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Miraculous Salvation Testimony - India
September 29, 2004
EVANGELIST STEPHEN
Dear Most Honorable & Beloved in the Lord, Ron & Barbara McGatlin
Greetings to you in Jesus’ Matchless Name. I am Evangelist Stephen live in Rajahmundry Andhra Pradesh, South India. I was a Hindu by birth. In the beginning I and my parents did not like Jesus. When I was 15 years, one day as I was passing on the road I heard some singing. I simply went in to hear the songs because they were good to hear. I had not heard such singing before. It was the first time for me to hear the songs and hearing the Word of God. It was very much interesting but I couldn’t understand that preaching. So that night I went home and I couldn’t sleep as I was reco! llecting the message that preacher preached.
He was preaching how Jesus died on the cross and though we are sinners He died for us, He showed His Love for the whole mankind. For the first time in life I heard the Love of Jesus. Then I thought about who this Jesus was. Is He greater than our 33 ½ millions of gods, because we had many gods? I was just seeing Jesus on the cross which was preached. Last night while that preaching was going on, so many people were on their faces weeping and confessing their sins, but I was just staring at them without understanding what was happening. The whole night I was awake and not sleeping.
Then the next morning I went to the place where the meeting was conducted and I found no one. Then I found one old man and asked him about the last night meeting. He said that was the last meeting and it was over and all the people had gone. I asked about the preacher. The old man replied that he was from a far off city and! had gone. Then I started crying as if I lost something because I could not get that preacher to share with him about my peace-less life. At the age of 15, I was a smoker and a drunkard. I had done lots of sins. I thought I would go to hell and there was no one to bring me out of hell, and there was no one to whom I could confess all my sins and escape the hell. I thought that I should confess with that preacher and he will forgive me. I didn’t know about Jesus at that time so I thought like that.
Then I fell on my face and started crying from morning till evening. I didn’t know the time. I fell on my face about 6:30 in the morning and by the time I got up it was about 7.30 in the evening. When I got up, even that old man also had gone. It was very dark and no one was on the ground! except me. I was just all alone on the ground. I didn’t feel like getting up from the ground. I was still crying before that time. I didn’t know how to confess, but slowly I was confessing all my sins, talking as if there was someone to hear what I was saying, telling all that I had done. I saw all the sins which I had done as if watching a movie. I didn’t know who was showing all these. I was all alone on that big ground. No one came and talked to me. I was crying the whole night. I thought there was no hope for me and I would die with all my sinful life.
Then all of a sudden there was a dazzling light, which I have never seen in my life and no one would have seen that kind of light. I didn’t know the time. I saw one Man hanging on the cross, bleeding from His HANDS, BODY, HEAD FOREHEAD, LEGS, and SIDE, bleeding FROM ALL HIS BODY. I didn’t know that He was Jesus. I saw Jesus Christ for the first time in my life. The Blood of Jesus came and cleanse! d all my sins. My heart became light. Until that time my heart was heavy and burdened. Praise the Lord. It was early morning 4.00 a.m.. For almost 22 hours I was in the presence of Our Dear Loving Lord Jesus Christ. The previous day I came at 6.30; now it was 4.00 a.m. Next morning Our Dear Loving Lord Jesus Christ told me that he forgave all my sins. Praise God for salvation in Jesus Christ. I am very happy that Jesus came into my heart. In the beginning I thought that I should confess with the preacher who came from a far off place that I was a sinner but now I realized that only Our Dear Loving Lord Jesus Christ can forgive us. From that t! ime onward I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour and I have been living as His child. Praise the Lord.
