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I was brought up in a Hindu family, but today I am not ashamed to say that I have become a child of God through Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour. Let me share with you how and why.
I have been married with 2 children but was never a responsible person as a husband nor a father. I used to live a life full of crimes. I had been in and out of prisons and drug rehabilitation centre. My wayward life started at a young age of 12. I drank, smoked, sniffed glue and eventually took drugs like marijuana and heroin. To pay for my drug consumption, I resorted to cheating, stealing and even dangerously peddling drugs. My family soon found out about my reckless lifestyle. They did the painful thing of reporting me to the authorities. I ended up in a Boys' Home angrily and unrepentantly.
Even while at the Boys' Home, I did not want to mend my ways. I smoked and fought with fellow inmates and subsequently absconded from the Home. Not long after absconding, I was arrested and placed in the RTC(Reformative Training Centre). It was terrible, but something was different about the stay there.
In 1987 it was there at the RTC that I came to know the Lord Jesus Christ. I tried to have a relationship with Him. It was fine when I was inside but the moment I was released from the institution, I returned to my sinful and reckless ways.
My life was in a mess, I was heavily involved in drugs and my life was crime-ridden. I did not have a permanent home to stay and there was no peace in me wherever I go.
Then one day in the year 2001, after 14 long barren years in the wilderness where life seemed bleak and not a glimmer of hope for me.... our Lord came and carried me out of the doldrums. I was in my room crying out to our Lord to help me. I was deeply depressed and confused and even contemplated suicide.
Revelation of the Lord's blessing came in the form of a telephone call from my brother, Brian Gopi, who was then a recovering resident at the Christian Care Services Centre Halfway House.
Thanks to the Lord for his grace and mercy, I was admitted into Care Centre. It was at the Centre that I realised I was powerless and unmanageable over my life and that only Jesus could help me.
I gradually submitted myself totally to the Lord and now I live a life full of victories, hope and joy. As it says in Jeremiah 29:11 "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."
Today I thank the Lord for turning my life around, I am a Staff helper at the Care Centre. I believe my sharing of this wonderful experience God gave me is a testimony to many of you out there who are going through what I had gone through. God can also do wonders to your life the way he did to mine, so long as you are willing to call out to Him, He is ever ready and ever present there for you.
And it says in Mark 10:27 "With man, this is impossible but not with God; all things are possible with God."
What a wonderful God we have! AMEN!
Ramesh Christopher
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