Woman from Hindu priestly family healed and saved by Jesus: now serves Him!

Elamma Antharjanam grew up in a Hindu Brahmin (priestly) family in India [Brahmin are the highest of the four Hindu castes; their traditional occupation being the spiritual guidance of people—Ed.] .  Her father Subrahmanyan Namboothiri was the head priest for 250 temples, and he and her mother married as children—child marriage being common then. Not until 30 years later did they have her, their only child, whom they named Saraswathi.

Saraswathi fanatically followed the tenets of Hinduism. She’d rise early each morning for the ritual bath in the temple pool, and then worship before the temple idols. As a young girl she even had her arm tattooed with images of Hindu deities.

Severe asthma plagued Saraswathi from childhood. None of the special treatments and potions or healing rituals her parents tried could ease their daughter’s suffering.

One day a woman named Kamalamma visited the family. She had converted from Hinduism to Christianity, and despite the persecution she endured from her own husband and community, she wanted to pray for teenaged Saraswathi. But the girl refused the prayers of a woman who could mean nothing but trouble, having abandoned Hinduism for foreign Jesus.

But the wheezing only got worse. During a particularly severe attack, she lost the ability to breathe and had to be rushed to hospital. And guess who visited her? Persistent, prayerful Kamalamma. This time, it was Saraswathi who requested prayer.

While the Christian woman prayed, Saraswathi became aware of a man standing before her. He had a small lamb straddling his left shoulder and a stick in his right hand. With a smile, he gently moved his hands over her head.

“Believe me my daughter,” the man said to her. “I am your Lord. The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply.” [Ps 16:4] She suddenly felt such relief!

Hindu tattoo cancelled out with the Word of God!

The young woman needed no convincing of her need to confess her sinful ways and accept Jesus as her personal Savior and Lord. And the asthma completely left her.

She surrendered herself fully to Jesus, was baptized, and took on ‘Elamma’ as a new name. But she faced many persecutions from her family and community, who finally drove her away them. 

She married a Christian man, Jacob, and both were fully engaged in serving the Lord Jesus. He recently entered into glory but Elamma continues faithful in the Lord’s ministry as an associate with Bibles for Mideast. Please keep her and the ministry as a whole in your prayers.

Young girl goes through heaven with Jesus, comes back healed!

Report: Nirmala Joy for Bibles for Mideast 

I am Mrs. Nirmala Joy. I am a school teacher.  I was born in a nominal Christian family in India and went to church only at Christmas and Easter. My dad was an atheist and my mom a Christian who thought the world of my dad.

When I was 19, 1 had a dream that my mother passed away and I was absolutely terrified.

Within a month my mother had a rare virulent type of blood cancer and died within 21 days. Soon after that my sister and I were both married.

Since my husband was a believer I used to read the Bible with him. When we prayed together I was not sure whether Jesus was the only Way. Whenever I came to the part where it says, "Jesus rose again," I would be reminded of what my dad told us, that "disciples of Jesus stole the body and made up a story that He rose from the dead."

I had a similar dream about our daughter Alina—then eight years old—dying. I saw her body laid in a coffin and people going around it and kissing her. I too kissed her, and her skin felt like leather. I woke up terrified and went to her bedside to pray. She was burning with fever. When she vomited blood we rushed her to hospital. She started hemorrhaging internally. On the 20th day, the doctors gave up hope. She was in and out of consciousness and was seeing demons—and even Satan. She would tell us they were in the room, but we thought she had to be delirious.

My husband and I decided to fast and pray all night. Members of  Bibles for Mideast  joined with us in prayer that whole night. 

We read and re-read the Bible verse, "We are healed by His wounds," and knelt on either side of our daughter's bed and started to pray. I told Jesus, "If what is written in the Bible is true, that You are alive and You do miracles, then come and heal my daughter."

At about 2:00 in the morning, my daughter began stirring and speaking in another language. After a few minutes she abruptly got up and said, "Mommy, I'm healed!" Then she said, "I saw Jesus our Lord!"