As this was going on the meeting ground something else was going at my house. I came out from my house the previous day morning (in 1979 March 4th) at 5.30, and my parents and friends and family members were searching for me till the next morning. They were worried very much for I didn’t eat breakfast, lunch and dinner and didn’t come home. I reached home on March 5th morning around 8.00 a.m. Parents, my relatives, friends, all others were surprised to see me and they all asked me where I went. I told then I met Jesus. Then they all were again surprised because we were a high caste Hindus in India. Here in India we have a caste system, which is very bad. We have divisions in the Hindu religions. We are the priestly caste, which is very high caste in India. We treat Christians as the low caste people. So our fathers and forefathers taught us that we should not make friendship with Christians; they are downtrodden and low caste people. So all of a sudden when I came and told them that I met Jesus and He cleansed all my sins they got angry and started beating me with sticks and rods. “You fellow,! you had brought a bad name to our caste and religion”. They called elders of our caste from the city and started beating me more and more. Actually they wanted to kill me. They almost did that. They beat me and left me, thinking that I was dead, but I was left half dead and was there for three full days. I had no food and no care. I suffered a lot with all the wounds.
They dragged me into one of the biggest four-road intersection of our town from our house. After three days I found one man with Dazzling Pure White Dress came and touched me and it was very soft and much loving; my wounds and pains were healed. I didn’t know who He was. He took me to a Church and left me and He went away telling me that I should go the Church regularly. For the first time in my life I entered into the church. The Pastor came and took me into his house and prayed and gave me food because I had no food for almost 4 days. That Sunday the Pastor ask! ed me to share all this testimony in the Church, and many people were crying and Praising God. After the worship my parents and relatives came to that church making much noises saying, “Bring that boy. We want to kill him. If you don’t bring him we will kill all of you.” All the Church members were praying with tears. Thinking that Pastor and the church members would handover me to my parents, I ran away through the back door. That night I came back to talk to the Pastor, he told me that knowing I ran away for the church my parents went away in the morning and came back the next morning, but I wasn’t there.
Praise God for the Lord had saved me from my sins as well from death. That night the Pastor prayed and gave me some money and told me to leave town and go to a big city where no one could find me. He gave me the address of a senior pastor in that city along with a letter, introducing me to the pastor. The next morning I came and met the Senior Pastor. I ! shared my testimony. Though the senior pastor was poor those days, he took me and made me his own son. As he was poor he could not feed his family and me but by God’s Grace he took care of me. After testing me for 3 full years he baptized me on June 13th in 1982. I was filled with the Holy Spirit when I was 17 years. He sent me to the Bible School. Since 19 years I have been preaching the Gospel where it is not preached. He went to be with the Lord. Before his demise he told me to run the Church, which he started and also wrote that in His Will. Now I am ministering in that church and with much financial difficulties I am doing the ministry. ! Please pray for the financial needs in our needy Ministries.
There are many orphan children like me in India. Due to lack of food and care most of them are becoming robbers, thieves, cheaters, criminals, street beggars, child labourers, and granite stonecutters. Many orphan children are living in terrible dirty places in our area. The girl orphan situation is miserable and pathetic. These children are selling their bodies for feeding and have been cheated by the sex industry cheaters. God put a burden in my heart among the helpless starved orphan children. By the grace of the Lord I have been feeding 16 orphan children by faith. There are many pathetic and sorrowful stories are behind these orphan children. We also help poor lepers and widows. We do medical camps, etc. Please pray.
If you would like to visit our church and the Ministries, please feel free to write to us so that we can arrange everything. We would like to invite you to India to share the Love and Word of our Lord Jesus Christ among perishing souls. If you would like to know more about the Ministry that is going on here you can please contact me. I humbly request you to kindly consider us and visit our ministries. Please do not say that you don’t have time but rather please make time for the Lord’s ministry in India. There are many millions of people like me in India. So please make this as one of your Main Mission Projects. I am also sending you few pictures of our ministry and if you need more please feel free to ask and I will send them ASAP. Please visit our Ministries here in India. Thanking you…
Yours in the Lord,
Brother Stephen
Jampet Rajahmundry, Telephone: 0091-98480-20123
livingjust4jesus@yahoo.com
Location: Jampet Rajahmundry, India
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