Raj Kumar was born into a traditional carpenter’s family where he grew up worshiping many Hindu idols and practicing many rituals. He studied up to the 8th grade, but after that his family felt that it was time for him to work and support the family. When he was 16 years old, he injured his leg with a hand saw. He did not take it seriously, however, and it became so badly infected that he was admitted to the hospital. He stayed there for more than seven months, but it never healed.
The injury continued to bother him and since he had great difficulty in walking, he was taken to different doctors, none of whom were able to cure him. He was even taken to a witch doctor, but again, it was no use. His parents were unable to treat him and he became a burden on them. The people in the village spread a rumor, saying the wound was due to leprosy, and that was the reason it could not be healed. They put pressure on Raj’s parents to abandon him.
Raj’s parents took him to a medical college, the biggest one in their region. There they tested him for leprosy and the result was negative. There too, after only one week of treatment, the hospital told his parents to take him home. The wound was now so serious that it affected his whole leg and he was completely bedridden. But they refused.
Unable to cope with the situation, Raj’s parents abandoned him there in the hospital, knowing they were probably leaving him to die, and went back to their village. So, this young man, who was unable to walk without someone’s help, was left in the hospital by his parents. Unable to pay the bills, the hospital simply put him out. Now Raj was alone, living on the street.
For two weeks he lay by the street, hopelessly waiting for death to come. The only ones who showed mercy to him were the beggars. In Raj’s own words “seeing my plight, the beggars along with some lepers (who were no longer contagious) shared their food with me, and at their mercy I was kept alive. Worms were crawling from my wound, and no one except the street dogs came close to me because of the awful smell. I was waiting for my death.”
One of our summer outreach teams was working in the area, and one of the beggars (a leper who had become a Christian) met our outreach team on the street and shared about Raj and begged them to help him. The leper led our outreach team to Raj. They found him lying under a tree, in great pain, surrounded by a putrid smell. Our brothers gave him some water and food and talked with him. Upon hearing his plight, they carried him to their room. They bathed him, cleaned his wound, and nursed him back to health. Daily they shared the good news of the Gospel and laid their hands on his wound, praying for him and giving him hope that Jesus had the power to heal him.
Raj began to read the Gospel on his own. Every miracle Jesus did gave him hope, and in his desperate condition Raj trusted Jesus for his healing from the serious disease that the doctors couldn’t heal.
After a few days of prayer, Raj started to feel the healing touch of the Lord and the wound started visibly healing. Within a few months, the wound was completely healed, and he started walking. In His own words “I was saved from the jaws of death; several times I wanted to end my life, to be rid of the misery I was going through, but even in that I was incapable. But Jesus saved me and turned my tears into joy, through the six young, loving brothers, people who I had never known before. Jesus sent those brothers to save me from my misery and give me a new life.” Raj accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior and two years ago one of our leaders baptized him in the Ganges River. In the river that Hindus consider the holiest river of their faith, he made a bold declaration that his faith was only in Jesus, his Lord and Savior.
“’For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; … to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’” Matthew 25:35-40 NASB
For the last two years, he has been mentored by the local missionary whom we sent to that area. Last year Raj joined our house church leadership training program, completed the training, and joined our outreach team. It was then that he asked us to send him to his own village, the same place where the villagers had forced his parents to abandon him. Along with six other brothers, in the second week of March this year, he went to his parents’ area, but could not go to his home village because of the coronavirus.
But when the total lock-down began on March 23rd, on the following day he called our leadership team. He was burdened for the people on the street, the beggars who had fed him and kept him alive, but he was 45 miles away from them in another village. He asked for permission to leave the team and go and help the street beggars. As soon as we agreed, he started walking, and after three days he reached the town where his parents had left him to die. Immediately he went to the authorities to get permission to feed the street people. At first, they refused, but he shared his testimony with the police chief. He told him “they cared for me; it is now my time to help them.” Hearing this, the police chief gave him permission. That was on March 29th, and since that day Raj and two more of our missionaries have been feeding two meals every day to 300-350 street people, including lepers, beggars, the mentally ill, and other people. Raj and our missionaries and their families cook and pack the food every day and distribute it to the people.
Today the government authorities, the townspeople, and even the Hindu radicals all appreciate Raj and his team and are giving him support. For Raj it gives him great satisfaction to show his gratitude and repay his debt to the beggars and poor people, who shared their food with him and kept him alive while he was in the valley of death.
Raj, with his testimony, his love, and his passion to serve the people, is winning the hearts of the people for the Lord.
Help Us Share the Gospel
Will you help us continue sharing the Gospel in the darkest places of India? Psalm 119:105 says ‘Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.’ You can share in the blessings! To find out how to contact us, and to read more inspiring and exciting testimonies of what God is doing among the unreached people groups of India, click the links on the right, and keep reading!
With your help, the Gospel will be proclaimed, and you will be blessed, along with thousands of others!
Proclaiming the Gospel…
…until He comes,