"Jesus Christ carried me on his shoulder," she explained. "And  I was taken up through a dark tunnel higher and higher which opened into a bright hole that led to a golden gate of pearls. The gate was open and I ran through it, I walked through streets of gold which were so beautiful and reached the shores of a sea.

"I was wondering how I would cross this sea, and when I put my foot on it, it was only glass like crystal. I crossed over to find a huge throne made of gold and Jesus standing near it. I ran to him, He lifted me up and I felt so happy there. I did not want to come back home. So I hugged Jesus really tight, but he kissed me and put me down and told me to go back to my mommy and pappa."

That's when she woke up. She explained how Jesus was the most beautiful person she had ever seen, His robe was bright light and his hair and eyes were brilliant, she said.

The doctors were surprised to see our sick child up and playing! They did not believe what I told them and insisted on a blood test, which turned out to be normal. We all praised our Lord till the morning.

Hallelujah! When we came home she saw a picture of Christ at the entrance and said "What a terrible painting that is. Our Lord Jesus is really soooooo beautiful."

She read the Bible voraciously for hours at a time, and memorized Scripture. She explained deep truths simply, and displayed such love that I knew without a doubt it was all from God.

Pastor Paul donated bibles to me and my father, and a children's bible to my daughter.

We read the Bible often now, and meditate on it.  We truly believe Jesus is alive, and that everything about Him is true. Now when I read the Book of Revelation, I find it describes exactly what my daughter saw in Heaven. The first dream came to pass but the second did not. For the second dream I called on the Name of Jesus and pleaded the Blood of Jesus for my daughter's healing. He saved my daughter from the enemy.

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)

My father also accepted Jesus as his personal savior and taken baptism. We are all having fruits of the Spirit.

With this experience, I now must share His love  with everyone: my students, colleagues, neighbors, Hindus, Muslims, sick people and even beggars. 

All glory and honor to our only true God and His Son Jesus Christ, through His Holy Spirit. Amen.

Siblings of Hindu priestly family accept Jesus; now face persecution

Report: Jadavedan Potty for Bibles for Mideast [edited for clarity]

My name is Jadavedan Potty [meaning 'priest born in scriptures'; 'scriptures' here referring to Hindu Vedas—Ed.]. I belong to a Hindu Brahmin (priestly) family in India. From childhood I was an idol worshiper and often went to temples. I would get up at 4:00 every morning and do poojas [Himdu prayer rituals—Ed.] and help the main priest. I also used to bathe the deities and pray to them.

Once I got a Christian pamphlet from one of my friends. In it I read the verse, "All you who live anywhere on earth, turn to me and be saved. I am God. There is no other God." (Isaiah 45:22)

I then read other verses from the pamphlet: "God’s grace has now appeared. By his grace, God offers to save all people. His grace teaches us to say no to godless ways and sinful desires. We must control ourselves. We must do what is right. We must lead godly lives in today’s world. That’s how we should live as we wait for the blessed hope God has given us. We are waiting for Jesus Christ to appear in his glory. He is our great God and Savior. He gave himself for us. By doing that, he set us free from all evil. He wanted to make us pure. He wanted us to be his very own people. He wanted us to desire to do what is good." (Titus 2:11-14)

When I came home, I put the pamphlet inside of my cupboard. And I said to myself that I'm Hindu; Jesus is not my God. I wanted to go ahead in my life by worshiping the Hindu gods only.

After that, many times in my life I felt somehow that GOD JESUS really loves me sincerely.  Once I even saw the LORD; He came and put His hand on my shoulder. Even then though I said to myself, 'No, Jesus is not my God; my gods are idols."

One day my sister, then 20 years old, suffered from a brain tumor and became bed-ridden. She was my only sister. While my parents took her to different hospitals for treatments, I went by myself to all the nearby Hindu temples to worship.  I was so desperate to get help from above.

Not long after, I happened to attend a Christian retreat. I listened as a woman gave her testimony of being severely ill, and doctors giving up all hope. Her family was crying for her. But she didn’t lose her hope and she cried out to GOD JESUS and GOD JESUS healed her and saved her! Now she is completely well and tells her story to everyone, so that those who are suffering will come to know that only GOD JESUS has power over everything.

