission on March 11th 1889.

With motherly love she cared for a family that grew to 2000 girls, thousand unfortunate ill–treatedchild widows and destitute orphans.

The mission is still active providing housing, education, vocational training and medical services forthe widows, orphans and the handicapped.

A pioneer educationalist in India, Ramabai, was of the elite group who first introduced methods ofkindergarten training as well as illustrated books and pictures for village primary schools. She also openedprimary and secondary schools exclusively for girls and village children in her Mukti Home.

More to enumerate, the saint–like Ramabai who was also a poet and a leading advocate for therights and welfare of women in the country, became the first to introduce Braille for blind girls, subsequentlyopening a Blind school in Mukti.

She was also the first in India to introduce the idea that Hindi should be the national language andDevnagiri be made the national script.

She even became the first woman translator, not only in India, but probably the whole world, ac-complishing the task of translating the whole Bible into Marathi, her mother tongue (from the originalHebrew and Greek).

However, one must intently note the environs and the kind of life women led in India, a centuryback, when they had no voice in the society nor family, and led a very demeaning life.

It was the audacious lectures of the vivid Ramabai, which resuscitated the people, even impressingthe famous Empress Queen Victoria.

Eventually, she became the first Indian to introduce industries for women, and help them be inde-pendent and self–reliant.

While the contributions of this great woman patriot are measureless, one must seriously ponder theinspiration of her life. The light, which emanated from Christ – the true savior of the world, a real guru, thegreatest pundit the world ever saw, who changed her life and used her to change the life of countless people.

In him she found the “Moksha” (salvation), “Svarga” (heaven) and “Dharma” (higher truth).

Meeting Christ

Her father, Anant Shastri Dongre, a learned Brahmin, fearing wrath of local Hindus for his audacityto teach his wife and children the sacred Hindu scriptures and Sanskrit, which was only meant for the highcaste, forced him to start his own independent life in the forests.

”He could not see why women and people of low caste, could not learn to read and write the San-skrit language and learn sacred literatures other than the Vedas,” explains Ramabai, in her testimony.

”Ever since I remember anything, my father and mother were always traveling from one sacred placeto another, staying in each place for several months, bathing in the sacred river or tank, visiting temples,

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worshipping household gods and the images of gods in the temples, and reading Puranas in holy places.”

Further about her difficult stages in life, she writes, ”We could not do menial work, nor could webeg. Our parents had unbounded faith what the sacred books said. They encouraged us to look to thegods to get our support. Eventually, my father, mother and sister, all died of starvation, except me and mybrother.”

”I cannot describe all sufferings of that terrible time. My brother and me continued following thesacred Hindu scriptures, worshipping the idols and gods and goddesses, fulfilled all the conditions laid downin the sacred books, but the gods were not pleased with us.”

“After years of fruitless service, we began to lose faith in them and in the books which prescribedthis course. We wandered from place to place, worshipping gods, trees, animals, Brahmins and fasting andperforming penances. We even walked four thousand miles on foot without any sort of comfort,” writesRamabai.

Her travels in India and her perplexing circumstances sensitized her to the bleak plight of widowsand orphans. The Child marriage – a practice among higher castes of betrothing young girls to much oldermen, caste system, protection of women, child labor, lack of education and need of vocational traininginstitutes, led Ramabai on a mission to end the social problems of the society.

After many tumultuous stages in her life, writes Ramabai, she came across the English missionaries,who ”gave us a copy of the Holy Bible in Sanskrit, treated us kindly and even requested us to partake intheir refreshments.”

”Having lost all faith in my former religion, and with my heart hungering after something better, Ieagerly learnt everything I could about the Christian religion, and declared my intention to become aChristian.”

One of the greatest moments in Ramabai’s life came, when she was given a scholarship to studymedicine in England; when she arrived there, she found that her hearing was defective and so she could notparticipate in lectures.

While in England, she wrote the feminist classic ”The High Caste Hindu Woman,” a scathing attackon traditional practices including widowhood, polygamy and child marriage. The book was translated intoEnglish and was widely read in England and America.

She further writes, how in England, she was deeply moved by the life of Christians, their service tothe poor and suffering. ”They were all so filled with the love of Christ, compassion for suffering humanity.They had given their life for the service of the sick and infirm. I had never heard or seen anything of thekind done for this class of women by Hindus in my country. I never heard of them speak so kindly to thepoor and needy. They never wished to turn from their evil path.”

”Although I had found the Christian religion, sadly I had not found Christ, who is the life of the re-ligion and the Light of every man that cometh into the world. I had failed to understand that we belong toGod in Christ Jesus. I had failed to see the need of placing my implicit faith in Christ and His atonementin order to become a child of God by being born again of the Holy Spirit, and justified by faith in the Sonof God. I realised that I was not prepared to meet God, and that sin had dominion over me.”

”I had at last come to an end of myself, and unconditionally surrendered myself to the Savior; and

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asked him to be merciful to me, and to become my Righteousness and Redemption, and to cleanse me frommy sin. Although it is impossible for me to tell all that God has done for me, I must yet praise him andthank him for his loving–kindness to me, the greatest of sinners.”

“ I was just like the blind man in the book of St John, who for forty years was blind and then sud-denly found the Mighty One, who could give him the eyesight. I was like the man who was told, ”In thename of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.... And he leaping up stood, and walked, and enteredwith them into the temple, praising God.”

”How very different the truth of God was from the false idea that I had entertained from my child-hood, that I must have merit to earn present or future happiness, the pleasure of Svarga (heaven), or facethe inconceivable loss of Moksha or liberation. Yes, just like 1 John 4:9–10 says, God has sent his son andredeemed us all. No caste, no sex, no work and no man was to be depended upon to get salvation, thiseverlasting life, which God gave freely.”

”I experimented in the religion which I was born. I did not leave a stone unturned, as it were, asfar as I knew, not only the in the books, even practicing what the books prescribed. The conclusion isthat, everything is empty without Christ. I had to give up all pride of our ancestral religion being old andsuperior, which is preventing my country–people from finding Christ, in whom is the joy of salvation.”

“I questioned in my mind over and over why missionaries did not come forward to found faith–missions inmy country. The Lord then told me, ”Why don’t you begin to do this yourself, instead of wishing others todo.”

”At the end of 1892, a great famine came on this country and I was led by the Lord to start a newwork. To care for the troubled and feed the poor. We had nothing to fear, to lose or to regret, because theLord is our Inexhaustible treasure.”

Pandita Ramabai also traveled the United States, China and several other countries, sharing thegood news and her testimony to the people. She later started the Mukti mission. Mukti in Marathi means’Salvation’. The schools, orphanages, and her active participation in the freedom movements, played a reallyimportant role in the Indian reformation.

The press at Ramabai’s death on April 5, 1922 said, ”It is a national loss.””A brave champion of the reform and education of women and a herald of happiness for thousands indistress, to whom she brought love and hope, was mourned by multitudes.”

The intention of Mukti mission was that women should be accepted, nurtured, loved, trained, andequipped to take their place in Indian society. It was a place of empowerment and transformation—a modelChristian community following the teaching of Jesus.

Having already tasted the wonderful life and truth of God through the scriptures, Ramabai for sureknew, the importance of translating the Bible into her mother tongue. She was ready to devote 12 years ofher life to translate the Bible into Marathi. And former ”Mukti members” would take the message of Christto every part of Maharashtra.

In 1919, the king of England conferred on her the Kaiser–i–Hind award; one of the highest awardsan Indian could receive during the period of the British Raj.

Her contributions as a builder of modern India were recognized by the Government of India who is-

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sued a commemorative postal stamp on 26th October 1989 in honor of her.

Source: Life of Pandita Ramabai: Jesus was her guru, Dibin Samuel, from the website of Chritian-ity today (India) through the link:http://in.christiantoday.com/articledir/print.htm?id=2681accessed on October 06th 2008.

Free Religion News and Blogs » Pandita Ramabai (2008-11-06 14:36:15)[...] Pandita Ramabai By colorfulshadows She even became the first woman translator, not only in India, but probablythe whole world, accomplishing the task of translating the whole Bible into Marathi, her mother tongue (from theoriginal Hebrew and Greek). … Conversions in India - Testimonies - http://conversionsinindia.wordpress.com/ [...]

1.2.9 Paul Biswas (2008-11-06 12:38)

Paul Biswas for Christ...

Born a Hindu...

In an Islamic Nation...

KARMA VERSUS GRACE

”Come and listen, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me” (Psalm 66:16).

I was born in a Hindu higher Caste, Kshatriya (the warrior and the upper middle class involved inthe politics and government) family in the Southern part of present Bangladesh in 1952. But, I was bornagain in 1973. This is my story which I want to share with you.

My family was very Orthodox and from my boyhood I was strictly instructed to keep my familytradition and social status. While I was in the elementary school, I was instructed by my grandfather tofollow my daily religious duty. Since then, I began to read the Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad-Gita andall other Hindu Scriptures under the mentorship of my grandfather. I came to know that man’s salvationdepends upon KARMA (cause and effect, deed or action). Salvation is to be earned by doing good works.As nobody can do perfect works in his/her one birth, eventually everybody has to go through Samsara (thebinding cycle of births). It’s like being given a penalty. Ultimately one day human souls will be merged intoBrahman (god the creator) which they call MOKSHA (Salvation).

In the process of cyclic rebirth there is no guarantee of becoming human flesh every time. There isa possibility of becoming birds or any kind of animal. It depends upon one’s Karma. A fear grew up in mymind that in this process of cyclic rebirth I might become some kind of animal in my next birth. I had aquestion in my heart: after how many reincarnations would I be saved? I asked my grandfather and otherHindu scholars but nobody could give me a satisfactory answer. I began to ask myself the question: evenprisoners know about their time of imprisonment. But, the number of times I would have to go throughcyclic rebirth was quite uncertain to me. Almost every year I used to visit the famous Hindu Shrines indifferent parts of India with my grandparents. Wherever I went, I talked to many Hindu Scholars aboutthe cyclic rebirth and about the assurance of time for salvation (moksha). I had no problem going throughcyclic rebirth, but I wanted to have assurance that after how many times of rebirth my soul would bemerged into Brahma (god the creator).

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Until today, the Caste system is strictly practiced in my family. I grew up within this system. Dayby day I used to see the practice in my family that the lower caste people in my own Hindu society couldnot enter into the inner court of our house. They had their separate meeting place and they were treatedas untouchable. It made me sad. But I had no way to protest against this. I came to know from mygrandfather that I was destined to be born in a higher caste and the whole system was divinely instituted.I began to question in my mind that if Brahman was the creator of all human beings, then what kind ofcreator was he that he made this kind of discrimination. Though I was born in a higher caste Hindu familywhich is next to the Brahmin (the priestly class), it was hard for me to adjust to this cruel system. I usedto have good conversation with my grandfather about different religions and their world view.

One day I asked him about Christianity. But, he gave me a strange definition that I will never for-get. According to him the Christians are more unclean people because they eat both pork and beef. Hisdefinition was mainly based on dietary restrictions. Christianity is a foreign religion of untouchable people.They are even considered more untouchable than the lower-caste Hindu people.

In the year 1971, during our liberation war, I went to India with my family as a refugee. We wereat the refugee camp. Day after day I used to see the Christians from different charity organizations servingthe destitute people in the refugee camp. I was very much impressed by their dedication, their love for thepeople. I befriended some of them. One day one of the members of the Christian Medical team told methat because they were saved by the grace of God that’s why they were doing good works. They were doinggood works not to earn salvation. Their God is the God of love and His love was manifested in the person ofJesus. The man further added that Jesus said, ”Love your neighbor as you love yourself,” and this teachingof Jesus had led them to serve all mankind, no matter what caste or religion. This idea changed my totalunderstanding about God and His personality.

After we were liberated, in January 1972, we all came back to my country. We lost much of ourproperty and many of us Bangladeshis lost our lives. It was a great genocide. One day I was wandering onthe road in my hometown. Suddenly I came across a name plate and on that name plate it was written,”World Missionary Evangelism.” With great curiosity I went inside and finally I was able to meet with thedirector of the organization. The man hugged me and his word was very attractive to me, ”God loves youand I love you”.

I had a nice conversation with him and during our conversation sometimes we had arguments. Butthe man was so patient with me and tried his best to answer my questions. I had several sessions with himand finally he shared with me about Jesus. It was the first time I heard about Christ and the man addedthat it was not Christianity but Christ could answer my Questions.

He gave me a copy of the New Testament (Gedeon translation in Bengali) and suggested to read itvery carefully at least for fifty times. With great interest I began to read the New Testament. I had to hidethe New Testament under my pillows and even during the dead of night I used to read it. It was a quitesmall size book to me compared to all the sacred books of my Hindu religion.

Within two months I could finish it, but I was advised to read the whole book at least fifty times.But after reading twenty times my eyes were open. One day I was reading the book of Romans and it wasRomans 6:23 that spoke to my heart. ”For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life inChrist Jesus our Lord. ”From this particular verse I came to know that the eternal life is a free gift. It wasnot necessary for me to do any hard work. Simply, I had to receive the gift. It was the turning point of mylife. As a Hindu, to me eternal life was to merge into Brahman and I had to earn it through cyclic rebirthwhich is a long process and waiting many years. The Bengali Bible answered my question: ”... now is theday of Salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). I was looking for that answer. I read again the gospel of John and I came to

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the conclusion that the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ was absolutely perfect and Jesuspaid the penalty of my sin through His atoning death on the cross. Soon I discovered that I was a sinnerand my good works could not wash me clean. I was convinced that I myself could not pay the penalty ofmy sin through my good Karma no matter how many times I would be reincarnated. Jesus did on behalf ofme once for all. Doing good works could not give me any certainty. I repented for my sin and surrenderedmyself to Jesus. It was July 20, 1973 I received Jesus as my Lord and savior. It was the most joyful day inmy life. I became like a new born baby. I was saved by grace not by Karma.

My Spiritual Journey:

I got real joy and peace in my heart because Jesus gave me a full guarantee of eternal life.

My fear was gone. After one month I began to share this new experience with my family members.At first they thought that I was crazy. I was so overwhelmed with God’s grace. But as I shared aboutJesus and challenged them with all His promises, they discovered that I had become a Christian. Soon Iwas summoned by my father but I boldly answered all of his questions. He warned me the cost of becominga Christian, but I was ready for that. I was the eldest among my brothers and sisters. For the next fewmonths I had to go through persecution-even sometimes physical torture-and finally my father disowned meand kicked me out of the house. It was the hardest part of my life. No Christian dared to give me shelter.I was even denied baptism many times by the pastor of the Baptist Church in my hometown because hewas scared of my father, who held great influence in our town. Finally I was able to be baptized andopenly declare my faith in Jesus Christ. Almost five years I continuously received all kinds of threats frommy family members. My father became more furious when I officially changed my family name. Beforebecoming a Christian my family name was Vishnu (preserver), who is one of the thre major gods of Hindupantheon. My family was proud of having such a great surname after this god Vishnu.

There are two reasons I changed my family name from Vishnu to Biswas. First, according to theHindu scriptures, Vishnu had nine incarnations (avatars) in the past, but people are still waiting for onemore incarnation or avatar. I had a question in my mind that if these nine incarnations of Vishnu would beperfect then why people are still waiting for another avatar (incarnation). Through my study of the Hinduscriptures, none of these incarnations could claim to be perfect, fully God and fully man. I was convincedthrough the reading of the Gospel of John that incarnation of God in Jesus Christ was perfect. Secondly,the Bible says, ”for it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it isthe gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8). So, I changed my family nameofficially from Vishnu to Biswas. In my Bengali language Biswas means Faith. After that my father officiallydisowned me and kicked out me from his house.

