It has been more than four years since the Lord found me, but I have never been compelled to write anything about his greatness. I guess that’s because He has a set time for everything. Now you don’t have to be a spiritual person or a believer to read this and relate to the contents of this article. This is just my testimony about how the Son of God – Jesus Christ found me and saved me!

I was born in to a Hindu family, and that is what made me a Hindu by default. I remember visiting several famous Hindu temples as a child – Shiridi Sai Baba to Guruvayoor, as my family would do the pujas’ and kriyas, I would follow the same. And I had a certain picture of God in my mind – say in the form of Ganpathi, Shiva, Parvathi and so on. But to be honest, I never had any particular experiences with God as such. Then came some of the hardest times of my life, starting from my 6 th grade. My mom was taken in sick. I did not know what exactly had happened at that point of time because my family chose not to tell me. She was in hospital for a few months. I remember once my sister and I were picked from school pretty early, before lunch time. I was told that my mom wanted to see me. We were taken to the hospital, and to the Intensive Care Unit. I was very scared when I saw my mother. She could not speak and she had all the tubes and wires connected. We spent a few minutes there and were taken out. A few weeks later mom was brought back home. The Cancer had won the battle, doctors had given up. Now at this point it was very difficult for me and of course my family. See I was just a kid, it was overwhelming for me. Imagine your mother on a bed with all the wires and tubes, unable to talk, one side of her body paralyzed. She used to cry out loud, those were the most upsetting times for me. And eventually, she went to be with the Lord.

My mom passing away had created a void in my life. I was always mama’s boy. Now I felt lost. I no longer believed in the force called God and claimed to be an atheist. And I always refused going to temples with my family and gave up on prayers and rituals. Later on in my life I got drawn towards Buddhism as I trained in the Martial art of Shaolin Kung Fu. I began practicing Chan (Zen) Buddhism. However, there was no concept of a God because Chan Buddhism focused on practicing a certain way of life and meditating, rather than worshipping God. Few years down the line, I became an exponent of the Martial art, with my moderate practice of Chan Buddhism. The year 2009 marked the completion of my college life. I graduated and by February 2010, I moved to Bangalore looking for a job.

Finally found a job in a BPO and started working as a tech support agent. I was living as a paying guest (PG) at one of the several PG flats spread in the city. As days passed by, I started consuming alcohol every weekend. I did not have anything else to do. Sometimes I would go visit my cousin and family, rest of the times I was free. So drinking became one of my major pass times on weekends. And once in a while I would go out with some friends to explore new pubs and again drink there. Diet was not in place either. I would eat anything and everything, junk food, preserved food and what not. And there was hardly any space for me to exercise or do my Kung Fu training. I looked for

Gyms around. Could only find one, but it was pretty far away than expected and expensive as well. Eventually, after one night of partying and heavy drinking, all that took a toll on me. I had a medical situation.

I was in pain. Tremendous pain. I couldn’t sit, walk, lie down or sleep. It took a while for me to realize what I was suffering from. It certainly was a lifestyle related disorder. I did my research online and found that ninety five percentage of the time this issue leads to surgery and it cannot be healed without proper medication. Now my challenge was this – If I go out and seek medical help, it will be a setback for me in life –because I am supposed to be this strong healthy guy, the Kung Fu master, the guy who can feel no pain and all those tags, I was afraid that would just vanish away. So I started living with the pain but it almost multiplied day by day. I could take it no longer. But I had to go to work. I did not have any leaves left for that time period. So my manger told me, even if I take a sick leave, they would mark it as an LOP (Loss of Pay); and based upon the companies policy there, if I take more than 2 LOP’s, I would lose all incentives, night shift allowances etc. I couldn’t afford that. I had to pay my bills and manage my expenses. So I had to go to work with all that pain.

Every day was a struggle. I would wake up and hope the pain would be less and check for signs of improvement. Could not see any. I would then somehow go through the excruciating pain and drag myself to work. I guess it’s all those years of hard training that allowed me to function. But still I was very low in energy levels. So for a few days it was the same routine. Now my friend Manish Stephen used to observe me. The way I was struggling while working, was not eating right and troubled. So he asked me what happened, but first I said all is fine and tried to dodge his questions. But he was persistent. I ended up telling him everything. He felt my pain and tried to figure out what to do. And he advised me to see a doctor and seek medical attention. But as he realized that I would not do that and suffer more, he decided to do something else that would change me forever.

He said to me, “Let’s take a break, you come with me”. We want to the break room where we had a pantry. He said to me that he will pray for me to Jesus and asked me to pray with him. He said, that I would have to promise God that I will quit drinking, watch my diet and start training like I used to. I had nothing to lose. I committed to that prayer. I did not know Jesus or how to pray. I just closed my eyes and Manish did the praying. And when he was done, I said an Amen! And we got back to working. After work, I was going back to my room. Was travelling in the office cab. I could still feel the pain as it was. And I went to bed, hurting as usual.

So the next morning I wake up. Started doing my chores. Right after I finished brushing my teeth I said to myself, “Hold on... Wait a minute”! Something was different... Oh Lord!! There was no pain. Trust me, there was no pain. I started examining myself again. I realized I had healed almost 95 per cent. I was so happy. That was my moment of realization. Jesus helped me. And by the end of that day, I was full healed. I got the spring back in my step. Was feeling great. And later on Manish gifted me a Bible so that I could know the Lords word and so began my journey. And within a couple of months Jesus the Lord came into my dream and spoke to me. What’s so great is that He let me see

his face. Lot of people who have had an encounter with the Lord stated that they could not see his face; they only saw a very bright light. And the Lord said to me “LET’S SET EVERYTHING RIGHT, SHALL WE”?

Since then, I’ve had good times. I moved out of that place. Rented an apartment with my good buddies. We had a lot of space there where I could train, had an awesome gym with all fine training equipment. Gained better knowledge on nutrition and turned in to be the healthiest I’ve ever been. Best shape ever. Gained 12 kg’s of solid muscle. Improvised my training plan. Moved out of the old company and moved on to a new better one. I can go on and on. And I can write a lot more. Miracles I’ve witnessed. Saw how God can work our lives. There was this situation last week where I commanded Rain to go away in Jesus name and it did. My friend on the pillion seat of my motorcycle had a bad fever and we were getting late for work. It became all cloudy and started drizzling. Huge rain drops. As soon as I commanded it to go away in Jesus name, it was bright and sunny, say in a matter of 2 minutes. Praise the Lord.

The purpose of me writing this article is for anyone who is receptive. Believer would believe my testimony and be elated after reading this; sceptics might laugh and call me foolish and might even mock at me. But that’s alright. Let me tell you this, if you are still reading this, Congratulations. You have just read a testimony of the Lord’s word. I want to tell you, give Jesus a chance. You have nothing to lose right? Try it out as an experiment may be. Seek and you shall find. Ask the Lord,” God if all these thing about You are true, will you show me as well”? And if you mean it, I can assure you that He will accept you. Also you should know that, God does not say you will have a life without any difficulties. You will surely face challenges, but the Lord will give you the strength to go through it and you will realize that the difficult situation was not a setback, but a set up for something great. God bless everyone. In Jesus’ name. Amen!!!

Yours faithfully,

Akash Nair!!!!