When I heard her testimony, I remembered the pamphlet I'd been given, and that there was a telephone number on the back.  Immediately I ran to my home, found it, and dialed the number. I told them all about the problems my sister faced. I asked if they could come to my house and pray for her. At once they prayed over the phone, and I also started praying to GOD JESUS.

Women with bibles donated by Bibles for Mideast

That same evening some blessed people from Gospel to Asia and Middle East Nations  (the precursor of Bibles for Mideast) came to my house and prayed for my sister. They gave me a New Testament, and I began feeling some power working in my life. Slowly my sister was completely cured, and we both accepted Jesus as our Savior.

We now suffer persecutions from our family and others for accepting Jesus as Savior. The ministers who visited us gave us a full Bible. We rely on Jesus through the Bible and are strengthened by its verses. Also we learned the apostolic principles and received baptism in an underground church.

Please pray for me and my sister. Also pray for our entire  family and our friends to know the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. Pray for our ministries and church too.

Daughter of Muslim ruler under house arrest for Christian faith

Najima (not her real name) is the daughter of a Muslim ruler. She had firmly believed in and practiced Islam from childhood—reciting the Qur'an, praying (namaz) five times a day, fasting during the month of Ramadan and giving alms (zakat) to the poor and needy.

While she went to a western university for her higher education, she still never missed practicing ‘the pillars Islam’.

One day she noticed a small piece of paper stuck in a crease at the table at which she was sitting. She pulled it out and read: "For God made Christ who had no sin to become sin for us, so that in Christ we could become right with God." (2 Cor 5:21).

The verse struck her. ‘How can Jesus possibly be made to be sin for us?’ she asked herself, then threw the tract into the waste paper basket. But the verse kept invading her mind. Trying to forget it, she went bed.

But as much as she tried, she couldn’t get the verse out of her thoughts, nor escape into sleep.

Suddenly, she saw and felt her room fill with light. From that light, a voice spoke.

"Daughter, you're a sinner.  There is no one righteous, absolutely none. All have messed up and fallen short. But I came to take away all of your sins. I paid the ransom for many. Believe me and accept me … and I will give you eternal life."

She knew it had to be Jesus’ voice. Undone, she knelt down and accepted him as her personal savior and Lord.

She declared her new faith to her friends first. When she told her family, her father and brothers exploded in rage. They stripped her naked, bound her to a chair, and wired it up to a metal plate to electrocute her. She asked them to at least lay a bible in her lap.

"If you want to die together with your false religion, so be it," her father replied,

"That will show that your religion is powerless," one of her brothers added

Although they had bound her, she could still touch a corner of her bible. She then noticed a strange peace, as though someone were standing beside her.

Her father and brothers pushed the plug into the socket—and nothing happened. They tried four times with various cables, but it was as though the electricity refused to flow.

Finally, her father, angry and frustrated, hit her and screamed, "You are no longer my daughter!" He then threw her out into the street, naked.

Najima ran through the neighborhood, humiliated and in pain. People looked at her, curious rather than shocked. Shaking and tearful, she finally made it to a friend’s house. Her friend let her in, clothed her and gave her shelter.

The next day, her friend asked neighbors what they had thought when they had seen a girl running naked through the streets.

"What are you talking about?" they responded. "We saw a girl running with a wonderful white dress, like an angel.  We asked ourselves why someone so beautifully clothed had to run through the streets. With that dress, she almost looked like she was flying!"

God had hidden her nakedness from their eyes, clothing her in a beautiful white dress.

She became stronger in her Christian faith. But her father learned of her location. Her mother and  brothers went to see her to convince her to come back. But she would not, and reiterated her solid faith in Jesus Christ.

Her father then went himself, and took her back to their home by force. She remains there under house arrest. Because of her change of faith, he banned all other religious movements and activities in his region.

Recently, two women missionaries of Bibles for Mideast visited Najima at her home. Wearing veils, they introduced themselves as her university classmates, and so got permission to see her. Happy to see them, she prayed with the women. She asked that children of God around the world pray for her. She also asked that we pray that her father, mother, brothers, sisters and all the Muslims of her country experience the salvation of Jesus Christ.