Within a month I was baptized at a local Baptist Church altough the Pastor of the Church deniedmany times to baptize me because he was scared of my father’s influence in the town. Finally I was baptized.Following six years I had to go through hardship which I was not used to. Many times my life was in dangerbecause there was continuous threat from my family. My Hindu friends used to mock at me. But, my LordJesus protected me every time, making me lie down in green pastures. After eight years my father came tome while I was pastoring a local Baptist Church in my home town and we were reconciled. Since then Ihave been allowed to go to my father’s house to visit my mom, brothers and sisters. But during every visitI did not receive any good treatment. My mother even could not hug me because to them I was an outcast.To this day my whole family is in darkness. They are trying their best to do good Karma without havingany guarantee of their day of salvation.

I was saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ not by my good works. For the last thirty threeyears I have been sharing this story with others who don’t know about this saving Grace of God and I will

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continue to do that until the end of my life. It is my prayer for those who are trying their best to achievesalvation through their good KARMA that they will know about the saving GRACE OF GOD.

My Call to the Ministry:

I received God’s call to serve Him in full time while I was at the Bible College in 1776. While read-ing the book of Isaiah, God spoke to my heart through His word Isaiah 6: 8, ”Then I heard the voice of theLord saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us? And I said, here am I; send me!”

I felt the genuine call of the Lord and I committed my life to be His humble servant. I did notknow where to go. But the Lord was preparing the situation for me. After completion of two years at BibleCollege the Lord told me to go to my home town which I did not expect. I was planning to go to anotherplace.

I joined the Baptist Church in my home town where I was baptized and started to assist the pastor.I found my wife Elizabeth in that Church and we were married in 1974. After couple of months I got aninvitation from our Baptist Association to join as an outreach worker and Church planter. After three yearsI was called by my local Church again to be their pastor. I was so excited to be in my home town because Iwould have more opportunity to share the Gospel and my experience with the Lord with my own people.That was the begining of my journey in the ministry of the Lord. I was ordained in 1977 by the local Churchand the Association. Since then I am in the ministry and have been trying to serve the Lord faithfully.

In 1982 I went to Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary together with my wife and two kids todo my further Theological study. I completed M.DIV and returned back to my country in 1986. In 1991, Istarted the indigenous mission work and Cell Church movement in Bangladesh by founding Gospel OutreachFellowship to reach out many unreached people groups among tribes in south eastern part of Bangladesh.We were able to plant 13 Churches among Khyang and Khumi tribes and trained people among them whoare carrying out the ministry now in their own areas.

After serving the Lord in my country for more than 24 years as a pastor, evangelist, church planter,Bible college teacher, writer and translator I came to USA in 2001 to do my post graduation study (Th.M)at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. While at Gordon-Conwell, God showed me a vision to reach outmy own Bengali ethnic group from South Asia who are the most unreached people group here in USA. Ittook nine months for me to respond God’s call. Finally I was convinced and started the outreach, Churchplanting work with the support of Greater Boston Baptist Association and my local Church CambridgeportBaptist Church in 2003. Since then my wife and I have been trying to reach out Bengali Muslims andHindus in Greater Boston area. More than six thousand Bengalis are living in this area and there was nochurch. By God’s grace we were able to plant the first Bengali Church in New England which is the secondSouthern Baptist Church in USA and I am pastoring Boston Bangla Church (BBC).

Source:”Testimony of Former Hindu”, from the website of ”Baptist Convention of New England”Accessed from the link: http://www.bcne.net/evangelism/inter-faith-evangelism/testimony-of-f ormer-hindu-323.htmlAccessed on October 4th 2008

Religion God HINDUISM (2008-11-08 18:36:30)My colleague Paul always travels with a bunch of arrowheads. [1]Religion God HINDUISM

1. http://bible.postedpost.com/2008/11/02/religion-god-hinduism/

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1.2.10 Raman Kutty (2008-11-06 12:39)

A young man who was born in not so known a village as an ordinary person from an ordinary background,when dedicated himself in the Godly things, was a memorable incident. In the path of faith and God s grace,God raised Paul as the founder of Ceylon Pentecostal Mission, whose name was Ramankutty as a teenager.

Ramankutty was born in the village of Engaddiyoor in the District of Thrissur, in a Hindu family. Thewish of the parents was to make him a Priest, just like his grandfather. As his parents were poor, they couldgive education only upto the 3 rd standard, even though they wished to give him higher education. In theteens, the boy had to earn a livelihood. During those days, so many people used to go to Ceylon for work.He also tried to get a job like that at the age of fourteen. Asrappa, who was a rich Christian Doctor inColombo, gave him a job. He was a Godly man who converted from Hindu religion and became a memberof the C.M.S. church. He considered Ramankutty as his own son and let him to stay at his residence. SoRamankutty could learn much about Christian religion. The wife of Asrappa taught him Christian doctrineseven though he hesitated to become a Christian. He rejected the gift , Bible, given by the Doctor one day.Still, they treated him with love. At the age of 18, Jesus gave him vision. So, henceforth, he meditated onChrist in his heart, secretly. Asrappa and his wife made him more enthusiastic.

At the age of 26, he again saw visions of Lord. Lord spoke to him: “ If you are shy about me, I willalso be shy about you, when I come as a King”. He could not withstand this divine voice; real repentancecame to him. He started to proclaim publicly that he has been saved through the faith in Christ. Asrappaand family were so happy with such a development. Very soon, Ramankutty became Paul after he took theBaptism of Knowledge by a Priest of the CMS church.

Ramankutty who came to SriLanka for livelihood, became very happy in the new life. When he rememberedthe Grace of God, he found enjoyment in testifying Lord. The parents commissioned few people to bringback Paul to their home, when they came to know the news that he converted to Christianity.

When he reached his native place by train, it was too late. He reached tat Kuruvilla Asan’ s house who was aGodly man, after walking past unfamiliar roads. The head of the house was not bold enough to receive him,when he informed him the purpose of the visit. When he returned with upset mind, he heard the sound ofGod, saying that , this is the house you have to stay tonight. Motivated by the Holy Spirit, he again reachedthe house and the head of the house permitted him to stay there. In the morning, he quit the house andwhen he reached his own house, he did not get a warm welcome. Even though the family members objected,he attended the worship at Salvation Army Church. Paul’s father, who was a fanatic, tried to kill him thrice.But, each time, God miraculously saved him.

One night Paul quit the house, when he understood that his father wanted to kill him. First he reached atthe house of Kuruvilla Asan’s house, and then at the house of Asrappa in Sri Lanka. Paul told Asrappathat he wanted to become a Priest. So Asrappa sent him to the CMS Theological Seminary and his friendscalled him “Palupadesy”, after they saw the spiritual pungency and the quality of his behaviour. Aftersuccessfully finishing his studies, he was appointed as an Evangelist of the Malayalam Mission at Colombo.In the meantime, Evangelist Paul married a girl, who belonged to an ancient Christian family. The marriagetook place at Kuruvilla Ashan’s house. His wife was very co-operative and helpful in the field of Gospelwork. God gave them five children afterwards.

He was disgusted by the spirituality which prevailed in the CMS church, where he was also a member.He was dissatisfied in his own spiritual work and he started thinking deeply about his weaknesses in his life.At last, he decided to stop his work and he informed the same to his classmate, P.I.Jacob, who was thePastor in a Baptist Church.

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The close relationship he had with Jacob helped him to understand about other doctrines in the Bibleand also about the anointment of the Holy Spirit. During that time in Chennai, Jacob introduced him tocertain Missionaries in the Pentecostal Church and he could attend their meetings. Evangelist Paul alsoshowed much spirit to receive such experience. Missionaries came to Colombo as per the invitation givenby Mr. Jacob and Evangelist Paul attended their meetings and studied more doctrinal truths. Soon hetook baptism and was strengthened in the Holy Spirit. When he was filled with God’ s strength, he wasenlightened. It was in the year 1921. After that, so many great revelations were given to him by God andhis ego was tempered. The ardent attachment to and zeal for wordly things were lost. He decided to be aliving sacrifice for Christ and was prepared for that. Approximately only for 3 years he continued as a workerin the CMS church after he had been anointed in the Holy Spirit. The members in the church who lovedhim became very sad when he bid farewell and departed. He decided to live only by faith and not getting apermanent income or salary. He and his family had to suffer financially, when he commenced the life of faith.Several times, the children had to face severe starvation. He conducted worship meetings and fellowshipmeetings in a house at Borells on rent at seven rupees per month. Afterwards he got a better house for fortyrupees per month on rent. So many brothers and sisters joined him after they were induced and enticedby the life of faith of Paul. Like that, Paul’s spiritual family started to grow. Hence he was compelled tomove to a house which costs Rs. 160/- per month. From hence, his house has been called “Faith Home”.It was the commencement of the movement of “Ceylon Pentecostal Mission”. The principle was to ask Godfor every need and receive it. To see that all human beings are without blame in Christ were the buildinghouses of Faith Home, as per the word of God. The Ceylon Pentecostal Mission really commenced from thisFaith Home which have the base of deep dedication.

In the year 1924, the fellowship of Paul came to be known as the Ceylon Pentecostal Mission. From thebeginning onwards, the church took care to coax the life-style and in the dress code. The life-style of thatman of God was to do every thing as per the will of God. He took care of those things in preaching, prayerand in conducting meetings . He did the commanded work of the Lord after following the footsteps of theFirst Apostles in the first centuries. Starvation and afflictions were part and parcel of his life. Still, hestrengthened the churches in Ceylon and in other countries by faith , in spite of all such obstacles. In India,the church had an auspicious commencement of their spiritual work, when Pastor Paul visited Travancore,and conducted vigilant meetings at Thiruvanathapuram and places like Quilon. The first Faith Home in In-dia had commenced its work at Thoothukkudy in the year 1923. In the year 1963, the church was registeredin Chennai, in the name, Ceylon Pentacostal Mission . The Authorities are renewing the registration in thesame name. which was registered in the year 1963. The church is still continuing in the same name and inthe doctrine and faith which Pastor Paul has fixed.

Pastor Paul’s body became weak because of the continuous travel and restless administrations. After ameeting in Chennai, he was afflicted of body weaknesses, and spent the last moments with God. In 1945,July 4, he died and joined in his expected pivotal house. ie; Zion. After that, the church was led by hiselder son Pastor Freddy Paul and then Pastor. A.C.Thomas became the leader and led the church to glory.After the demise of the Holy Apostles, it was administered by a leading committee, who had no divine visionand had no direction from God and the human plans were implemented by a group of advocates, and I.A.S.officers. The new leaders are continuing in the name as T.P.M., as per the Company’ s Act, who destroyedthe revelation given by God to Pastor Paul, Pastor Freddy and Pastor A.C.Thomas. Pastor Jacob RatnaSingh, Pastor T.U.Thomas, Pastor C.K.Lassarus, Pastor T.U.Thomas, all led a life which was against thewill of God and died. Now, Mr.Wilson, who is in Malaysia, a member of the T.P.M., is leading the churchas per the Company’s Act. Vesly, who is from Kayamkulam and Mr. Joy Pich in Sri Lanka are now actingbehind the scene. The Holy Spirit was brooding and hatching on the church to lead the church to theexperience the church enjoyed in the beginning periods after Pastor A.C.Thomas. Because of that, certaindevelopments took place in the year 1984 and now this church is working in Kerala, in different states of

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India, in foreign countries, which is in parallel to the doctrines and visions of the church and in the name ofCeylon Pentacostal Mission. The main responsibility lies in Pastor Chandy. The work, faith, holiness anddoctrines which God has started, will abide till the second coming of Christ.

Source:History of Ceylon Pentecostal Mission, from the website: http://ceylonpentecostalmission.org/default.asp,Accessed from the link:http://ceylonpentecostalmission.org/history.htmAccessed on 6th November 2008

Ram (2008-12-04 15:31:47)Praise God!!! That’s really great testimony for the living god.

1.2.11 Hema John (2008-11-08 13:20)

[youtube=http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=zAWkFLQbWCg]

1.2.12 A V M Rajan (2008-11-08 13:23)

[youtube=http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=dcAnoFKgbsQ]

1.2.13 Shekar (2008-11-08 13:26)

[youtube=http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=UbToQCbZOOo]

1.2.14 Anil Kant (2008-11-08 13:26)

[youtube=http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=JwHgI4OUqMI]

1.2.15 Sungeeta Jain (2008-11-10 12:18)

I would like to share with you about three life-changing events.

The Accident - sungeetajainThe first event happened when I was ten years old. One moment I wassleeping in the back seat of my parents’ car with no worries in the world, and the next moment there wereambulances all around, and doctors telling my parents I would never walk again. Before the accident, Iwas a normal ten-year-old girl. I could walk and run and jump and dance. But, after the accident I foundmyself confined to a wheelchair, unable to move or feel my legs. I spiraled into depression. Everywhere Iwent, people stared at me and felt sorry for me. I felt sorry for myself. At the age of ten, I felt like my lifewas over. My dreams would never come true. I would be an invalid for the rest of my life.

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The Pageant - Now, I am going to skip over the second life-changing event for a few moments andshare with you about the third life-changing event. The third event happened when I was in the twelfthgrade. I was invited to participate in the Miss Teen of Washington Pageant (a beauty pageant for thestate I live, it is like the qualifying pageants for Miss India or Miss Universe, but it is for teenagers). Myfirst reaction was that that there was no way I could enter this competition. I had never heard of a girlin a wheelchair entering a beauty pageant, let alone seen a beauty queen in a wheelchair. But my parentsencouraged me to pray and seek God’s will. So we prayed and God told me to enter the competition. Godalso told me that if He has given me a talent, then I should use the talent, and when people say “job welldone,” I should give Him the glory. God also told me to thank Him in all things, good or bad, because Heis in control and can turn any situation around.

With this guidance, I entered the competition. From the first moment, everything seemed to be go-ing wrong. When I arrived at the venue for the competition, which was almost 2 hours away from my home,I remembered that I had forgotten some of my important paperwork at home. That evening I arrived atthe competition around 6:00 PM and assumed they would provide dinner, but they did not. I went to bedhungry. That night, I could not sleep; I was too scared, nervous and excited. The next morning, I was upand ready, way before the wake-up call ever came, waiting for my breakfast. It was supposed to be deliveredto our room. But, as “luck” would have it, my room was conveniently forgotten!

The competition began and it was time for the Interview, which was worth 25 % of the final score.In the interview, we went before a panel of three judges who could ask us any questions for five minutes.The interview started off okay as I shook the three judge’s hands, and we exchanged greetings. We conversedfor a bit, then one of the judges asked me, ”you are in a wheelchair, why are you here?” Upon hearing thisquestion, I began to cry. Not only was I nervous, hungry, and sleepy, but it was a difficult question for me.I did not know why I was there. There were about 30 girls in the competition and I was the only one in awheelchair. I was not like the other girls. Perhaps the judge was subtly telling me that I did not belong.

Still, the interview continued, and through my sobs and with tears rolling down my cheeks, I contin-ued to answer questions. Just as I stopped crying, time was called, and I had to leave.

I went up to my room and phoned my mom. I had never thought that I would win the competi-tion. My goal had been to be in the top eight. Now that I had cried during the interview that was worth 25% of the final score, there was no chance that I would meet my goal. As I told Mom what had happened, shesimply reminded me that God had said to thank Him in all things even if they didn’t appear to be ”good.”

In obedience, a weak, ”Thank You Jesus,” proceeded from my lips.

The next day the final pageant began on stage. They began to announce the top eight. Each timea name was announced, my heart fell. Even though I knew I would not be called as a finalist because I hadcried during my interview, I still wished that I would. By the time the seventh finalist was announced, Ihad pretty much given up. I looked around me and picked the prettiest girl, expecting that her name wouldbe called next. To my surprise, I heard my name. I began to praise the Lord.

