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 couldn’t 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 couldn’t 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 mother’s 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
Sixteen years ago, 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. 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. We prayed and asked God to send us to a place where there were no Christians. He led us to a village known as Maloya.
The people of Maloya are Hindu and Sikh. We would walk everyday 18 km(12 Miles) round trip to hand out Gospel tracts to the people. In the beginning we were collecting discarded tracts because the people were not interested. Many people mocked us, because they thought we were there just to have fun and not work.
For one year there was no response. It was very hard on us because we had no family there and no friends. But, we continued. One day a Hindu man stopped us and questioned what we were doing. We introduced ourselves as full time ministers of 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. He suffered from epilepsy. The doctors could not give him relief. He also was in great financial debt. We told him that through Jesus Christ there is hope. 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 was given a job as a cook and got out of debt and was able to keep his home. We then began praying, teaching and counseling them over the next month. Their neighbors tried to discourage them from associating with the Christians. One woman, who was possessed by a spirit, told this man and his family not to believe what we were teaching them. So they began to come to our house. They were so amazed at the love we showed them that they decided to never return to Hinduism.
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 250 new believers from the village of Maloya.
