GREETINGS TO YOU IN THE NAME OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

TESTIMONY

It is a privilege to share our testimony with you. 

I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly (congregation) I will praise You. (Psalm 22:22)

I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You. (Hebrews 2:12)

I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth From the great assembly. (Psalm 40:10)

OUR LIFE BEFORE CHRIST 

I was born and brought up in a devoted Hindu family in Sri Lanka. My parents, especially my mother is a devout Hindu who follows Hindu religion seriously. My parents have a great belief in Reincarnation & Horoscope (Reincarnation means Life goes through birth, life, death, and rebirth, Horoscope is a picture of the nine planets position during the birth of any Hindu boy or a Hindu girl, the nine planets collectively are called Navagraha. They are found mostly in all the temples. And we would worship them just to overcome any hindrance, obstacle or bad luck in our lives. Astrologers/Priests, the people who studied astrology will analyse and calculate the position of the planets through the person’s horoscope and tell people their future and predictions. Hindu Parents put a great effort to find a person whose horoscope match with their daughter/son, if their horoscope matches, they believe the couple will lead a good life together. 

In my late teens and early 20s I had Shani Dosha so my parents feared Lord Shani Bhagawan can bring various obstacles, delays, and hardships in my life, So I was asked to wear a black thread on my hand until Shani Dosha finish, in addition I was asked to light a sesame oil lamp in front of Shani Bhagawan idol, donate items like black clothes, black sesame seeds and to feed the crows on Saturdays to please and pacify Lord Shani Bhagawan (Crow - it is believed to be the vehicle of Shani Bhagawan). And I did them for years. At my early 20s two times I participated Thailabhishekham ceremony (Oil bath to the deities), it is also called as Oil Abhishekham. 

I also walked barefoot on a burning 🔥 coal with my mother for few years (I believe three years) at the Punnaicholai Kaali Temple in my home town Batticaloa, that day the devotees / fire walkers may take on a strict vegetarian diet or fast, by doing these things, we strongly believed that due to the grace of our Hindu Deities we would prosper in our lives. Not only I worshipped Idles but also I worshipped a man called Kengataranandaji (known as Suvamiji) for about ten years, on Saturdays and Festival days we would attend His Bhajanai, in the morning my elder brother and I would make garlands and would give them to our neighbour to decorate the pictures of Kengataranandaji.

Of course while I was in Sri Lanka, I had heard about Jesus Christ, My Aunt (My Mum's elder sister) and Uncle are Christians, they used to sing loud  and pray in their House in Batticaloa, however we were so proud to be Hindus.  I can recall an incident ( happened in Colombo in my early 20s ) I was constantly invited for the prayer meeting by Pastor Wesley Rajathurai (Father of My Dear friend Pastor Edward Wesley, who currently lives in Australia). and I once attended a prayer meeting at their house and I was offered a Bible after the prayer meeting. In the prayer meeting they played Guitar and sang some songs loudly (I hardly remember what happened at the prayer meeting). I took the Bible Home as I din't want to hurt them and put it aside in my room. I didn't even open or read a single page. I still regret for rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ in my early 20s.

In 2008, I got married to my beautiful wife Dan with both parents consent, My wife was born and brought up in a Buddhist family in Sri Lanka. I and My wife used to go to Hindu Temples and Buddhist Temples. After marriage she became more of a Hindu person and followed Hindu religion seriously and obeyed the strict rituals. I remember there was a Christian church next to our flat in Colombo, they used to have a morning and a evening service (in all three languages) on Sundays. You know what, on Sundays we would never use the the front gate of our flat and would use the back gate of the flat just to ignore the Christian people. 

HOW WE CAME TO KNOW CHRIST AND

OUR LIFE AFTER COMING TO KNOW CHRIST

We migrated to England in 2010. Later, Pastor Melvin said on that particular day He had migraine and was in bed when my older brother called him for help, Had He not had migraine He would have gone to church and would not have answered my brother's call. I now believe that, It was all His plan and purpose even though we did not know God Jesus, He loved us and worked behind the scene in our life. God has been so kind. It also gave me great responsibility knowing We entered the UK through God’s divine intervention. 

In England the Lord our God Jesus created another opportunity for us to go to church through my elder brother's friend Pastor. Melvin. After that, We began attending Sunday services, Bible study and prayer meetings regularly. We began to learn that when Jesus died on the cross, he made it possible for my sins to be forgiven. When he rose again he made it possible for someone like me to go to heaven. This was an alien concept to me. All my life I was told that only strict performance of religious duties and purity of mind and body can bring you near to god. But now suddenly I came across this new teaching that there is nothing I can do to earn God’s forgiveness, nothing I can do to earn a place in heaven except through faith in Jesus