That night continued like a dream. From the top eight, I made it to the top four. I could feel Godhelping me every step of the way. He was telling me what to say. He was guiding me on what to do. Soonit was time to announce the runners-up and the new Miss Teen of Washington. They began with the Thirdand Second Runner-ups. I was sure that I would be one of them, but each time, a different name wasannounced. Finally, only another girl and I were left on stage. I looked at her and she was tall and thin andexperienced with pageants. So, I prepared myself to be second place.

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The first Runner-up was announced, and when I didn’t hear my name, I just burst into tears. Never in mywildest dreams had I ever thought that I would be the new Miss Teen of Washington and the first person ina wheelchair to ever win a pageant against other able-bodied girls.

This is not my victory a lone, but also my Heavenly Father’s. The first question I asked the judgeswas, “How could I make it even to the top eight when I cried during the interview?” I was told that I hadreceived the highest score in the interview portion. The judges told me that I was a teenager and they hadasked a difficult question. The fact that I hadn’t just run out of the interview in tears, but had stayed toanswer every question showed strength and courage. Like the Lord had said, ”Thank Me in all things and Ican turn any situation around.” He turned the hearts of the judges around.

The Transformation - Now, you may wonder how I went from being this depressed ten year old whofelt like her life was over, to having the strength and courage to try out for the Miss Teen of WashingtonPageant. The answer is the second life-changing event, when my family and I came to know Jesus.

I am from a Jain family. We were a very religious family, especially after the car accident. Afterthe accident, people sent my parents prayers from all over the world saying, ”If you say this prayer thisnumber of times every day, your daughter will be healed.” My mom was praying from morning to night toall of the different gods and goddesses, in hopes that I would be healed. But nothing happened. Mom hada constant headache. She was always tense; trying to ensure that she did not forget to repeat any of theprayers people had sent her.

My parents spent thousands of dollars giving offerings to religious teachers who would say ”If yougive us this much money, we will perform a ritual and your daughter will be healed on such-and-such date.”But, the dates came and went and there was no miracle. There was only tension, sorrow and discord in myfamily.

Then we met a Christian man who began coming to our house to pray for my healing. As he readto me from the Bible and began to tell me about Jesus, I was confused. I had always thought that God wasangry with me and that is why I was in this wheelchair. I believed I was being punished for my bad karmaor sins. But this man was telling me Jesus was not like that. Jesus came to forgive us for our sins, not topunish us for them. He told me that Jesus loves me. He loves me so much that He died for me. I don’tknow when or how, but I started to believe in this Jesus, this God of love and forgiveness.

The man then introduced us to a Christian family that began inviting us to church. Without fail,they would invite us to attend church with them every Sunday and Wednesday. My parents were notinterested in going to church. However, they decided that the only way to stop the family’s constant callswas to go to church and then to tell them, “We did not like it, so we are not coming back again.”

One night, my Mom, Dad and I went to church. My parents prayed a silent prayer in their hearts,”Jesus if you are real, show us something today, otherwise we are not coming back.” I prayed, ”Jesus, I knowyou are real, show my parents something tonight or else I know they will never come back again.”

After the service, we were invited to go to the front of the church for prayer. The ladies gatheredaround me and started to pray with me, telling me to say ”I need you Jesus. I love you Jesus.” But, as I wastrying to pray, all of the sudden, I found I couldn’t speak. Soon someone said I was being filled with theHoly Spirit. My parents did not know what this “Holy Spirit” was, but figured since it was ”Holy,” it mustbe ok. A little while later, however, someone said this was not the Holy Spirit, but a bad spirit and theywould have to cast it out. They said the whole church would fast and pray and to come back on Sundayand the spirit would be cast out.

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We began attending every church service. The people would pray for me, but nothing would hap-pen. They were unable to cast out the bad spirit. The fourth time we went to church, Mom was feelingfrustrated and angry. She felt like we were stuck. Because there was this bad spirit we had to come to thischurch, but the church members were unable to do anything. That night Mom refused to go forward at theend of the service or pray as she was being told to. Up until that day Mom had never prayed to Jesus. Evenin church she had just said her own prayers. But that night, Mom does not know why, but she joined herhands together, knelt at her seat and said ”Jesus I need you.” As soon as she did this she felt a feeling thatshe describes as “melted butter” going from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. It felt like God’slove was showering down upon her. She said it was the best feeling she had ever felt. She said she wouldhave done anything for this feeling never to end. But, the feeling ended about 30 minutes later. Mom askedwhat had happened and was told that she had received a “touch” of the Holy Spirit.

Now, curious about what this Holy Spirit was, Mom inquired further. She was told that the HolySpirit is a free gift from God that anyone who asks will receive. They told Mom that the Holy Spirit doesnot possess anyone, cause them to lose their consciousness or force anyone to do strange things. Instead,they told Mom that when you receive the Holy Spirit, He fills you heart with joy, peace and love. They saidthat the sign that you have been “filled” with the Holy Spirit is that God begins to pray through you in alanguage you do not understand.

Mom did not fully understand what they were talking about, but said to herself, ”If a touch of thisHoly Spirit is so good, the entire thing must be awesome. I want whatever it is.”

A week later on Monday, Mom sent us all off to school, telling us that she intended to pray untilshe was filled with the Holy Sprit. She began to pray and soon she had said everything she could think ofsaying. She was sitting, waiting on God, with her mouth slightly open, when all of the sudden she beganto speak in a language she didn’t understand. Immediately she was filled with such joy, that she dancedaround the house (and if you know my mom, she does not dance, that was the joy of the Lord in her).When we came home from school Mom was laughing. We had not seen her this happy since the accident.

That night Mom prayed for my dad, placing her hand on his heart. Dad had a very bad heart con-dition. He could not walk one city block without stopping due to chest pain. The very next day Dad walkedfrom his office, 0.7 miles all uphill without stopping. Praise God! This was the first physical miracle wewitnessed.

By the end of the week, my eldest sister said she wanted to receive the Holy Spirit. She began topray and two minutes later, she was filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in that other language. Seeingthis, I did not want to be left behind. So, I started praying to receive the Holy Spirit also. But, as soon as Istarted to pray, again, I could not speak. We started to cast out the bad spirit as we had seen them do inchurch. But nothing happened. We called the Christian man who had first told us about Jesus and prayedwith him for 2 hours over the phone. Still, nothing happened. Finally the man said, ”I don’t think this is abad spirit, I think this is the Holy Spirit. Say ’thank you Jesus’ and see what happens.”

As soon as we thanked God for the Holy Spirit I started speaking in an unknown language. It hadnever been a bad spirit; it had been the Holy Spirit all along. The people at that church had just failed toproperly recognize it. Now that we think back, we see how it was all in God’s perfect plan. The first timewe went to church, I was filled with the Holy Spirit. However, it would have meant nothing to my parents.They would never have come back to church. But because they thought it was a bad spirit, they kept goingback to church to have it cast out, and in the process Jesus worked in their hearts and showed us all whoHe is.

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The next day my other sister and my father were filled with the Holy Spirit. My family has beenfollowing and serving Jesus ever since. Immediately, the joy, peace and happiness returned to my familythat had been missing for four years. We went from being a family that never smiled, to smiling so muchthat people often ask us, “Why are you so happy all the time?”

My little brother was only five years old at the time. For years his faith in Jesus was based solelyon our faith in Jesus. But, that changed the summer after my brother turned thirteen. He was diagnosedwith a rare and fatal kidney disease. The doctors told my parents that my brother would be on dialysis bythe end of the year and dead in three years. Normal kidneys secrete 0-150mg of protein a day. My brotherwas leaking over 9000mg of protein in his urine. The doctors gave us no hope. Our only hope was Jesus.And when you put your hope in Jesus, He does not let you down. Within one year, despite the doctor’spredictions, my brother was completely healed. His protein levels went from 9000mg to 6mg. Today mybrother is baptized in the Holy Spirit, loves God and is completely healed. The doctors are amazed at whatthey themselves admit is a miracle.

The Promise - Some people look at me and say, “But you are still in a wheelchair. Jesus has nothealed you. So, what is the big deal?” But, Jesus has promised me that He will heal me in His time. WhenI was fifteen years old, Jesus spoke to my mom and told her, “Millions of people will know about Sungeetabefore I heal her.” At the time we questioned how millions of people could know about an ordinary girl.However, after I won the Miss Teen of Washington Pageant, my story went in television and newspapers allover the world and millions of people knew about me. If the first part of what the Lord said has come true,the second part will come true as well. He will heal me. Right now the Lord has said that He will take usaround the world to preach the Gospel and as we lay hands on the sick they will recover. Then He will healme.

The Lord has been doing just that. Within months of coming to know Jesus, my family was leadby the Spirit to embark on our first mission’s trip to India. The Lord promised that His angels would gobefore us and He would give us the words to speak. He is true to His word. All we had was the simple faiththat all things are possible in Jesus’ name and no matter what, Jesus is stronger. As we laid our hands onthe sick and oppressed, all we knew to do was to say, “In Jesus name.” Then we would pray in the HolySpirit language. The Lord did the rest. People would spontaneously begin repenting. Evil spirits began toflee. The sick were healed. Many were filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.

We continued these annual trips, seeing the Lord do amazing miracles both in India and the US. Inthe early years, we mostly shared the love of Jesus with our friends and family. But, in the summer of 2002the Lord spoke and told us that He now He was going to take us not only to our family, but to the people ofthis world, to share His love. After that, God opened the door for us to minister in churches, hospitals, slum,schools, businesses, conventions, street corners, marketplaces, and just about anywhere people will listen.We have seen people healed of all manner of diseases, financial difficulties, job issues, tension, addictions,and oppression, as we pray in the name of Jesus.

The Future - On September 1, 2005, my mother and I were supposed to fly back from India to theUS after a 5 week mission’s trip. Just a few hours before our flight, my sister and I went to the market. Aten-year-old boy, Sakir, approached me and asked me to purchase the lotus flowers he was selling. I noticedthat there was something wrong with Sakir’s eyes.

“Is there something wrong with your eyes?” I asked.

Sakir nodded, “Yes.” He told me that he had a congenital cataract in one eye. As a result, he had

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been blind in his right eye since birth.

I felt the Holy Spirit prompt me, and I blurted out, “If we pray for your eye, Jesus can heal it.Can we pray for you?” As soon as I said this, I felt a surge of panic run through my body. What was Isaying? What was I thinking? What if God didn’t do it? I tired to back-peddle, qualifying my statement.But the Holy Spirit stopped me. So, in faith I repeated, my voice shaking a bit, “If we pray for your eye,Jesus can heal it. Can we pray for you?”

Sakir was shy, and perhaps a little confused, but he agreed. Right in the middle of the marketplace,I reached my hand out and placed it on Sakir’s forehead. My sister and I began to pray. After sayinga short prayer, I asked Sakir if he felt any improvement. Honestly, I did not expect that anything hadhappened. But, to my surprise, Sakir responded and said he could see more clearly. I felt the faith withinme rise. With excitement, I asked Sakir if we could pray again. This time he immediately jumped on the offer.

We prayed a few times and the Lord restored vision to Sakir’s eye. Word of the miracle spreadthrough the marketplace like wildfire. People began asking for prayer and the Lord began performingmiracles. A crowd of approximately thirty people formed around us. That night we saw many visionproblems healed as well as healings from a variety of pains. Four people were even filled with the HolySpirit, with the evidence of speaking in tongues.

With this unexpected, “mini-revival” breaking out, how could we just fly back to the US? God hadgreater plans. I begged my Dad to change my Mom’s and my flight back to the US.

Starting the next day, random people began coming to our home in India for prayer. Over the nextten days, everyday, twenty to thirty people came over for prayer. Many were healed and filled with the HolySpirit. We saw the Lord heal asthma, arthritis, hernias, slipped discs, sinus problems, eyesight problems,and hearing problems. The last day a lady who did not have an eardrum started to hear. Some of thepeople even had their healings medically verified.

During the ten days that we stayed over in India after the miracle in the marketplace, God beganto work in our hearts. At first, we tried to deny it, but we knew that the Lord was calling Mom and me backto India. He was calling us back to the people, who in less than a fortnight had made their way into our hearts.

We left India on September 11. I returned to work (as a lawyer) in the US on September 13. OnSeptember 16, I gave notice at my job (I was a fifth year associate at a large Seattle-based law firm). In theflesh, it was not easy to do. I was turning my back on all that I had worked for…all that I knew…tradingit in for the unknown. But, in the Spirit I knew I had no other choice.

On November 11, Mom and I moved back to India to start The Orphanage Project and to work asGod leads us.

The Challenge - Jesus has completely changed our lives and He can change your life too…if you giveHim a chance. As soon as we came to know Jesus and were filled with the Holy Spirit, instantly, the joyand happiness returned to my family. God, who had once seemed so far away, is now right here with us.When we pray we no longer wondered if God hears our prayers, but we know that He not only hears ourprayers, but He answers them as well. When we cry we no longer wonder if God sees our tears, but knowthat He not only sees our tears, but wipes them away. When we are happy we no longer wonder if God seesour happiness, but know that He not only sees our happiness, but celebrates with us. God is real to us.

Believing in Jesus does not mean changing your culture or your heritage. I am still very much In-

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dian. I am a strict vegetarian. I wear ethnic clothing. I speak Hindi. I observe cultural traditions. Believingin Jesus simply requires a change of heart and a new relationship with our Creator.

I do not expect you to believe in Jesus because of what you have just read. I did not believe in Je-sus because of anything anyone told me. I asked Him to show me if He was real. He did. In the same way,if you ask Him, with an open heart and mind, to show you His reality, He will. Close your eyes and ask Himnow. You have nothing to lose, but everything to gain. Just pray, “Jesus, I need You. I want to know You.Show me Your reality.”

Source: Sungeeta Jain - A Queen in His Kingdom, taken from the website: www.jesusbranded.org,from the linkhttp://jesusbranded.org/index.php?option=com content &view=article &id=16 &Itemid=61, accessed on10th November 2008

1.2.16 Amar Singh (2008-11-10 12:19)

My Friend asked me for the first time to come to a prayer meeting , he said my life would be changedI Thought How can my Life be changed through Prayers ? At that time my Hair were Very long , I had notgot a haircut in 2 years ,My Frends Always said ”come with us and Fight with Someone because u will Helpus Through ur Long Hair through your Don type of Looks.

I was Always ready for my Frends, My Family was very Angry at me my Father always asked me to get ahaircut or he said ”Police will Catch u bcoz of ur Looks , But I didn’t care About that.My father also said to my Frends take Money if u want but Please do something so that my son gets ahaircut . But that Plan Also did not Work,But when i came home After the Prayer ,My heart said i should get a haircut .I dont know why wht happen and i said to my frend lets go to some hairdresser before going home.then after i reached my home my parents saw me and they were Shocked...

They Said Wht Happen? How did u get a Haircut ?? Then I told My Parents that This is the Effectof Prayer they Prayed for Me and the Result is Here.. Then I Liked Going to Prayers and I Liked MandirPooja Paath Also, I Always Thought That all Gods Are the Same .. dosn’t Matter if Its Ram , Sai, Hanuman,Jesus Christ OR 33 CRORES DEVI DEVTAS.....

But then one day i thought about The One God who Created the world and came in flesh on earth and heDied For Our Sins And after 3 days he rose again.He Loves us,And if we repent of our sins and believe inJESUS then we will be saved from the slavery of sin. Hanuman or Ram or 33 CRORES devi devta Allah,andall the Prophets did not die for our sins and they all are human beings. And After that I am Saved by theGrace of God and Came to Know the Truth of Life, and My Family is Happy That i am a Christian Bcoz Itsnot About Any Religion it is a Reationship, a Relationship with only True God Jesus Christ, Praise Jesus,My Aim is Only One in my Life and that is to Spread the Good News ( Truth of Life) Everywhere thats it,Praise the LORD

God can be found through His true and complete Word, the Bible. Please, seek Him now, before it istoo late. Seek Him through His Word to you, the Bible.

