I am Maran from Theni district and have three sisters and a brother. My Father was an atheist and my mother a nominal Christian. My father used to tell stories to give me Self-confidence, living for others and country. My father worked in army, like father, I joined army. To me my father looked as an ideal man and so for me he is everything.
I Worked in different parts of India and participated in kargil war with Pakistan. When there was unrest in Srilanka, Srilanka government asked India to send a peace keeping force to bring unity during civil war. So I was sent to Srilanka as part of Indian peace keeping force (IPKF). When I was there my father become sick, and my mother sent me more than 10 telegrams to me to come and see my father. Since the war was in peak, my officers did not inform me about my father’s critical condition.
One day an officer asked me, why I did not go to see my sick father. Then only I came to know about my father’s condition. Then I pleaded and got permission to see my father. By the time I reached my home my father became so sick and was about to die. I could not bear the condition of my father, when I saw him, I cried to death. Within few days my father died. It was a big shock to me. I could not take that into my mind and I lost my mind, and started hitting my head against wall and hitting my body with stones, and screaming and running around, trying kill myself. I could not imagine a life without my father. People tied me and did not let me go to the cemetery to burry.
Then I started drinking liquor and became addicted, I could not bear the loss of my father. So I decided to commit suicide by drinking poison. I drank lot of liquor and took a bottle of poison to mix with whisky to drink outside of my village. While going outside of my village, I fell off on the roadside because I was drunk. Few young people rushed to me and took me to a church steps, and they laid me there. When I opened my eyes I saw the church, so I rushed out as I did not like God. These brothers started coming to my house and they said Jesus loves me. When they came to me I was feeling better, but I do not want to know about this God.
One day they asked me to come to a dam, when I went there they were kneeling and started praising God. I was so furious that they are not talking to me but talking to somebody else. I beat them up and kicked them as I am a boxer. All of them fell off, I started walking back. I could not walk after few steps and I fell off. By the time the young people got up and started praying again, calling Abba father. When I heard the word Abba father, I remembered my father and wanted to call Abba. They said Jesus our father have mercy on him. When I heard Jesus as father, I started calling “Yesappa” “Jesus my father” and started crying loudly. When I did this a great power entered into my body, and I felt how sinful person I am, and started confessing all the sin that I have committed. Then I called him, to be with me and invited this father to enter into my heart to fill the vacuum created by father’s death. I was keeling and praising God for 3 hours. When Jesus came to my heart, all the fear, tension, guilt and suicidal spirit left me. I was filled with Joy, and hope.
Then I went back to the army worked there another 14years. I started sharing this Jesus to my fellow men in army and conducted Prayer meeting in the night. 40 of the solders accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. I also started sharing with civil people and 100 of them have accepted Christ through my witness. Then I took voluntary retirement from army to serve Jesus. All this time I learned about God only through personal reading of Bible. So I was not fully aware of God’s plan. When I came to my home town, I went to a church, when people saw that people are getting healed through my prayer, many came forward for Prayer. The pastor did not like this and he said me to leave the Church as many Christians also asked me to pray. This discouraged me.
Not knowing what to do, an evangelist asked me to go with him. I started assisting the evangelist going around villages to share the gospel. Now we are visiting 4 villages and sharing the gospel. By this time one of the Life mission Church planters Rajapandian introduced me the training. Now coming to attend this module one training on evangelism, it has boosted my spirit and I am going back to my town with a vision to plant a church.
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