My wife was diagnosed with thyroid at 18 years of old and the doctors in Sri Lanka and the doctors in England advised Her to take medicine for the rest of Her life and said that she is less likely to become pregnant and even it can cause problems during pregnancy itself more likely to have miscarriages. But She put her trust in the Lord Jesus and stopped taking Her medicine. I told Her that, it is not the right thing, if She doesn't take Her medicine as prescribed by GP it could lead to serious health problems and asked Her to do what GP said to Her, But She chose not to (At that time I was worshiping both idols and Jesus, but She put Her trust in the Lord Jesus and worshipping Him). About three or four months later, She received a letter from the GP for a check up, and She ignored that letter, and I was not happy, another letter came, stating that if She didn't see the GP, they may remove Her from the GP. She now had no option and went to GP and had Her thyroid checked, I couldn't believe, even the GP, the tests showed nothing, She is fully healed. Glory be to the Lord our God Jesus. He was so faithful to his words. Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame (Romans 10:11) He is our great physician (Exodus 15:26) there is nothing too hard for him (Jeremiah 32:27) everything is possible with him, what man can't do He can, He is able (Matthew 19:26). God heals People today in three different ways. God heals naturally : He has given us an immune system, even if we have no faith at all. For example, If you’ve cut your finger, eventually the bleeding stops and the wound begins to heal over naturally. This is God’s design. God heals through Doctors (with medical aid) : God uses doctors to make people well. God heals supernaturally (without medical aid through faith and by His grace) : God heals outside of doctors which is challenging, supernatural power. God healed my wife this way, supernatural miracle. 

Soon after, I began believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and began opening my heart to Him. Once Jesus began to live in My heart, I couldn’t bow down to idols and couldn’t visits temples anymore.

Their idols are silver and gold, The work of men’s hands.They have mouths, but they do not speak; Eyes they have, but they do not see; They have ears, but they do not hear; Noses they have, but they do not smell;They have hands, but they do not handle; Feet they have, but they do not walk; Nor do they mutter through their throat. (Psalm 115:4-7) 

Thank you Lord for opening the eyes of our heart to see the truth.

And I informed my parents that We have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord in our Life and We are going to get baptised. And I must thank God for my parents for encouraging us wholeheartedly (despite being Hindus).

2011 July, I and my wife accepted Jesus Christ as Our Lord and our personal saviour in Our life and got baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I would say giving our life to Christ is the best decision we have ever made in our life, and we can never thank and praise Him enough for ordaining the steps that led us to this decision. We know that after living all these years in darkness, We will be able to see the true light through Jesus Christ and started seeing the life in a totally different way with Lord our God Jesus by our side. 

And we believe that, God has chosen us especially for His glory and to display His work.

'that the Lord has set apart the godly for Himself'. (Psalm 4:3)

However, months passed I was doing nothing to strengthen my relationship with God. I never prayed or read the bible at home, and We we were going through a tough time where we had to face many unexpected problems. We all want good things to happen in our lives, but when that doesn't happen that way, We are tempted to ask God some questions and I am no exception. But God has been so good he did not want us to perish, he had great plan in our lives. On 14th February 2013, God spoke to us through the following two encouraging Bible verses (My wife was at 14 weeks pregnant that time).

(1) "Fear not, for I am  with you"  (Isaiah 41:10) 

(2) “For I know the plans I have for you” declares the Lord, “ Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

These two bible verses brought us hope that, no matter what we were suffering, God sees our suffering, He is planning to deliver us, He has our best interests at his heart, He has great things in store for us and His plans are perfect in our lives even when we mess up things.

And we spent a lot of time in our lives waiting. It took us eight years to come out that particular terrible situation. But God did everything beautiful in His time. 

We still have things that we struggle with. But we know all problems have solutions if We put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is a good God who helps us in each situation. He is in control of all circumstances and situations. And we can have rest in the assurance that we are safe and secure in the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I must admit here that, when God has a job to do, he always chooses individuals through whom he does his work. The work is God's but man is God's instrument. In our Life God used Pastor. Melvin as an instrument in bringing us to know him. Pastor. Melvin would invite us to his house for dinner and talk to us about the things of the Lord and the good news until midnight, this definitely brought us to a closer and tighter bond with Him and His family. He has been our dear brother and our mentor since we came to the United Kingdom. I also thank God for those who have helped us during our tough time, especially those who helped my wife during Her both the pregnancy. And also I thank God for our Church Pastor. Samuel Thompson for being a wonderful Pastor to us and for the words of encouragement that inspires us. Last but not least I thank God for my church families for their love, support and prayers. We feel so blessed knowing that you are praying for us. 

I can now understand God's plan of placing us in this country.

He (Jesus) said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creature'. (Mark 16:15)

God has been so kind and merciful to us. He has blessed our married life with two handsome sons Elisha and Isaac. Elisha means 'God is my salvation' (Our web page name) and Isaac means 'the laughter'. 

All praise and glory be to the Lord our God Jesus Christ.

Thank you for reading our testimony and I hope this testimony of mine is helpful in encouraging your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

My Dear brothers and Sisters, If you have not accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour in your life, know that His unfailing love, His unending grace, and His unexplainable peace are also available to you and His plan of redemption includes all people of all races, of all national and ethnic groups, He is the God of Universe. If you put your faith and trust in Him today and repent and confess your sins to Him, He will forgive you. The Bible says,

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Rom. 3:23) For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 6:23). And Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, iniquities and transgressions and rose after three days. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Heb. 9:22). This is why Jesus Christ came and died. Jesus loves you.

In Christ,

Sanjeev Vivek.

If you're blessed by our testimony, please leave us a comment. We would love to hear from you.

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