Source: Amar Singh, taken from the website: www.jesusbranded.org, from the linkhttp://jesusbranded.org/index.php?option=com content &view=article &id=53 &Itemid=94, accessed on

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10th November 2008

1.2.17 Shivanshu Aggarwal (2008-11-10 12:20)

I was born in a hindu family . life was pretty ordinary just like most of the ppl around me Religion for mewas nothing more than completing the religious formalities .Moreover I started worshipping Satan under theinfluence of death metal bands ...by worship I mean I loved Satan and thought it was so “cool” ...religionwas for “losers ” .

Even though all materialistic things provided a temporary sense of satisfaction , nothing in life seemedmeaningful . All the little moments of joy and happiness were hollow .There was this void inside of me that I did not know how to fill .so I tried all sorts of things in order to feelbetter and “alive “. I used to slit my wrists just to see how much it bleeds. There was a time when I tookmoney to beat people up.

One day I was surfing the net looking for music and stuff when a pop up window opened which told me aboutthe way to salvation, about the love of god ,it told me how Christ died for my sins and took the punishmentI deserved .it also said that it was not a coincidence that I was reading this right now and that its god whohas lead me here and wants me to know the truth ...I was the last person to be influenced by this kind ofstuff but something unexplainable happened and it just changed me completely ...it was like a door openedin front of me and I saw a whole new world .

I started reading the bible and it kept answering my questions about life and about God .it was like Godspoke to me through the bible .

It was not like people had not told me about god before .my yahoo id was serpent satan666...many peoplesent me messages asking me to repent and telling me the consequences of worshiping Satan but I used toinsult them by abusing them .

Now when I look back ....I can vividly see that it was god who moved my heart .May he bless you tooand lead you in the paths of righteousness for his names sake. Amen,

Praise god...our lord Jesus Christ.

Source: Shivanshu Aggarwal, taken from the website: www.jesusbranded.org, from the linkhttp://jesusbranded.org/index.php?option=com content &view=article &id=47 &Itemid=65, accessed on10th November 2008

1.2.18 Aditya Bhadra (2008-11-10 12:21)

I belong to a Hindu family and didn’t believe in Jesus even though my mother had become a believer.

I used to make fun of her. In college, I fell into bad company and started smoking and drinkingand it became an addiction. I used to smoke 20+ cigarettes a day and used to get drunk frequently.

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Then one night, I was caught by the warden of my hostel. He thought I had been drinking when Iwasn’t. I was expelled. I went into depression.

Then a friend invited me to church. At first I refused but after his constant bugging, I finally went.And that day, the things that I heard touched me. I heard that Jesus loved me no matter how I was orwhat I had done.That Jesus died for my sins and if I believed in Him, I would spend eternity with Him. I started to believein Him and got water baptized that very moment.When I came back to my room, I prayed to Jesus to make me stop all my bad habits. And the next morningwhen I woke up, all those bad habits had vanished. I was a new creation! And since then, my life changedcompletely.People were amazed by seeing the change in me and I knew it was because of Jesus. Jesus then went on todo multiple miracles in every step of my life. He cured me of jaundice.He helped me travel. Through me, Jesus touched other people and they started to believe. I met wonderfulpeople who were believers.

And since then I have been loving and serving Jesus. Jesus can change your life too. All you needto do is ask.

I belong to a Hindu family and didn’t believe in Jesus even though my mother had become a be-liever.

AdityaI used to make fun of her. In college, I fell into bad company and started smoking and drinking andit became an addiction. I used to smoke 20+ cigarettes a day and used to get drunk frequently.

Then one night, I was caught by the warden of my hostel. He thought I had been drinking when Iwasn’t. I was expelled. I went into depression.

Then a friend invited me to church. At first I refused but after his constant bugging, I finally went.And that day, the things that I heard touched me.I heard that Jesus loved me no matter how I was or what I had done. That Jesus died for my sins and if Ibelieved in Him, I would spend eternity with Him.I started to believe in Him and got water baptized that very moment.

When I came back to my room, I prayed to Jesus to make me stop all my bad habits. And thenext morning when I woke up, all those bad habits had vanished. I was a new creation! And since then, mylife changed completely.People were amazed by seeing the change in me and I knew it was because of Jesus.Jesus then went on to do multiple miracles in every step of my life. He cured me of jaundice. He helped metravel.Through me, Jesus touched other people and they started to believe. I met wonderful people who werebelievers. And since then I have been loving and serving Jesus.

Jesus can change your life too. All you need to do is ask.

Source: Aditya Bhadra, taken from the website: www.jesusbranded.org, from the linkhttp://jesusbranded.org/index.php?option=com content &view=article &id=44 &Itemid=62, accessed on10th November 2008

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iwant2breakfree (2008-11-16 18:41:34)hi...i am aditya...i wanted to say thank you for posting my testimony here..actually this is just a short version of mytestimony and i feel it is inaccurate to fully explain my conversion experience...i have a series of 10 videos about everydetail of my testimony..is it possible for you to post it here? if yes, then let me knw and i will give you the links..myemail address is aditya@jesusbranded.org Thank you and God bless. Praise the Lord!

1.2.19 Sister Nirmala Joshi (2008-11-25 12:35)

Sister Nirmala, age 63, is Mother Teresa’s successor as Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity. Bornin Ranchi in 1934 to a Brahmin soldier who came from Nepal, Nirmala Joshi joined the order at the age of17, after converting from Hinduism. Her sister, too, embraced Christianity and became a Carmelite nun.After joining the Missionaries of Charity, Sister Nirmala studied law at the insistence of Mother Teresa, whooften took her along during her tours abroad. The Mother’s confidence in her abilities was evident when sheasked Sister Nirmala to open their homes in Panama, New York and Kathmandu.

She is a modest woman, and when she succeeded Mother she quietly said, “Mother Teresa can never bereplaced. She is gifted with rare charisma that can never be acquired in one’s lifetime.” Sister Nirmal is notwithout her own strengths as well, however. As spiritual adviser Father le Joly said, “In her, Mother foundsigns of energy, dedication, and charisma.” When journalists once asked Mother Teresa what made SisterNirmala so exceptional, she replied, “She is a Missionary of Charity”

Source: Accessed from the link:http://home.comcast.net/ motherteresasite/nirmala.html, on November 7th

2008

Sister Nirmala (born 1934) succeeded Mother Teresa as Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity inMarch 1997.

She was born Nirmala Joshi into a Brahmin family in Ranchi (then in Bihar and now the capital of theIndian State of Jharkhand). Her parents were Hindu Brahmins from Nepal. Her father was devout HinduIndian Army officer originally from Nepal.

She was educated by Christian missionaries in Patna (capital of Bihar state) but remained a Hindu until shewas 24 and learned of Mother Teresa’s work and converted to Roman Catholicism.

Sister Nirmala has a master’s degree in political science from an Indian university and additional training asa lawyer. She was one of the first nuns to head a foreign mission when she went to Panama.

She later headed missions in Europe and in Washington D.C. in the United States, before being chosen tosucceed Mother Teresa. She was based in Calcutta as head of the order’s Contemplative Wing, in whichnuns devote their lives to meditation.

Source: Wikipedia.org, accessed on November 7, 2008

A Part of the interview taken from Rediff.com

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Right wing Hindu organisations have accused your organisation of being involved in conversions. How doyou react to the charge?

We don’t worry about it. We must do our work to the best we can. And yes, our work must convert people’sheart. Our work shows God’s love. That love has to change the heart of people.

Change the hearts of people to see Christ?

To see God in their lives. To see human kindness. To love God. To love one another. To ask pardon forsins and become proper human beings. We, together with Mother, believe that people of whatever religionshould believe and live their religion to the best of their ability. And if God wants to give a person theChristian faith, it is his choice.

Even I was a Hindu. Nobody made me a Christian. If anybody had told me to become a Christian, I wouldnever have become one. It was the grace of God that touched my heart and I became a Christian. Thisconversion is only his responsibility. Nobody can make somebody — be somebody.

So can you say with absolute conviction that the MoC have never indulged in proselytisation — in conver-sions?

Like forcing the people?

Yes.

Never. Never. We serve people of all religions, all castes. They don’t have to become Christians to get ourhelp. No.

Do you have many people expressing their desire to convert to your faith?

Some do, not many.

What do you do when someone wants to accept your faith? Do you give them some kind of training?

We initiate them in prayer. Those who really desire, we give them books to read. The really sincere onesask us questions.

Do you foresee trouble ahead for the MoC in an India slowly being overcome by the forces of Hindutva?

I am not looking into the future, but up till now we have faced no problems.

[Part of the interview by Sister Nirmala published in Rediff.com]

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We have never forced people to convert’, Mother Theresa the legacy, taken from the website link:http://www.rediff.com/news/1998/sep/07mo ther.htm, accessed on November 7th 2008.

About the Conversion (as written by TIM MCGIRK in www.time.com) Selected writings

When Nirmala Joshi’s parents, high-caste Hindu Brahmins from Nepal, put their daughter into a Catholicmissionary school in the 1940s, their intention was for the girl to pick up some English and arithmetic. Forthat privilege, Nirmala’s father, a devout Hindu army officer, was willing to have her participate in Christianprayer sessions and Bible study. What he hadn’t expected was that his daughter would convert to Catholi-cism and dedicate her life to the poor. “I was at the bus stand,” recalls Sister Nirmala, “when I first feltJesus was alive in my heart.”

Nirmala’s conversion was neither instantaneous nor untraumatic. After her bus-stop epiphany, she wrestledwith her conscience for seven years before being baptized at the age of 24. The defining experience, shetold TIME, was the Partition of 1947, when colonial India was bifurcated, Hindus and Muslims slaughteredeach other by the tens of thousands, and millions of refugees were left homeless and dying. “There was somuch killing,” Nirmala says. “Everybody was just going mad. There was little compassion anywhere.” Sheheaded off to Calcutta, which was then packed with refugees from East Bengal. There, two Carmelite sistersdirected her to Mother Teresa, who was spending her days tending to the poor and begging for funds tobuy food and medicine for her mission. “It was inspiration at first sight,” says Sister Nirmala. “Here wassomeone who could bring some compassion and a sense of destiny to people.”

Source: FILLING THE BIG SANDALS, The Missionaries of Charity finally settle on a successorto their ailing founder, Mother Teresa, BY TIM MCGIRK, NEW DELHI, Accessed from the link:http://www.time.com/time/reports/motherteresa/t970324.html, on November 7, 2008

1.2.20 Naveen Balakrishnan (2008-11-25 12:36)

I come from a country named India, which is between one-third and one-half the size of the United Statesof America, about the land mass on the east side of the Mississippi river. The estimated population of thecountry is around 1 billion, and it is a crowded place. The country has been fed by three civilizations: Aryansin the North, Mongolians in the North-East and Dravidians (who came from Australia) in the South. Thesociety is agriculturally oriented, and 80 % of the country’s population lives in its villages. The staple food ofthe southern part of the country is rice, while it is wheat in the northern part. I was brought up in the fifthlargest city in India, Hyderabad, which has an estimated population of around 4 million. The literacy rate ofthe country is around 57 %, and some of the people do not know even how to sign their names. Contrary tothe Chinese, whose main language of communication and instruction is Chinese, the medium of instructionin most schools is English in India.

There are seventeen officially recognized mainstream languages and over 200 other languages that peopleuse. There are over 2000 dialects prevalent which further compounds the problem of communication. It isgenerally safe to say that one who knows English can get by without many hurdles. India is secular (as perits constitution) when it comes to its religious traditions: 82 % of the population adhere to Hinduism, 11 %to Islam, 2 % each to Buddhism, Sikhism and Christianity and a number adhere to other beliefs constituting

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a very small minority. The Christian population in India is around 21 million of which 18 million are RomanCatholics. Christians are severely persecuted for their faith in scattered parts of the country. Some of theHindu fundamentalist groups have vowed to eradicate the name of Jesus Christ from the country.I am the eldest son of the three, brought up in a bourgeois Orthodox Hindu Family. My dad was the soleearning member in the family, and my mother was a homemaker. There was barely enough for us to get by.My dad was an alcoholic and a chain smoker. To add to our grief, he gambled his income away in horseraces and the like. He was very short-tempered, and there was absolutely no respect for him, even thoughmy mother did tolerate his behavior. I was not doing well at school until the sixth grade, and my dad gotconcerned. He started looking out for me, and that gave an impetus for me to do well; and within a coupleof years, I was at the top of the class. My parents always homed in on the point that an individual couldsurvive only through having an education. Being the eldest, I had to set an example for my younger brothersto emulate, and they hated every aspect of it, for they could not match up! Getting into engineering ormedical school is only through fierce competitive written exams, and it is virtually a privilege to study in agovernment-sponsored school.

I believed in what my parents believed, as it was handed to them through the traditions of their fa-thers. I worshipped the idols, the trees, the sun, the moon gods and the like, diurnally. I was taught thatGod manifested Himself in His creation; and hence it was appropriate for one to worship the creation, forHe was present in it. All the heavenly planets, including the stars, had some significance, and they had tobe worshipped, if one cared to be successful in life. It was a religion of penance – Be good and do good.This religion was inherited, and I never questioned what I believed - after all, my parents could not be offthe mark. The order of worship incorporated giving reverence to the mother first, father second, teacher(guru) third and finally God. God took the last place, for it is the mother who gives birth, father whoguides, teacher who teaches the way of truth and of the Lord, and then the Lord gets our attention. If theLord and the teacher appear at the same time, it was required for the sakshya (disciple) to bow down beforethe teacher first, before paying homage to God.

Hinduism teaches that there is One God (Brahman - ”Great Soul”) and that there are a number ofways that one can use to reach God. It believes that all of the ways lead to the truth. It advocates BhaktiMarga (The way of devotion), Gnana Marga (The way of knowledge), and the Dharma Marga (The way ofrighteousness - doing good) to attain salvation from the cycle of life. The way of transcendental meditation- succinctly stated, ”The New Age Movement” uses Yoga as it’s primary focus. It believes in reincarnationand states that one has to excel in one’s good works over bad works to attain a better life in the next oneto come upon the earth. The course of the next life on the earth is determined by one’s karma (either goodover bad, or bad over good). If one has good karma, then the next life would be better than the presentone. If one has bad karma, then the next life would be degenerated to a lower level - probably be born as ananimal or a bird, if not a rotten human beggar. Vimukti (Salvation) from this cycle of life is through one ofthe above mentioned ways by which you seek the Lord diligently. Some forsake their families and go to themountains and live like hermits, seeking God in the wilderness for the rest of their lives. For those who lovethis worldly life and are ignorant, there is no redemption from this vicious cycle of reincarnation. If you arelucky, you may get out in ten lives (one more than the cat!!!). To sum it up, Hinduism at its core is a worksreligion and beliefs are very flexible, so that one can adapt to whatever one chooses. As to salvation, it iswhat man does, and there is absolutely no participation of God.

I hated all the habits that my dad possessed, and I made a promise to myself that I would be abetter parent to my offspring when they come in due time. I was very self-centered, haughty in appearanceand attitude. I could never take no for an answer, and could never think of being the second best, withthe urge to being the winner all the time. I offered sacrifices (not animal) to idols, trees, planets etc., toappease them and to win favors for my rather greedy living. I was not sincere in what I did. In other words,I was the master of my own destiny. As we brothers grew out of adolescence, we began to reason with

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our dad about his habits and stressed to him the importance of our education. He saw merit in our ideasand abstained from drinking, smoking and gambling for a while, and his attitude towards us, his children,improved. He has since started all these things again to a very limited extent. He has committed his life toidol and sun worship since then, encouraging us to follow in his footsteps.

