The Story of B. Abraham My name is B. Abraham. I was born and brought up in a Hindu family. My old name was B. Arumugam. I was an idol worshipper. When I was studying in eighth class this question came to me, "Who is God?" The answer was that God is above man's limitation; he must not be entangled in sex or love of self. He must be holy. With those thoughts, I compared my gods and found they are below the standard, they have immoral lives and they steal and cheat. So I came to the conclusion that there is no god. I used to argue with my friends that there is no heaven or hell. When I was in the first year of college, I fell seriously ill, and was admitted to the hospital. I was on my death bed, but by the grace of God I was healed and discharged after two weeks. I came from the hospital with another question, "If I die today where will I spend my eternity?" I did not get a proper answer to this question. I was confused. I had not peace. I discontinued my college and took a small job. The fear of death haunted me every hour. I hated life, so I took poison but did not die. I tried to become sanyasi, but could not find a forest near my town. In those days I was given a Christian tract. I tore it in anger without reading the title. But still God loved me. I found an English version of the gospel of Matthew in my house. I opened it and my eyes fell on chapter 7:7: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you." I read the verse knowing it is a Christian book. I threw it out in anger. But God began to speak from that verse and confirmed what Jesus says is truth. My mind was changed and I wanted to know more about Christ. I attended a church. I wanted to join the Christian religion. A young believer in that church told me not to join the Christian religion because religions did not die for me so they cannot save me. Instead, he told me to join to Jesus Christ. And he shared his personal testimony and two Bible verses. Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" and Romans 6:23, "For the 1
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." That night God spoke to my heart, convincing me that I was a sinner. My past sins were revealed to me like a slide picture show. Next morning, on 24th January 1972, I knelt and prayed in my house "Lord Jesus I am a sinner, please forgive my sins and wash me by your blood and come in my heart." God forgave my sins immediately, some burden rolled away from my heart, I was filled with peace and was delivered from the fear of death. Then God took away the desire to see movies and God told me to burn all the sex books that I was reading secretly and I obeyed. I had a desire to study law and help the poor. God told me that I may help the poor to become rich, but when they die they will go to hell and suffer for eternity. If I preach the gospel to them and if they believe Jesus, when they die they will go to heaven and rejoice for eternity. So I committed my life to serve the Lord. I took Bible training and I was pastoring a church in South India. God annointed me with the power of the Holy Ghost and called me to serve in North India. I delayed, knowing the difficulties of the extreme hot and cold climate and the financial problems. God chased me like Jonah to Delhi. So I came to Delhi and have been serving the Lord there with my family since 1986. In the beginning, we suffered a lot for the missionary call. I was beaten and bitten by eunuchs. The Devil put hot water upon my eight months old son, but God spared his life with major injuries. The scars are still seen all over his body and face. We were without food for three days and faced financial difficulties. We underwent a dry period of fruitless and discouraging ministry. We have distributed thousands of tracts and gospel packets house to house, in hospitals, in market places, and in some Hindu festivals in this capital city of Delhi. After four years of a dry ministry, God is saving and adding souls to the church. Around 50 people have taken baptism by May '93. Among them were idol worshippers and lepers. Praise God. Pastor B. Abraham, BTh 2