"The Lord Jesus Christ gave me freedom from sin and death,” she said to the missionaries. “I experience that real freedom and peace in my mind."

She concluded with, “Amen and Halleluiah!”

Radical Muslim terrorist ‘terrified’ by the Light of Jesus now serves as pastor!

Rashid* had been one of the commanders in a group intent on converting as many as possible to Islam, and with the goal of bringing all nations under Islamic rule.

As the men strove fanatically toward these objectives, they began hearing of formerly strong Muslims who had converted to Christianity and worse, were now spreading the Gospel. So they appointed a special commando unit from among themselves to either convert these ‘infidels’ back to Islam, or wipe them from the face of the earth.

Rashid voluntarily took on leadership of the wing. As time went on, some of their terrorist operations succeeded.

They eventually heard about the work of Bibles for Mideast: how they boldly evangelized people—especially Muslims—in Asia, the Middle East and several third-world nations; how their leader was himself a former Muslim; how they distributed bibles in many languages and were forming underground house churches in various regions.

So they set about in earnest to formulate a plan to hunt down a Bibles for Mideast leader’s family in their area operations. If they could destroy his family and force him back into the Islamic fold, what a great weapon they would have in their war against Christianity.

So they devised a plan to attack and kill the family as they slept at night. But on arriving at their home, they saw what appeared to be gunmen surrounding the house and abandoned that plan.

They then learned from some of the children going to the same school as the leader’s children that since they lived in poverty with little to eat, they were always hungry.

“So we sent a woman with some poisoned fast food to give to the children,” Rashid recounts.  “But on the way, a dog bit her so seriously she couldn’t get the food to them.”

So they tried sending another woman with poisonous chocolates to give the young ones, thinking for sure this would kill them. All three children got sick, but the two boys recovered fairly quickly. The third, a young girl, ended up near death in hospital.

"I was watching with two others from an ambulance near the hospital,” Rashid explained. They planned to wait till they saw the family take the girl’s dead body from the hospital, at which point they would kidnap them all and speed away in the appropriated ambulance.

But nothing seemed to be happening. So they went into the hospital, found the girl’s room and quietly stood watch outside.

“Then I saw a ball of light came down from the sky and stand over the room,” Rashid remembers. “I saw a hand came out from the ball and stand her up. There was a hole in the middle of that hand and the blood was flowing down. I trembled with fear.” Overcome, he fell over and had to be whisked away by his fellow conspirators.

But he couldn’t sleep that night. Whenever he began to drift off, Rashid explained, he’d see the same hand, with blood flowing from it.

“Next night I saw a shadow of a human face appear behind the hand.” He said the face asked him, ‘Why are you nailing me?’

Rashid, utterly unnerved, feared telling his friends anything “because they would suspect me, and I would be killed."

He did however have a bible—for no other reason than to find verses to criticize Christianity and justify Islam. So he turned to it now with questions.

Opening it, he read: “That was the true Light which gives light to everyone coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world did not know Him.” (John 1:9-10)

 “I understood it was about Jesus,” he said with certainty. “And also, I knew that the ball of light that came from above to protect the sick girl was the same Jesus, who suffered crucifixion on the cross by the nailing of his hands and legs.”

Feeling unbearably burdened, he managed to locate Pastor Paul, Director of Bibles for Mideast, and confessed everything. Yet instead of being turned in to the police as Rashid expected, he was embraced with tears.

“When I was an enemy of Jesus Christ, He loved me, too,” Pastor Paul explained. “He was crucified, rose from the dead and gave His life for me. In His love I have to love you, because Christ loves you. I believe Jesus Christ Himself brought you here to share this love and salvation. Jesus is the Prince of Peace, and He gives you peace. Accept Him as your Savior.”

And Rashid did! Soon after he was baptized and now walks and serves in all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. As a leader and anointed pastor within Bibles for Mideast he, alongside his wife, lives to evangelize others.

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*  Name changed for security reasons