After competing with nearly 100,000 students to get into an engineering school (of which only 1000make it), I worked hard to get into the mechanical engineering program in a very prestigious governmentschool for my undergraduate curriculum in 1985. The idea of the New Age movement appealed to me, thatit would make me a better person in the world. It promised a better life, filled with meaning, while in theworld it was a humdrum existence. Seeking God through transcendental meditation (TM) excited my being,and I was taught by disciples of a guru Parmahamsa Yogananda, who was dead in 1952, way before I cameto be in this world. I was supposed to be meeting with God during the hours of transcendental meditations.I would see flashes of lightning and bright lights and some times just utter darkness. I would get an eeriesensation of my soul leaving my body, while it floated the heavens. TM teaches that one will be able to tapinto 90 % of the brain that remains unused in the lifetime of one’s being and recognize that one is a partof the Eternal Consciousness. One dangerous aspect of TM is addiction. Once you get into it, it is difficultto get out, though not impossible. As long as I was involved in meditation, it made me feel good; and themoment I came out of it, I felt miserable each time. The outside world began to lose its meaning as long asI was involved in it. The New Age movement, in contradiction to Hinduism, even though it is a part of it,emphasized the importance of the teacher to be above parents and above God Himself. I did not experienceany of these feelings for any sustained period of time. Not wanting to be left out, I would concoct storiesto prove to my friends that I was better than they were. I did not want to be ridiculed and labeled notspiritual, for much was at stake. About 25 % of the Americans were a recognized part of the New Agemovement in 1988. This number has been growing steadily in the last few years. The emptiness in my soulwas driving me crazy, for I longed to know the Creator of this Universe, for Solomon says in Ecclesiastes3:11 ”that He (speaking of God) has set eternity in their hearts.” I persisted in this dream world for fivewhole years before the Lord Jesus Christ encountered my thirsty soul.

After finishing my undergraduate program, I worked for an year. My classmates who had proceededto the United States for higher studies prompted me to apply to various schools, so as to pursue my highereducation and then to seek a better life out there. I applied to eight schools and was accepted at seven.I chose to go to Kansas State University, in Manhattan, Kansas to do my master’s program in industrialengineering. When I went to apply for the student visa in Madras, India, I was rejected, for the lady whowas interviewing me (behind a bullet-proof glass) was not convinced that I was going to come back after Ifinished my studies. My friend who had gone with me to the embassy for the student visa, who was alsorejected for the same reasons, told me that he was going to try one more time the very next day. Pleasekeep this in mind: if you get rejected twice, you cannot apply for the student visa for the next two years. Iwas not willing to take such a chance, but he prevailed over my stubbornness. We left for the embassy at2:30 in the morning on July 17, 1990. There were already twelve students in front of us. Within the nextfifteen minutes, the crowd grew to more than 200. The embassy opened at 7:30 am, and we proceeded toreapply. My friend, who was before me, was told by the one examining his documents to come back andpick up his visa at 4:30 in the afternoon. I was utterly amazed, for this was the same guy they had rejectedyesterday, and I became very nervous. I had never stammered before, and I was too dumbfounded. I wasnext in line, and the man examined my documents to see if they were in order and proceeded to ask a fewquestions of me which I stuttered to answer. He asked me to come back at 4:30 to pick up the visa. I wasso exhilarated at the whole scenario, that I ran out of the embassy, lest they should change their mindabout it. When we came back to pick our visas at 4:30, they asked us to go to the interview room, forthey realized that we were rejected candidates. We waited for thirty minutes and we could see the samelady who had interviewed us the day before sitting behind the glass. It seemed like thirty years. Finally, alady called and gave us our visas without any questions. We sighed a huge relief! The only thought that

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crossed my mind, at that point in time, was that Americans were a bunch of hypocrites. The Lord wouldshow me how erroneous I was in my assessment at a later point in time, when He pointed out to me thatit was His grace that brought me into this country and that I did not make it on my merits. I ended up atKansas State University on August 16, 1990. Four months later, I transferred to Texas A & M Universityin Bryan-College Station, Texas. Eight months later, after having a disagreement with my advisor, I movedto Clemson University to pursue my master’s program in mechanical engineering in September of 1991.

I applied for the Clemson Area International Friendship program, which enabled international stu-dents to meet with resident American families and become conversant with their culture and traditions.This was a forum through which cross-cultural relationships could be fostered and nourished. This wouldalso enable the international student to adapt to his / her new surroundings. I and my roommates wereassigned a couple in Anderson (they were in the process of moving from Seneca to Anderson), Cheryl andAndy Solvig. We were told that this couple would be contacting us within the next couple of weeks. Twoweeks, and there was no response from these people, and so I ventured to call the Student Coordinator,Becky Powell, and the Host Family Coordinator, Ruth Canupp, to inquire as to why we were not contacted.They called us back after a couple of days and said to us that we will be contacted by the couple in thenext week or so. Two months had passed and nothing was established. This couple, we assumed, were justnot serious about their commitment. I was really frustrated with this whole program and was planning togive a piece of my mind to Becky and to Ruth. On November 1, 1991, the day that I was intending to callthese two ladies, Ruth called me in my laboratory and asked me as to what I was doing that evening. Sheinvited me to go eat dinner with her at a restaurant. Ruth and Ted came and picked me up, and we wentto eat at a Chinese restaurant with another Indian student, Rajat Charan. At a later point in time, Godwould reveal to me that Ruth and Ted were His chosen vessels from the beginning for me to come to knowthe Lord and that He knew what He was doing.

Ruth invited me to go to her church, First Baptist in Westminster SC, on December 1, 1991 (it wasTed’s birthday). This was the first time that I had ever stepped into a Protestant church. Church to mewas just another place for meditation. Being involved in the New Age movement, it did not bother me, forChrist was indeed one of the gods that I worshipped as part of the TM. The Sunday school teacher, AudreySmith, was very excited that I had come to church, and I could not understand her. There were at least 10American students in my class, and not one spoke. I can understand their apprehensiveness, for I was toofeeling apprehensive in a like manner. It felt odd to be in a Caucasian class. A few weeks later, I was givena Bible to read and was asked to read the Gospel of John, for I was going to the church on a regular basis.

I had read a lot of the ’so-called’ Hindu Scriptures, for my mother used to translate the teachings ofUpanishads and the Vedas from Sanskrit into Tamil (my mother tongue) and explain to us the mysterieswith great illustrations. I wanted to know what the God of the Bible had to say about Himself. So Istarted reading from the first book, Genesis. There were interesting stories in Genesis and Exodus. Thebook of Leviticus began to drag a little bit and the book of Numbers was the final straw. The same stuffwas repeated over and over again without exception in relation to the twelve tribes of Israel. It could belikened to a record player gone bad, when it begins to repeat the same things over and over again. I couldnot decipher that such a God could be so redundant. I dropped the book like a hot potato.

The people from my Sunday School and the church in general, especially Ruth, began to witness tome about their faith in Christ as the only way to salvation. I was flabbergasted, that they would even dareto communicate that I was a sinner and need of God’s grace. I became very cynical, and began to explainthat there was a world much bigger than the United States of America, with diverse cultures, traditions,religions etc., and that it was ludicrous on the part of one to believe that Christ was the only way, truth andthe life. It was my understanding at that point in time, that all religions lead to the same God, for we allbelieve in One God. To clarify my point of view, I used the mountain as an illustration. To climb to the top

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of the mountain, not everyone uses the same route. So also, (God is sitting upon the top of this mountain),different people use different routes (ways, methods) to get to this same God. We call one route (methodor way) Hinduism, an other Islam, an other Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism etc. Sinceno one who witnessed to me did know how to answer this question, while knowing that illustration wasfaulty at its core, I always had my way. They persevered in communicating the same message to me. Yetthere was not one to point out to me, (which the Lord revealed to me at a later point in time), how thisillustration fails.

When summer of 1992 drew near, I was bankrupt, having exhausted all my funds. There was nomore money for school or for living. I was in debt to the tune of $15,000 to my friends and to various creditcard companies. Ruth and Ted helped me financially through this time, though I was no relation to them,to help pay some of my outstanding bills. They volunteered to help me find a job during the summer. Thiswas the first time that God humbled me. I had a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and yet couldmanage only a job as a trash picking laborer in a construction company. I began to repay some of theloans that I had taken and was hoping that I would be in the clear in about 18 months. The job lasted sixmonths and I was laid off in December of that same year. During that summer, I began with a new fervorto read the Bible from the beginning and I went through the first hurdle in Numbers and hit the next spotin 1 Chronicles, and yet I persisted on. During September, while working at the construction company, anAfrican - American man asked me if I believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior,to which I answered ’yes.’ I do not know even to this day why I answered in the affirmative even though Ihad not come to believe in Him as my Savior. I had grown a tremendous respect for His name and came toregard the Lord Jesus Christ as a Good Teacher. This troubled me day in and day out. When I was laidoff, life came to a standstill. I did not plan to save money for the future, and honestly I was left with $8 inthe bank. I was too ashamed to ask for help, for I was not responsible in my stewardship of the resourcesthat God had granted me.

I survived on noodles for a month or so and was depending upon some of my friends who would in-vite me to come and eat dinner with them. I could not live in this manner any longer. I decided to end mylife, hoping that my parents would be able to collect the money from the insurance and pay my bank loan(I was not aware at that point of time, that the insurance companies did not pay any amount in case of asuicide). As I pondered as to what I had done with my life, I had failed myself (in not accomplishing forwhich I had come to this country), my friends from whom I had taken large loans and more importantly myfamily, who had put so much hope on me that I would do well. This led me to the conviction that life wasnot worth living anymore since I would only be a burden and would not have contributed in any positivemanner. As I stood on the bridge of Lake Hartwell on one evening, as the sun was peering down the westernsky in January 1993, I did not have the guts to jump over the bridge. I was well aware that if I jumped, Iwould not come out alive, because I did not know how to swim and the water near the bridge was over ahundred feet deep. Even if I had realized that it was a mistake after I had jumped into the lake, it wouldhave not helped me to come to the shore, and I surely would have drowned.

Like a bolt from the blue, I heard a voice saying to me, ”Naveen, go home, for I have better thingsin store for you.” I am sure this is not the first time that the Lord had spoken to me, but definitely it wasthe first time that I was all ears. Having nothing else to hold on to, I went back to the apartment ponderingupon the promise that had been made to me. Two weeks later, I was offered a job at Dynacast Seneca(presently called SPM - Seneca) as a product machine operator on January 27, 1993 on the third shift. Thismeant that I had the whole day to myself.

During the month of February, as I was reading through the book of Romans, I came to the verse”All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” in 3:23 and was certainly aghast. The word ’all’ seemedmisleading and I thought that it was probable that someone might have made a mistake by incorporating it

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in that verse. I did not believe people like Mahatma Gandhi, Ramakrishna Parmahamsa, Shirdi Sai Baba,Guru Nanak Singh, to name a few, could have sinned, for they led very pure lives and gave themselves tothe service of the people and to the nation. I was flustered to read that ”the wages of sin was death, but thegift of eternal life was through the Lord Jesus Christ” in Romans 6:23. As I reflected upon the very wordsof Jesus ”I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” in John 14:6,I asked myself how it is possible for so many people to go astray. That was indeed a very bold statement,and I somehow felt deep within my heart that it was true. The way of salvation that Paul proclaims inRomans 10:9-10, 13 ”If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that Godhad raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart, you believe unto righteousness andwith the mouth, confession is made unto salvation . . . . For whosoever calls upon the name of the Lordshall be saved.” confused me all the more, for I did not truly understand the meaning thereof. The problemwas further confounded, when Paul writing to the Ephesians in 2:8-9 states ”For by grace are ye saved andthis not of yourselves. It is the gift of God and not of works, lest any man should boast.”

It was at this time that Ted shared with me his testimony as to how he came to know the Lord.Why he did at such at a time, I do not know. At the age of 29 years, after coming back from the SecondWorld War, he walked down the aisle of a Baptist church when the invitation was given at the end of thepreaching hour. The pastor asked him a few questions such as ”Do you want to be baptized? Do you wantto join the church? Do you want to become an active participant in the Sunday School program? Wouldyou be faithful in your giving and attendance in this congregational body?” To all the above, Ted answeredyes, and he was baptized the very next week. One day, when Ted was reading through the same passagesthat I have quoted above, he was in a real dilemma. He questioned his ”Christianity” and was at odds fornot having asked the Lord for the forgiveness of his sins and then turning to Him in faith. The Lord openedhis eyes to His marvelous truth and Ted came to receive pardon for his iniquities and was saved by theEternal God. Ted shared this testimony about three times with me in a matter of seven days.God used Ted’s testimony to break my heart and made me realize that I was a lost sinner who was in needof His forgiveness. I went on my knees and pleaded for His mercy and forgiveness.

The Lord gloriously saved me that very day in February 1993 and granted His transcending peace torest upon my heart. I asked God, ”If You indeed are Who You claim to be, what about my brothers andparents?” He pointed to Luke 14:26-27 ”If any man does not hate his mother, father, brothers, sisters,children and even his own self, he cannot be My disciple. If any man does not take up his cross and followMe, he cannot be my disciple.” I was scared to share what the Lord had done in my life with anyone,including Ruth and Ted. Another reason that I did not share was of the fear of being rejected by thecongregation at First Baptist in Westminster SC. The church was totally Caucasian, and I did not want tobe left out, for I had come to love a lot of people in that church. I continued to study His word with greatfervor and learned the importance of prayer and fellowship with other believers, even though they did notknow that I was one of them. After three weeks or so, God placed a call upon my heart to leave everythingand follow Him. I was scared and I did not make much sense out of it. I called upon the pastor, Rev. JohnCompton Jr., and asked him if he could answer a few questions that were bothering me and if he had fifteenminutes to spare. He set the time at 1:00 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon in March 1993, and I made it tohis study with some apprehension not knowing as to how he would respond. I began to share with him asto what the Lord had been doing in my life since the time I had come to this country to pursue highereducation in the field of mechanical engineering. His countenance was one of amazement, as God began toopen ’windows of vision’ of how He had worked in unusual circumstances in my life, even as I was relatingto the pastor. I could not believe what I was seeing and what I was saying. The God who my heart longedafter was there by my side all the time, and I had failed to recognize His presence and His work in my life.I did not share all my fears with him that day and asked him to pray that the Lord would open the doorsto lead me where He would want me to be. However, the pastor gave me an invitation to join the churchif I chose to do so. I thanked him for the gracious opportunity and for his prayers concerning the Lord’s

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will for my life. When I left his study, it was nearly 5:30 p.m. that afternoon. The very next day, I lookedinto some of the catalogues of seminaries, though I was not very serious about it. I picked out ErskineTheological Seminary, for our Minister of Education and Music, Rev. Timothy L. Bowen, was a graduateof that seminary and decided to call them. I never followed through on that, but Ruth had called for anapplication from that seminary in my name, and I received an application a few days later.

