MY PERSONAL TESTIMONY
For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Philippians 1:21
I was born and brought up in an orthodox Hindu family, where we worshiped idols and gave priority to goddesses. We were very zealous about caste; we used to ridicule people of lower castes and tribal people. We even thought that Christians were also of the low caste. This is why we never allowed any Christians or low-caste people into our home nor did let alone touch them. We had our own isolated puja (prayer) room in our house, which contained 27 pictures of various idols. Twenty years ago our entire family was attacked by witchcraft, performed by our neighbor. Consequently, my mother and I were demon possessed. For example, while we were starting to have our food, the cooked rice turned into worms. Many nights we couldnt sleep because we heard somebody knocking at our door at nights, but when we opened the door no one was there. In the morning, we woke up to see all our things scattered about. We approached many magicians to try to get rid of these problems and demons. We spent a lot of money and went to many Hindu temples to offer money and materials. But we couldnt find any deliverance, rather the problems increased even more than before. At last, one Sunday all eight of our family members decided to commit suicide. But fortunately a lady who was serving in a Catholic Church behind our home passed through our house. She asked us, "Why do you look very sad?" As she was talking to my grandmother, the lady entered our home and looked into our puja (prayer) room. Then she said, "In this puja (prayer) room you are keeping many gods, pictures and idols. Did any god died for your sins, except Jesus Christ?" Though we had read some books about Hinduism, we never found any god like Jesus, who died on the cross and who was resurrected from the dead.
Finally we confessed that Jesus is the only God, who died for our sins. Then we shared our problems with the lady and she invited us to attend church. Miraculously, our family escaped from committing suicide. We obtained peace of mind but as we discovered later, not full deliverance from the demons. After some time, one of my mothers colleagues invited us for an all-night prayer meeting at the Church of South India (Madras), which we attended for seven months. But on the seventh month the demons attacked my mother and me more vigorously. Then the pastor told us about confession of sin and salvation through Christ. The same days my mother was delivered, but I was yet to receive any deliverance. My parents sincerely repented and were baptized. We went back home burned all our idols, pictures, etc.
Three months after my parents` conversion, I was again terribly attached by the demons and laid in bed unconscious for seven days. Even my parents lost hope that I would gain consciousness again. But the pastor from the Pentecostal Church prayed without taking a drop of water for seven days and I got life back. Thorough this event, all the rest of our family came to the Lord and since that time our entire family have been devoted only to Christ. All this occurred in 1979. After that I went on to further study. While I was completing my degree the Lord called me to serve him full time. He confirmed my call through Luke 6:13 \"AND WHEN DAY CAME HE CALLED HIS DISCIPLES AND CHOSE TWELVE OF THEM, WHOME HE ALSO NAMED APOSTLES\'. I had the privilege of studying the word of God for three years in a seminary (B.D) school at Dehra Dun Uttranchel in North India. There I received the burden for Punjabis to share the love of Jesus Christ and in 1993, I became a pioneer missionary along with my family. I worked as Project Manager under World Vision in Dehra Dun in the state of Utter Pradesh. I was promoted as Coordinator and transferred to Chandigarh when the Lord spoke to me in 1993 to be a church planter.
EARLY MINISTRY (START UP) ESTABLISHMENT OF OUR CHURCH
"Go into all the world and preach the good news "Mark 16:15
In 1993 my wife and I were called, by the Grace of God to go into Northern India, a place where the Gospel had not been preached. At that time I had been working as project coordinator for World Vision in Chandigarh the state capital of Punjab and Hariyana in Northern India. The Lord put on our hearts to become a church planter. Since then we prayed and asked God to send us to a place where there were no Christians nor church. He led us through a brother in Christ to a village known as Maloya where we found no Christian nor church. Here in the village of Maloya is having 5 Hindu temples and 4 sikh temples and 2 Muslim Mosque but no church at all.
The people of Maloya are Hindu, Sikh and Muslim. We used walk everyday 18 km round trip to hand out Gospel tracts to the people of Maloya We had started given out the tracks although the people were not interested to receive such tracks particularly Christianity . Many people mocked us, because they thought we were there just to have fun and not work. For one year there was no response in our ministry in that village. It was very hard on us because we had no family there and no friends to encourage and help any way. But, we continued with encouragement of the Word of God. One day a Hindu man stopped us and questioned what we were doing. Then we introduced ourselves as full time ministers of God and stated that we are to help the people to make known one real and loving and eternal God .We shared our testimony and the Gospel with him. He was very much attracted to our message and us. He soon shared his problems with us that he was being suffering from epilepsy since 25 years. Event he doctors were given up him. He also was in great financial debt. We conversed with him that there is hope in the Lord Jesus Christ . That very day, he and his family accepted Jesus as their savior. We prayed for him and he was delivered from epilepsy and soon after he got a job as a cook and got out of debt and was able to keep his home. And as a family they had taken off all the idols and other stuff in connection of. We had began praying, teaching and counseling them over a month. Their neighbors tried to discourage them from associating with the Christians. One woman, who had been possessed by a spirit (goddess), and said you were worshiping me since childhood and I amtruegoddess , do not believe them. It was seem like they were getting confusion and discouragement. So we had invited them to our house for a meal and prayed and taught the scriptures. Instantly they had been so much encouraged and helped by the Word of god. And they became so strong and stood with the Word of God. Since then they began to come to our house for prayer and fasting. They were so amazed at the love we showed them that they decided to never return to Hinduism. At last we had given a discipleship training at our house about 3 months. Because of they strong faith and healing they started witnessing to their own family those are rejected them after they became Christians by immersion baptism. Praise the Lord! After this, one by one his extended family came to know Jesus as their savior. Many other people in the community also heard of the miracles that happened and came to hear about this hope. In ten years time, we have had the privilege of baptizing 350 new believers from the village of Maloya. Most of them delivered from possession of demons and healed from incurable diseases and debts as well.
Our church has grown so much that we are in need of expanding building. Currently we are having a very small building to hold our services. By the grace of God from our own church we raised five servants of God, those who had been saved from Hindu community through our ministry from Maloya and sent them to different parts of Punjab as a missionary There are five Sunday school centers have been established and VBS also being conducted every year June. Also, we have a day care center for poor children where children are collected from streets and poor homes etc and given a meal and education without collecting any money from this poor community. These are the channels been used to drawn adults and children for Christ Kingdom in this persecuting area for Christianity. In spite of every hurdles and opposition for Gospel the Kingdom of God is extending by preaching and teaching and seminars and Sunday Schools (WE HAVE ESTABLISHED SO FAR 6 CENTERS WITH 60 CHILDREN IN EACH CENTER) etc.
updated by @cvjagan-mohan: 02/05/23 02:34:43PM