I prayed about the decision and joined the church the next Sunday. I informed Ruth and Ted aboutmy decision to join the church beforehand, though I suspect that they knew all along. It had snowed theprevious day, and yet there was a strong crowd on that Lord’s day. A lot of the people came forward withtears in their eyes and welcomed me into their family as one of their own. I had never such an outpouring ofGod’s love anywhere before. I came to realize only after a few months later that these people were prayingin one accord for my salvation and that they had sacrificed their sleep a part of the night to pray for me.My heart was overwhelmed with deep gratitude and joy for having found a home with my brothers andsisters in the Lord. In that day I had received a hundred times as many brothers and sisters in the Lord,fulfilling His promise to me in John 10:10 ” I have come that they may have life and have life abundantly”and in Mark 10:29-30 ” ’I tell you the truth,’ Jesus replied, ’no one who has left home or brothers or sistersor mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as muchin this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields– and with them, persecutions)and in the age to come, eternal life.’ ” I did not pursue the calling which God had placed on my heart andreasoned with my own self, saying that it was my whimsical idea, recognizing how important the salvationof the Lord really was and the great need of proclaiming His salvation to the lost world.

The next six months were to set the stage for what was to follow in my Christian walk with theLord in His Spirit. I devoted myself diligently to the study and meditation on His holy word, communicatingwith the Lord in prayer and in fellowship with other believers to worship and adore the Lord Jesus. TheLord opened my heart to understand His Word in the light of His truth and grace. I learned to pray publiclyand yet had not shared my testimony with any congregation, though I did talk to a few friends of mineabout the salvation of the Lord Jesus. I did not let my parents know that I had become a Christian, for Iwas afraid of being excommunicated and ostracized from the family. Being the eldest son, I had betrayedthe family and its traditions to embrace and serve the One True and Living God. However, I did inform myparents that I was going to church on a very regular basis and they assumed that I was trying to conformto the western society while being here. I was beginning to enjoy life out here and looked forward to thegood life that was in store for me in this country in the future. I had stayed here for three years and I likedit here and wanted to spend the rest of my life out here.

Towards the end of September in 1993, the Lord burdened my heart one more time, asking me toleave everything behind and surrender my life to His calling. I began to reason with God and tried tobargain that if He would wait for a few more months, then I would get my green card and then I wouldfollow Him. I cried to Him and there was no answer. I struggled with Him for five whole days and mydays were miserable. I could not sleep, could not eat properly, lost interest in Bible study, could not pray,lost interest in work, etc. I even pointed out reasons that I did not have the money to pay for the tuition,which was a staggering $2,000 per semester. I did not have any form of transportation except for a usedmotorcycle in a dilapidated condition. If I heeded the Lord’s calling, I would not have a place to stay; andbeing a student full-time in the seminary meant I would not be able to even have a full-time job. I, a punycharacter, was challenging God to take care of the situation, for I had no avenue, since I was still on theverge of paying my debts both in India and in the United States. I have often wondered looking at thisincident retrospectively if God was smiling at me, as He says in Jeremiah 32:27 ”Behold, I am the LORD,the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for Me?” Nevertheless, I conceded to His will and the dayI posted the application to the seminary in September of 1993, God’s sheer and transcendent peace restedupon my heart and I knew it was the Lord’s will for my life. Fifteen days later, I received a letter from the

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seminary stating that I had received a full tuition scholarship for the 90-hour Master of Divinity program.The pastor’s wife, Mrs. Anne Compton, graciously gave her old car, a 1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass (it still runs,by the grace of the Lord), as a gift. Ruth and Ted told me that I could stay and eat at their house withoutcost. God had now taken care of three of the four hindrances that I had pointed out. I went to the QualityManager in Dynacast and informed him of the Lord’s calling upon my life and asked him if I would be ableto work there (for there are no part-time employees in that company). He told me that he would have toask the General Manager and abide by his decision. One month passed and there was no answer from himyet. I dared to ask him if I would be allowed to work part-time, and he said, ’Yes!’ I could not believe myears, for the Good Lord had taken care of my every need, even before I had started taking classes at theseminary.

I joined the seminary in January of 1994 and was very apprehensive about the whole program, fortheological education is a whole different arena. The transition took its toll on me, for it is was very vexing,as if one was going from the concrete to the abstract. I had to develop, by the grace of God, a whole differentattitude to theological learning, for the concepts were mind-boggling to say the least. I was contemplatingwhether the Lord intended for me to be in the seminary in the first place. It was at this time, that Dr.Merwyn Johnson and few other seminarians who asserted to me, that ”this too shall pass.” It was theirencouragement at that moment which has kept me going strong even to this day. It was in the summer ofthat year, after taking two classes in the Hebrew language, that I went with the youth group to RidgecrestConference Center in Asheville. During that week, the Spirit of the Lord convicted me of my need to writeto my parents concerning the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So far, I had only told them that I was goingto the church with Ruth and Ted. They were unaware, even though they might have suspected, that I wasa sinner saved by grace.

I began to elucidate in a warm and courteous letter, as to what they meant to me and how theynurtured me in a culture in which they themselves were brought up. I wrote to them concerning the desireof my heart to know the Lord of all creation and how in that aspiration I had ventured, in vain, to varioustraditions which promised me that I would find God. I wrote to them, how the Lord, whom I was seeking,sought me and saved me. I wrote to them, how I came to understand His grace and His providence for mylife and the calling that He had placed upon my life to follow Him and also, how the Lord came to fulfillevery need to prepare me for His service. By the time, I was finished writing, it took me eight days and tenpages.

To read that letter click on the following link, [1]Naveen’s Letter To His Parents

I mailed the letter the first of August in 1994 to them. I called my parents after ten days, so as toallow enough time for the letter to reach them, and spoke to them. They were very heartbroken and mymother in tears, asked me to pack my bags, forget the seminary and come home. She told me that I wasmisinformed, deceived by the people into following something that was not true. My dad stated that itwas okay for me ”to do as the Romans do while one is in Rome,” implying that once I moved out of thiscountry and went back to India, I could return to my former way of life. I had to respond to my dad andindicate to him, that it is one thing to do as the Romans do when they are in Rome and to be a Romanno matter where in the world you were thereby emphasizing my conversion to Christianity was not merelycultural but an ongoing reality. It was not conformity to the western fad of living. My brother, Ganesh wasaghast and asked of me as to why I was intent to force another heart attack / stroke in my mother’s life.The conversation did not end in a peaceful manner, and even some of my Hindu and Muslim friends wereopposed to my conversion. It has been a hard road since then, and I pray for them diurnally, asking theGracious Lord to intervene in their lives.

My mother had suffered a heart stroke when my brother, Ganesh, informed his intention of marry-

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ing his girlfriend of eight years, who was of a different caste (Kshatriya) than my parents, who wereBrahmins (a step higher than the Kshatriya) in 1992. She was hospitalized as a result of this stroke for theleft side of her body was completely paralyzed, and she later came to know that a part of her brain hadsuffered permanent damage. She had to be carried to the wedding ceremony of my brother, for she wasunable to walk. My mother did not talk to this girl (Navneeta) for over 6 months, while living in the samehouse. Such prejudice is prevalent in that society, though people will not openly declare it. The Shudras(the lowest caste - 3 notches below the Brahmin) were being saved by the glorious Hand of the Lord asthey turned to the Compassionate One, and Christianity has always been treated as a low-caste man’sreligion in India, by most Hindu believers. My mother had recovered from the paralysis after 1 ½years, though not completely. That resulted in a remark from Ganesh, stating that he was responsiblefor her paralysis on her left side, and he asked me if I was trying to kill her by paralyzing her on the right side.

They saw God’s salvation of my life as a betrayal of their faith. They thought that I was trying toshirk the responsibility of the eldest son of taking care of my parents. Yes, I had responded in faith (whichagain was given to me), but it was God Who had saved me. Luke 14:26-27 became a reality in my life. Isincerely did not know how to deal with these people, torn between my love for the Lord Jesus and my lovefor my parents. They could not understand as to how I could love them and still do something contrary tothem and to their beliefs. I have since been praying that much more fervently, desiring that the Lord wouldgraciously intervene in their lives, for Scripture reveals to us in Psalms 37:4 ”Delight yourself in the LORDand he will give you the desires of your heart.”

In November of 1994, I was really overwhelmed by the amount of work at the seminary that I hadto do, due to which I was spending eight to ten hours each day just writing papers for the various classes.The amount of time that I was spending studying the Bible was about ten minutes and another five minutesdevoted to prayer life. My social life was non-existent. The Lord began to deal with me and asked me asto where my priorities lay? I was really ashamed of myself, and in the effort to do well at school, I wassacrificing my precious time with the Lord. I committed to the Lord at that time, that I would spend atleast two hours each day, come what may, and started studying the Bible from Genesis to Revelation every3 months.

The Lord has since then blessed me in such marvelous ways that I had more time at my hands thanI ever did before. He has given me a tremendous hunger to know His Word, and I am thankful for His gracethat continues to uphold me, even in difficult times. He has brought to remembrance a number of thingsthat He has taught me when I was perplexed by difficult questions posed by my friends who tested to see ifthe faith I professed was real. It was about this time that the Lord showed me how the illustration of themountain failed. If all paths lead to the same God, with Whom there is no shadow of turning (in simplerterms - He does not change), then the paths ought to be harmonious with each other, i.e., one path cannotcontradict another. However, it is very easy for one to see that each path contradicts the other and hencethat illustration fails. Moreover, if we could make it to the top of the mountain by ourselves, why do weneed God? For salvation does not depend upon what man does, but what God has accomplished throughHis Blessed Son Jesus Christ.

Then came January of 1995, when I was short of funds in regards to paying the insurance on mycar and for the purchase of books for the following semester. I was out of work, due to the companyclosing for about two weeks, and hence there were no paychecks to supplement the costs that were ahead.With five days left to pay for the car insurance and not knowing how to resolve the predicament thatI was in, I committed this matter into the hands of the Lord according to the promise that He makesin Psalms 55:22 ”Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never sufferthe righteous to be moved.” Amazingly enough, at that very moment, a transcending peace rested uponmy heart, and I knew the Lord was going to take care of this matter. The third day, someone had

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deposited about $500 in my bank account, a church sent me a check for $300 and another church sent mea check for $135, and by the time the loose change added up, it totaled more than $1,100 in less than fivedays. The Lord blessed my life more and beyond my need. Such a Generous and Gracious God that I do serve.

More and more of these instances have crept in my life, and the Lord has been faithful in every cir-cumstance, reminding me of Matthew 6:33 ”Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and allthese things shall be added unto you,” and of Proverbs 3:5-6 ”Trust in the LORD with all thine heart andlean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.”I have often wondered about His goodness to me and I am convinced that He cares for each and every onein the same manner, for there is no favoritism with Him. I thank Him for the life that He has bestowedupon me and continues to encourage me in my walk with Him. He has bolstered me to be a strong witnessfor Him and continues to uphold me, inspite of my inherent weaknesses. I have had my struggles with Himand have often questioned where my life was headed, for He was silent for a long time for, you see, the Lordworks in His own time.

Through these times, Ruth and Ted have been very gracious in putting up with my infirmities, andthe heartaches that they endured on account of me cannot be described in words. I am so thankful for theirprayerful support and understanding. I am also thankful to some of the precious brothers and sisters in theseminary who enabled me to keep my focus on the things that were important and to maintain my priorities.The Lord granted me a number of opportunities to bear witness to Him and to His work in my life to whichI have been faithful. I have been called to preach / teach the word of God in a number of churches, and Iam grateful for all these marvelous experiences as He continues to equip me in the work that He has for me.

I had been praying to the Lord Jesus for 2 ½ years to show me the way where He would ministerthrough me. The Lord asked me to wait upon Him, and it was really frustrating for I was nearingthe end of my preparation at Erskine Seminary. On March 24, 1996 (Friday), while I was in the NewTestament II class taught by Dr. John Blumenstein, the Lord spoke to me through His word - specifically,the Epistle to the Philippians and said to me to follow Him to a place where they have had not hadthe best which I interpreted to mean that He was calling me to go to India. Only later He would showme how wrong I was in that interpretation. I was very apprehensive of that call, for one, I am noteven going to have my own family to support me in the God given ministry. Moreover, I know only ahandful of Christians, (Indians - not the ”wahoo” ones), the ones who had come to this country for avisit during the past two years. I was sincerely desiring in my heart that He would ask me to stay inthe United States and minister as His servant; but I have committed to the Lord that I would do His bidding.

I called home on the following Sunday, to share the good news that I was finally coming home andfor good for the Lord wanted me to do so. I did not get to share that with them, for Ganesh informedme that my mother was hospitalized because of congestive heart failure and probably needing a coronarybypass surgery. See the irony of God, the day He calls me to go back as His minister was the very daymy mother ends up in the hospital. They were contacting a number of doctors to ascertain her presentheart condition, and nothing really came to any avail for a week or so. They came to know that threearteries of her heart were completely blocked and that they needed to conduct the surgery at once. Theytried a few hospitals and came to realize that this surgery was above and beyond their means. My dadhad decided to sell the only apartment that was in his name, so that he could provide for the surgery. Asan act of desperation my dad asked me if I would be to contribute $ 6000 to $ 7000 for the surgery andthe medication that would ensue, which could thwart his plans of selling the apartment. At that time,I had only $ 50 in my bank account. In case if he had to sell the apartment, where would he and mother stay?

I cried to the Lord and laid this matter before His throne of grace. I had asked a few people topray concerning this situation and many of them responded with their prayers and financial support. I am

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so thankful to Dr. William Kuykendall (my Old Testament and Hebrew Professor) and to Myong Paik (myKorean sister and seminarian in the Lord) and to Timothy A. Erskine (not the founder of the Seminary,only a precious brother and a fellow seminarian in the Lord) for their diligent prayers and for their preciousfinancial support and concern for my mother. There were a number of others both at the First BaptistChurch at Westminster SC and at Erskine Theological Seminary who assured me that the Lord would takecare of this matter.

Within six weeks, the church and the Seminary collected $ 3,500 each to pay for mother’s surgeryand all I could say was, ”Thank you, Lord, for Your faithfulness,” as He reminded me of Joshua 1:5, ”No onewill be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; Iwill never leave you nor forsake you.” I sent the money immediately to India, and they were able to pay thecardiologist, Dr. Prasad, before the surgery. The surgery took longer than expected, and mother was havingbreathing problems following the surgery and had to be put on the respirator. I could not sleep on thenight that she had her surgery and the night following the surgery, because she had breathing problems, andprayed for her recovery. She was out of the Intensive Care Center within a matter of days and was dischargedfrom the hospital 9 days prior to her scheduled departure, and in that itself the Hand of the Lord was upon her.

The Lord has been really gracious upon her life, and maybe this will lay the foundation for her torecognize that the Lord Jesus is very real and not only her but the whole family. During this time, I wasnot able to concentrate on my studies, and the professors were very gracious in helping me out and givingme extensions to finish my class work. I still have a long way to go, but ”He is the same yesterday, todayand forever” (Hebrews 13:8). He has granted me to grow in the grace and knowledge of His dear Son,my Savior through these incredible situations where He enables me to rely upon Him alone. These areonly a few instances that have been written down, and God will add many such chapters in the days to come.

The LORD in His time sent me a very godly woman by the name of Trena and confirmed in bothour hearts that He had chosen one for the other. The meeting with Trena was truly a God-ordained event.We were married in February 1998 after which we moved to SC to pastor a church. When I was pastoringWarrenton church, He indicated to me that this was the place He wanted me to serve. He would confirmHis call that I was in the right place where He wanted me to be because I was still under the impressionthat I was going to be called back to go to India as His servant to preach and teach the blessed gospel ofour LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. While we were in SC, the LORD blessed our household with the gift ofa beautiful daughter, who was named Rachel in Sept 1999. We moved to Iowa at the LORD’s bidding atthe end of 1999 and this is where we have been since. We both are waiting on the LORD for an open doorwherein we can proclaim the gospel of the Blessed LORD Jesus Christ with all boldness. We would covetthe prayers Of God’s people during this time of transition.

This transition would last about two years during which time He would indeed lead us through some verydifficult situations to teach us concerning how to be dependent upon Him for our every need. It has beena difficult passage but we are thankful for bringing us through it to remind us that He is faithful and Heknows what He is doing through our lives for His honor and glory. When we found out that Trena waspregnant with our second child in January 2001, we were elated. The pregnancy progressed without muchincident this time around (unlike with her pregnancy with Rachel wherein she was dehydrated a couple oftimes and ended up in the hospital). On July 17, 2002, on a routine checkup, during an ultrasound thesonographer got concerned and sent us back to the doctor. The doctor then scheduled for us to do a level2 diagnostic ultrasound concerning the heart of the child in Trena’s womb the very next day, July 18th.After 3.5 hours of testing and going through three different level 2 diagnostic, Dr. Mahone, the attendingphysician, informed us that Mary had a condition called the Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. We hadno idea what this entailed or meant. We were then scheduled to meet with doctors in Iowa City at theUniversity of Iowa Hospital on July 19thsince the hospitals in Des Moines were ill-equipped to deal with the

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baby’s heart condition which required immediate open heart surgery.

Our trip then to Iowa City was made on the following day, July 19, 2001 wherein we waited an en-tire day trying to meet with the different physicians to get an understanding of what this heart conditionmeant and what were the consequences of having such a heart condition. By about 5pm that evening itwas informed that this condition was pretty serious and that it needed immediate attention. We could notmeet with the neonatologist or with the pediatric cardiac surgeon on that day and it was scheduled for us tomeet with them on the following Tuesday July 24, 2001. At that point, we met with the OB-Gyn who wasgoing to spearhead the delivery and they indicated to us that they were planning to induce Trena on July31, 2001 and our presence was requested there at 6 a.m. on that day at the University of Iowa Hospitalsat Iowa City, IA (about 125 miles from where we were living in Norwalk, IA (suburb of Des Moines). Wemet with the Neonatologist that afternoon and then with the Pediatric Cardiac Surgeon who did a level2 ultrasound and indicated that the child’s heart condition was pretty serious but now we were in good hands.

We proceeded to travel to Iowa City the afternoon before and spent the night at Trena’s sister’splace. The next morning we got to the hospital early in the morning and they got her hooked up atabout 8:00 a.m. The child was born at 1:16 p.m. weighing 5 lbs. 12.5 oz and 17.5 inches long. We hadwaited to find out what God had blessed us with and found out that the child was a girl and Rachelthat day became her big sister. We named her Mary Vishalam after her two grandmothers. She wasimmediately taken to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and it was nearly 3.5 hours before wewere allowed to go and see her. By this time Mary was hooked up to a IV drip, called prostaglandin,to keep her blood vessel (PDA – patent ductus arteriorus) which connects the Aorta to the PulmonaryArtery open so that she could have some oxygenated blood flow through her body. This medicationwas put in place until such time she could be operated upon. The very next day, August 1st, theyhad to put her on a nitrogen controlled environment so that they could monitor her level of oxygenintake. Mary looked peaceful and calm on the outside while on the inside she was battling for every breathto survive on her own. She was then moved to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) on Friday afternoon.

On August 06, 2001 she was taken to the operating room at 8:00 a.m. and we did not hear anynews until 5:00 p.m. that the doctors were still working with her in the operating room. Finally we got wordthat she was not doing too well and our pastor from First Baptist Church in Norwalk, IA, who was with us,started the prayer chain and within an hour or so, her heart was functioning as it should be and the surgeonwas confounded, but we knew it was God at work hearing the cries of His children and responding to them.

Mary finally got out of the recuperating room at 7:30 p.m. and the surgeon met us and explainedto us that she was not out of the woods yet. They had lost her on the table, but she was given CPR andbrought back within a couple of minutes. She had about 15 tubes coming out of her and with an open chestwherein one could see her little heart beating. We stayed around until 12:00 a.m. in the Pediatric IntensiveCare Unit (PICU) before calling it a night and retired to a Ronald MacDonald House a couple of blocksfrom the hospital. At 4:15 a.m. Trena called the PICU and was informed that Mary had a rough time butby now she had been stabilized with medication. At 5:00 a.m. the phone rang and the PICU nurse informedthat the intensivists had started CPR and told us to come right away. We made it there within 10 minutesand the doctors were furiously working on her trying to revive her. After 15 minutes or so, the surgeon (whohad spent the night at the hospital) pulled us aside and informed us that they had been giving her CPR forover 25 minutes and it was difficult to ascertain the brain damage that she had already suffered. He gaveus two option, one to stop CPR or the other to put her on EKMO Machine (Electro-Kardio MembranceOxygenator – in layman terms.. heart lung bypass machine). We asked for 5 minutes and we went out topray. We cried to our God and asked Him to grant us wisdom concerning the life of this child and whatdecision to make. He made it clear to us that He wanted us to let her go into His hands. This was the mostdifficult decision we ever had to make. We went back to the PICU and informed them to stop the CPR but

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the doctors asked us to give them five more minutes since they had injected her with some medication andallow them time to work through it. After our second insistence they finally quit CPR and we let Mary intoHis loving hands as He had commanded us. We held the lifeless body of our child in our hands at 7 daysold as it grew colder and colder with each passing moment. There was a smile on Mary’s face as if saying,”Daddy, Mommy, I beat you to Jesus.”

To check our second gift from the LORD, please click on the following link, [2]Mary Vishalam’sWebpage

We would learn a very difficult lesson through this struggle of losing Mary. God would indeed teachus that He does not put upon us anymore than we are able to bear (1 Corinthians 10:13). He also remindedus to Cast our every burden upon Him because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). He promised to sustain usby His grace through every difficult situation (Psalm 55:22; 2 Corinthians 12:9). Finally, He would teachus that He is working in all things for our good to us who love Him and are called in accordance to Hispurpose (Romans 8:28). He reveals through His Son in John 13:7, ”What I do now you do not understand,but you will understand hereafter.” He is Sovereign and we are thankful He has kept Mary from sufferingfurther upon this earth. His love was made manifest to draw us closer to Him as He met our every singleneed through Jesus Christ (Philippians 4:19).

God would then proceed to provide for all our financial needs to meet Mary’s hospital and funeralbills. We not only were in shock but God would bring us into a midst a number of people who had lost lovedones. He granted to us an opportunity to share with that community of people how God had shown Himselffaithful even as He says in His word in 1 Thessalonians 5:24, ”Faithful is He that calleth you, He also willdo it.” About six weeks following Mary’s passing we were contacted by a Baptist Church in IL. Over thecourse of the next three months, God would set into motion to bring the church and our family together. Heopened the door with an unanimous vote (the first one among the 12 they have had since it constituted in1952) to be called as their pastor, which in itself was an act of God, and we started at the end of December.The LORD has been blessing our ministry even as we had sought to put Him first in our lives and orientour priorities unto His Own. The LORD further confirmed our calling to this place when He allowed us tofind a house to buy within 2 days during Thanksgiving weekend of 2001. God’s grace is always sufficient forall our needs for He sees our needs and sends an answer to it before we even become aware of it.

In February of 2002, when my dad’s health worsened because of a stroke followed by a heart attack,the church granted us a month’s leave and allowed me to return to India to visit my parents. My dadhad lost over 60 pounds and was down to a meagre 100 pounds. We made our trip at the end of March2002 and it lasted for four weeks. Trena and Rachel accompanied me on this trip. We were able to sharethe gospel with my dad and he has started reading the Bible. It is our prayer that God would openhis blinded eyes to the glorious Gospel of His Son, our LORD Jesus Christ. Since our return, God hasbeen doing extra ordinary things at Paxton. Recently the church celebrated its 50th anniversary and weare thankful to the LORD for being in the midst of it. We look forward to God’s working at First Bap-tist Church to conform it to His will and to the image of His Son that He may be glorified all in all through her.

During my time here, God has impressed upon my heart that I need to be further grounded in Histruth. He has allowed me to see His passion for His people in this community and in this state. The LORDhas allowed us to see a great harvest and hunger in the lives of His people in this church wherein we havehad 15 people who are committed to reading through the Scriptures at least once a year. He has burdenedmy heart to be a witness unto Jesus Christ concerning His glorious salvation with at least one individual aday. He has allowed me to see His increase to His kingdom through bold witness like I have never seen beforein my life. He has granted me the privilege to see two young men surrender their lives to the LORD JesusChrist in response to His call to the gospel ministry and gave to me the privilege of mentoring them prior

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to that and during that process. One is already at Southern Seminary pursuing the call to the ministry.Right now, we are training members of this church to be bold witnesses to all peoples right here in this cityand surrounding areas. We had the privilege of holding our first ever evangelistic block party at the localcommunity park wherein we witnessed to about 75 and about 10 of them surrendered their lives to theLORDship of Jesus Christ that very day.

These are only a few instances that have been written down, and God will add many such chaptersin the days to come.

May the LORD bless you and keep you steadfast in the days to come as you look unto the Authorand Perfecter of our Faith even the LORD Jesus Christ to whom be the glory forever and ever (Hebrews12:1-2). Amen!!!!!!

To the Reader:

Maybe you have not been confronted with the gospel of the blessed LORD Jesus Christ in this mannerbefore. You may be asking what do I do now? Do not be concerned, the Bible gives us clear direction howyou can know Christ and have eternal life by believing on His name.

The first stage of your need is to Acknowledge Your Need. First, Agree with God that you have sinned, forthe Bible clearly tells us in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Youmay wonder what sin is. Ask yourself this question, “Have I ever lied?” What does that make you? A Liar!!!“Have I ever stolen anything (value is not important – if I take one dollar from your wallet or a $1000 dollars,I am still guilty of stealing)? What does that make you? A Thief!!! This one gets me, ‘Jesus said, “If aman looks upon a woman to lust after her, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” “Haveyou ever lusted after a woman?” So you see, by your own admission, you are a lying, thieving, adulterer atheart!!! So if God judges you by these commandments on the Day of Judgment, “Will you be innocent orguilty?” You know in your heart that you will be guilty just as I was. It also reaffirms to us that we have beencreated in sin and that our nature is to sin from our birth (Psalm 51:5; Ecclesiastes 7:20). Furthermore Godclearly states the consequences of our sins is death in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death.” Secondly,Admit to God that you cannot save yourself even as the Bible informs us in Titus 3:5, “Not by works ofrighteousness which we have done.” Furthermore our condemnation is made clear in Romans 3:20, “Also bythe deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Thirdly,Accept God’s provision for you in Jesus Christ as He tells us in this well known verse in John 3:16, “For Godso loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perishbut have everlasting life.” For God made Jesus Christ our atoning sacrifice as stated in 2 Corinthians 5:21,“God made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness ofGod,” and in John 1:29, “Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. ” In other words,Jesus took your punishment and my punishment for sin and paid our penalty on the cross. All you have todo is to turn from your sin once and for all and trust in Jesus Christ and you will have passed from deathto life (John 5:24).

The second stage of your need is to Become His Child. It is really not that complicated. First, Believein the LORD Jesus Christ for salvation as He states in Acts 16:31, “Believe on the LORD Jesus Christ andthou shalt be saved.” He has given you a very simple proposition as in Romans 10:9, “If you confess withyour mouth that Jesus is LORD and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shallbe saved.” John further iterates in John 1:12, “As many as believed on His Name, to them gave He the rightto become children of God.” Secondly, after you have confessed your sins and repented from it, you need to

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follow the LORD in obedience to His command to be Baptized in water even as Jesus commanded you inMatthew 28:19, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father,of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Thirdly, you need to start living a life that brings glory and honor tothe LORD Jesus Christ. You cannot do this on your own strength, but on the strength that Jesus providesyou on a daily basis, for Paul says in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthensme.” You do this by reading your bible on a daily basis to get spiritual nourishment even as God revealsHimself through His eternal unchanging word. Read 4 chapters a day, (one chapter at breakfast, one chapterduring lunch time, one chapter during supper and one chapter before you go to bed.” If you do this faithfullystarting from the first book of the bible Genesis, you would have read through the Bible in less than 10months. Also, learn to Bring all your requests to Jesus Christ, meaning pray. You learn to pray by praying.Praying is nothing but talking with God. I did not say, talking to, but talking with. You listen to God as Hespeaks to you through His holy unchanging word. Then you need to find a church where you can join fellowBelievers to worship and fellowship. This means you need to find a local church where the Bible is taughtand preached. Last but not least, you need to Bear witness to others. Telling others what about Jesus hasdone for you (Mark 5:19-20). Keep the focus on Jesus, not on yourself, since Jesus has commanded you tobe a witness for Him (Acts 1:8; John 15:27).

If you do know Him as your Lord and Savior, let this encourage your heart, and please continue to bearwitness to the All-Glorious Name Lord Jesus and may your life continue to be blessed by the Lord GodAlmighty. Understand the passion that the Lord has for His people, and wholeheartedly accept that whichHe lays upon your heart. For you see, He is the One who cares for you and asks that you cast all yourburdens and anxieties upon Him (1 Peter 5:7).

Praise the Lord, for He alone is Worthy. May the Lord uphold you in His Grace and keep you from stumblinguntil He comes again!!!

Amen and Amen and Amen

Source: PERSONAL TESTI-MONY OF ”NAVEEN”, accessed from the link:http://home.illicom.net/ naveen/, accessed on November7th 2008.

1. http://home.illicom.net/~naveen/letter.htm

2. http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/b/babymaryb

1.2.21 Inderpaul Singh (2008-11-25 12:37)

InderPaul Singh is a 23 years old Punjabi Christian in his final year of Mass Communications at TMCBusiness School in Singapore. He has a deep love for comedies, spicy food and football - Liverpool’s thebest!!. He is a ’born actor’ and is actively involved in the Drama Ministry of Khush Khabri Fellowship. Hisphilosophy in life is ”A cheerful heart is good medicine” and ”Serving this generation with the Love of Godmodelling the example of Jesus”

A New Creation

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My name is Inderpaul Singh and I am from Singapore. I was born into a Sikh family and, so, naturallyfollowed the customs and rituals that were associated with Sikhism. I would go to the Sikh temple, as thatwas the norm. That changed when my grandmother passed away in 1998, after which I never botheredgoing to the temple. I thought that since GOD is omnipresent the need for going to the temple to pray wasredundant. Praying at home would suffice, not that I did anyway! All these were just convenient excusesand I continued being apathetic.

My uncle brought me to Khush Kabri North Indian Fellowship for the first time in April 2004, and Iwas kind of amused seeing the congregation singing and dancing during the worship. All my life in the Sikhtemple made me think that you have to be very solemn when it came to GODLY matters and worship,yet here were people singing and dancing. After coming to terms with that, I sat through the message andrealised that what was being preached was totally pragmatic and I, a first timer to church, could relate toit. Once the message was over, most people went out for some refreshments and I felt shy because I knewno one there. Sensing this, Amit came and chatted with me. He was extremely friendly and very humble inhis mannerisms, which came as a shock. I found him to be a gentleman and from past experiences, almostall of the aesthetically pleasing North Indians I knew were arrogant. So it came as a pleasant shock that leftme with a good impression of Christians.

I came to Khush Kabri a few more times in 2004 and finally on December 2004, accepted The Lord Je-sus Christ as my personal saviour and God. The period that followed was not a rosy one: I had to deal witha lot of personal turbulence and at one point I even regretted what I had done. But one thing I can say forsure is that God was with me all through this period and I did not succumb to my problems. God gave methe strength of character to overcome them and I can confidently say that God loves each and every one ofus. If God can bless an ordinary person like myself, then why not you? We just have to let him and trustHim with all our heart. The ride that ensues will by no means be comfortable but even in your problems,there will be a peace of mind that only GOD can bestow.

Source:Testimony of Inderpaul Singh, A New Creation, by Inderpaul Singh, taken from thelink:http://www.southasianconnection.com/articles/30/1/Testimony-of- Inderpaul-Singh/Page1.html, ac-cessed on 17th November 2008

1.2.22 Rabi Maharaj (2008-11-25 12:39)

Rabi Maharaj is an Indian evangelist and founder of East-West Ministries. He is a descendent of a long lineof Brahmin priests and gurus and trained as a Yogi. Rabi was raised in Trinidad where he came to Christ.He is the most travelled Hindu convert who has spoken to thousands in colleges, universities, churches andcrusades worldwide. Rabi tells his remarkable story of his journey to Christ in the book, ”Death of a Guru”which has gone through several publications.

No matter how fulfilling life becomes, there are always certain regrets when one looks back. Mydeepest sense of loss involves my father. So much has happened since his death. I often wonder what itwould be like to share it all with him, and what his reaction would be.

We never shared anything in our lives. Because of vows he had taken before I was born, not once

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did he ever speak to me or pay me the slightest heed. Just two words from him would have made meunspeakably happy. How I wanted to hear him say, ”Rabi. Son.” Just once. But he never did.

For eight long years he uttered not a word. The trance-like condition he had achieved is called inthe East a state of higher consciousness and can be attained only through deep meditation.

”Why is Father that way?” I would ask my mother, still too young to understand. ”He is someonevery special – the greatest man you could have for a father,” she would reply. ”He is seeking the true Selfthat lies within us all, the One Being, of which there is no other. And that’s what you are too, Rabi.”

Father had set an example, achieved wide acclaim, and earned the worship of many, and it was in-evitable that upon his death his mantle would fall upon me. I had never imagined, however, that I wouldstill be so young when this fateful day arrived.

When father died I felt I had lost everything. Though I had scarcely known him as my father, hehad been my inspiration – a god – and now he was dead.

At his funeral, my father’s stiff body was placed on a great npile of firewood. The thought of hisbody being sacrificed to Agni, the god of fire, added a new dimension of mystery to the bewilderment anddeep sense of loss that already overwhelmed me.

As the flames engulfed him, it was impossible to suppress the anguish I felt. ”Mommy!” I screamed.”Mommy!” If she heard me above the roar of sparks and fire, she made no indication. A true Hindu, shefound strength to follow the teaching of Krishna: she would mourn neither the living nor the dead. Notonce did she cry as the flames consumed my father.

After my father’s funeral, I became a favorite subject for the palm-readers and astrologers who fre-quented our house. Our family would hardly make an important decision without consulting an astrologer,so it was vital that my future be confirmed in the same way. It was encouraging to learn that the lines onmy palms and the planets and stars, according to those who interpreted them, all agreed I would become agreat Hindu leader. I was obviously a chosen vessel, destined for early success in the search for union withBrahman (the One). The forces that had guided my father were now guiding me.

I was only eleven and already many people were bowing before me, laying gifts of money, cottoncloth, and other treasures at my feet and hanging garlands of flowers around my neck at religious cere-monies.

How I loved religious ceremonies – especially private ones in our own home or those of others, wherefriends and relatives would crowd in. There I would be the center of attention, admired by all. I loved tomove through the audience, sprinkling holy water on worshipers or marking foreheads with the sacred whitesandalwood paste. I also loved how the worshipers, after the ceremony, bowed low before me to leave theirofferings at my feet.

While vacationing at an Aunt’s ranch, I had my first real encounter with Jesus. I was walking alongenjoying nature one day and was startled by a rustling sound in the underbrush behind me. I turned quicklyand, to my horror, saw a large snake coming directly toward me – its beady eyes staring intently into mine.I felt paralyzed, wanting desperately to run but unable to move.

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In that moment of frozen terror, out of the past came my mother’s voice, repeating words I hadlong forgotten: ”Rabi, if ever you’re in real danger and nothing else seems to work, there’s another god youcan pray to. His name is Jesus.”

”Jesus! Help me!” I tried to yell, but the desperate cry was choked and hardly audible.

To my astonishment, the snake turned around and quickly wriggled off into the underbrush. Breath-less and still trembling, I was filled with wondering gratitude to this amazing god, Jesus. Why had mymother not taught me more about him?

During my third year in high school I experienced an increasingly deep inner conflict. My growingawareness of God as the Creator, separate and distinct from the universe He had made, contradicted theHindu concept that god was everything, that the Creator and the Creation were one and the same. If therewas only One Reality, then Brahman was evil as well as good, death as well as life, hatred as well as love.That made everything meaningless, life an absurdity. It was not easy to maintain both one’s sanity and theview that good and evil, love and hate, life and death were One Reality.

One day a friend of my cousin Shanti, whose name was Molli, came by to visit. She asked meabout whether I found Hinduism fulfilling. Trying to hide my emptiness, I lied and told her I was veryhappy and that my religion was the Truth. She listened patiently to my pompous and sometimes arrogantpronouncements. Without arguing, she exposed my emptiness gently with politely phrased questions.

She told me that Jesus had brought her close to God. She also said that God is a God of love andthat He desires us to be close to Him. As appealing as this sounded to me, I stubbornly resisted, not willingto surrender my Hindu roots.

Still, I found myself asking, ”What makes you so happy? You must have been doing a lot of medi-tation.”

”I used to,” Molli responded, ”but not any more. Jesus has given me a peace and joy that I neverknew before.” Then she said, ”Rabi, you don’t seem very happy. Are you?”

I lowered my voice: ”I’m not happy. I wish I had your joy.” Was I saying this?

”My joy is because my sins are forgiven,” said Molli. ”Peace and joy come from Christ, through re-ally knowing Him.”

We continued talking for half a day, unaware of how the time had passed. I wanted her peace andjoy, but I was absolutely resolved that I wasn’t going to give up any part of my religion.

As she was leaving, she said: ”Before you go to bed tonight, Rabi, please get on your knees and askGod to show you the Truth – and I’ll be praying for you.” With a wave of her hand she was gone.

Pride demanded that I reject everything Molli had said, but I was too desperate to save face anylonger. I fell to my knees, conscious that I was giving in to her request.

”God, the true God and Creator, please show me the truth!” Something inside me snapped. For thefirst time in my life, I felt I had really prayed and gotten through – not to some impersonal Force, but tothe true God who loves and cares. Too tired to think any longer, I crawled into bed and fell asleep almostinstantly.

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Soon after, my cousin Krishna invited me to a Christian meeting. I again surprised myself by re-sponding: ”Why not?”

On our way there, Krishna and I were joined by Ramkair, a new acquaintance of his. ”Do you knowanything about this meeting?” I asked him, anxious to get some advance information.

”A little,” he replied. ”I became a Christian recently.”

”Tell me,” I said eagerly. ”Did Jesus really change your life?” Ramkair smiled broadly. ”He sure did!Everything is different.”

”It’s really true, Rab!” added Krishna enthusiastically. ”I’ve become a Christian too – just a fewdays ago.”

The preacher’s sermon was based on Psalm 23, and the words, ”The Lord is my shepherd,” mademy heart leap. After expounding the Psalm, the preacher said: ”Jesus wants to be your Shepherd. Have youheard His voice speaking to your heart? Why not open your heart to Him now? Don’t wait until tomorrow– that may be too late!” The preacher seemed to be speaking directly to me. I could delay no longer.

I quickly knelt in front of him. He smiled and asked if anyone else wanted to receive Jesus. No onestirred. Then he asked the Christians to come forward and pray with me. Several did, kneeling beside me.For years Hindus had bowed before me – and now I was kneeling before a Christian.

Aloud I repeated after him a prayer inviting Jesus into my heart. When the preacher said, ”Amen,”he suggested I pray in my own words. Quietly, choking with emotion, I began: ”Lord Jesus, I’ve neverstudied the Bible, but I’ve heard that you died for my sins at Calvary so I could be forgiven and reconciledto God. Please forgive me all my sins. Come into my heart!”

Before I finished, I knew that Jesus wasn’t just another one of several million gods. He was theGod for whom I had hungered. He Himself was the Creator. Yet, He loved me enough to become a man anddie for my sins. With that realization, tons of darkness seemed to lift and a brilliant light flooded my soul.

After arriving home, Krishna and I found the entire family waiting up for us, apparently havingheard what had happened. ”I asked Jesus into my life tonight!” I exclaimed happily, as I looked from one toanother of those startled faces. ”It’s glorious. I can’t tell you how much he means to me already.”

Some in my family seemed wounded and bewildered; others seemed happy for me. But before it wasall over with, thirteen of us had ended up giving our hearts to Jesus! It was incredible.

The following day I walked resolutely into the prayer room with Krishna. Together we carried ev-erything out into the yard: idols, Hindu scriptures, and religious paraphernalia. We wanted to rid ourselvesof every tie with the past and with the powers of darkness that had blinded and enslaved us for so long.

When everything had been piled on the rubbish heap, we set it on fire and watched the flames con-sume our past. The tiny figures we once feared as gods were turning to ashes. We hugged one another andoffered thanks to the Son of God who had died to set us free.

I found my thoughts going back to my father’s cremation nearly eight years before. In contrast toour new found joy, that scene had aroused inconsolable grief. My father’s body had been offered to the very

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same false gods who now lay in smoldering fragments before me. It seemed unbelievable that I should beparticipating with great joy in the utter destruction of that which represented all I had once believed in sofanatically.

In a sense this was my cremation ceremony – the end of the person I had once been...the death of aguru. The old Rabi Maharaj had died in Christ. And out of that grave a new Rabi had risen in whomChrist was now living.

(Editor’s Note: If you would be interested in a detailed account of Rabi’s conversion, his book Death ofa Guru is available on Amazon.com. Rabi is presently based in Southern California and is involved inevangelism all over the world. He invites you to write to: East/West Gospel Ministries, P.O. Box 2191, LaHabra, CA 90632.)

Copyright 1994 by the Christian Research Institute.

Source:Death of a Guru - The Story of Rabi Maharaj, by Rabi Mahara, taken from thelink:http://www.southasianconnection.com/articles/24/1/Death-of-a-Gu ru—The-Story-of-Rabi-Maharaj/Page1.html, accessed on 17th November 2008

1.3 December

1.3.1 Bro. Anil Kumar (2008-12-12 05:40)

[1]Bro. Anil Kumar\’s Testimony

1. http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=oF_Gz2WHorw

1.3.2 (2008-12-12 12:43)

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Bottom of Form

Who is Jesus Christ? Is Yeshua (Hebrew for “Jesus”) really the promised Messiah of Israel (Hebrew for“Christ”) of the Old Testament?” Is Jesus Christ truly the Son of God … literally God Himself, the Divineliving within human flesh? Were Jesus Christ’s claims that of a Liar or Lunatic … or is He really Lord ofthe universe?

You may want to take a [1]tour of some of the major highlights of Jesus’ life. Or you may want to [2]previewwhat people were saying before Christ was born. Of course, you may want to check out Jesus’ [3]claimsabout himself. Some may be interested in learning about the [4]muscle Jesus exercised and the miracles heperformed.

Knowledgeable people will agree that Jesus Christ has made quite an [5]impact on the world. You may evencome to learn that Yeshua is indeed the promised Messiah of the Old Testament. If you prefer, you can taketime to further [6]investigate Jesus Christ’s claims in the New Testament.

But after all is said and done, the key question for [7]you is, “What does all this information about JesusChrist have to do with my life?” Or, you may have other [8]questions. The following describes how you canbegin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ today, experience forgiveness of your sins, receive eternal life,and gain a whole new purpose for living.

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Just as there are physical laws that govern the physical universe, so are there spirituallaws which govern your relationship with God.

1. God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life.

(References contained on this page are from the Bible and should be read in context wherever possible.)

God’s Love

”God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish,but have eternal life” (John 3:16 NIV).

God’s Plan

Why is it that most people are not experiencing the abundant life?

Because...

2. Man is sinful and separated from God. Therefore, he cannot know andexperience God’s love and plan for his life.

Man Is Sinful

”All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Man was created to have fellowship with God; but, because of his stubborn self-will, he chose to go his ownindependent way, and fellowship with God was broken. This self-will, characterized by an attitude of activerebellion or passive indifference, is evidence of what the Bible calls sin.

Man Is Separated

”The wages of sin is death” [spiritual separation from God] (Romans 6:23).

This diagram illustrates that God is holy and man is sinful. A great gulf separates the two. The arrowsillustrate that a man is continually trying to reach God and the abundant life through his own efforts, suchas seeking to lead a good life, philosophy, or religion - but he inevitably fails.

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The third law explains the only way to bridge this gulf...

3. Jesus Christ is God’s ONLY provision for man’s sin. Through Him you can know andexperience God’s love and plan for your life.

He Died in Our Place

”God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners,Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

He Rose From the Dead

”Christ died for our sins...He was buried...He was raised on the third day, according tothe Scriptures...He appeared to Peter, then to the twelve. After that He appeared tomore than five hundred...” (1 Corinthians 15:3-6).

He Is the Only Way to God

”Jesus said to him, ’I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father,but through Me’” (John 14:6).

This diagram illustrates that God has bridged the gulf which separates us from Him by sending His Son,Jesus Christ, to die on the cross in our place to pay the penalty for our sins.

However, it is not enough just to know these three laws...

4. We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can knowand experience God’s love and plan for our lives.

John 3:1-8

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. Hecame to Jesus at night and said, ”Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no onecould perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

In reply Jesus declared, ”I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

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”How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. ”Surely he cannot enter a second time into hismother’s womb to be born!”

Jesus answered, ”I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of waterand the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprisedat my saying, ’You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but youcannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Scripture taken from the New International Version.

We Must Receive Christ

”As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God,even to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12).

We Receive Christ Through Faith

”By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it isthe gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast” (Ephesians 2:8,9).

When We Receive Christ, We Experience a New Birth

(Read [9]John 3:1-8)

We Receive Christ by Personal Invitation

[Christ speaking] ”Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears My voice and opensthe door, I will come in to him” (Revelation 3:20).

Receiving Christ involves turning to God from self (repentance) and trusting Christ to come into our livesto forgive our sins and to make us what He wants us to be. Just to agree intellectually that Jesus Christis the Son of God and that He died on the cross for your sins is not enough. Nor is it enough to have anemotional experience. You receive Jesus Christ by faith, as an act of the will.

These two circles represent two kinds of lives:

Which circle best describes your life?

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Which circle would you like to have represent your life?

The following explains how you can receive Christ:

You can receive Christ right now by faith through prayer:

(Prayer is talking to God)

God knows your heart and is not so concerned with your words as He is with the attitude of your heart.The following is a suggested prayer:

”Lord Jesus, I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life andreceiveYou as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of thethrone of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be.”

Does this prayer express the desire of your heart? If it does, I invite you to pray this prayer right now andChrist will come into your life, as He promised.

Did you pray this prayer?

[10]

[11]I still have questions[12]I am already a follower of Jesus

Source: http://www.whoisjesus-really.com/

1. http://www.whoisjesus-really.com/english/tour.htm

2. http://www.whoisjesus-really.com/english/preview.htm

3. http://www.whoisjesus-really.com/english/claims.htm

4. http://www.whoisjesus-really.com/english/muscle.htm

5. http://www.whoisjesus-really.com/english/impact.htm

6. http://www.whoisjesus-really.com/english/studyd.htm

7. http://www.whoisjesus-really.com/english/you.htm

8. http://www.greatcom.org/resources/toughquestions/

9. http://www.whoisjesus-really.com/

10. http://www.whoisjesus-really.com/english/feedbak-yes.htm

11. http://www.whoisjesus-really.com/english/feedbak.htm

12. http://www.whoisjesus-really.com/english/feedbak.htm

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Edited: December 23, 2008