In the year 2010 when Jebaraj and I were married on the 22nd of April, the promise we received on our wedding day was taken from Genesis 17:4, 5. "As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations.”.
In lieu with this, I would like to begin my testimony by telling you a real life story. Many years ago a young man and woman were married. The couple had all the good things the world could offer. They were blessed with good jobs, a good home, financial blessing etc. But the only thing they lacked was a child in their arms. They did everything they could. They consulted the best doctors and physicians. But nothing seemed to work. Soon family and friends began asking them why they didn’t have kids. Life began to become depressing for the couple. They had slowly begun to lose their joy. The only hope was prayer. They earnestly prayed too, but it seemed that even God had gone on a long vacation. Nine long years passed by, but the couple never gave up hope. They continued to believe in the promises of God whole-heartedly.
One day, out of the blue, the good news arrived. God had heard their diligent prayers. He proved to be faithful to them. Behold a beautiful girl baby was born to them.
And yes, today I stand here as a testimony to tell you that, I was that miraculous child born to the couple. Psalm 112 verses 1 and 2 say "Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who finds great delight in his commands. His children will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed."
God’s faithfulness lasts for generations. It was with our grandparents, then with our parents and today with Jebaraj and I. Sophia meaning wisdom is the symbol of God’s faithfulness from generations to generations. We wished to name our daughter after a queen. So, we zeroed down on the name Sophia after Queen Sophia of Spain. Sophia also signifies wisdom. She was one of the wisest queens of King Solomon. In Biblical History, it is known that it was this queen Sophia who instructed King Solomon to build glorious temple of God.
With a record-breaking 122 million votes cast, the winner of American Idol season 10 is…
Scotty McCreery!
"Never in my wildest dreams [did I think I'd win]. I've got to thank the Lord first, he got me here. Thank y'all so much!" McCreery, 17, said after host Ryan Seacrest revealed the Garner, N.C., native beat out Lauren Alaina for the title
Early morning of 21st April 2011, my train was nearing the Nagercoil station. I was aboard the Kanyakumari Express. The train passed the small town of Aralvaimozhi. Soon after, I saw huge wind mills, the big fans going round and round, plenty of them, thousands actually. It was amazing to know that this small and obscure town can generate this amount of clean energy.
I reached Nagercoil at seven. After breakfast, we started exploring Parvathipuram, the place where my in-laws stay. We went around the pond (kulam) located right behind their home. We found plenty of white lotuses abloom. Just when we thought to climb down the water to pluck some lotus, a man came in and offered to get into the pond and pluck some for us. Good to have a beautiful pond near your home. We joyfully took the fragrant flowers back home to place it in the Uruli (An Indian vase).
Then as a family we headed down south, 10km from Parvathipuram, towards Muttom beach. It was rocky, lot of large stones, we enjoyed sometime at the beach. We sat near the rocks and gazed at the waves coming and hitting the big rocks and go back. It was amazing to see the speed at which the large waves come and hit the rocks. Later cruised by the South coast road, and reached the Muttom fishing hamlet, where we found a Tsunami Memorial stone, a huge catholic church. Behind the church was the fishing hamlet, covered by a huge wall to protect the fishing boats from the dangerous waves. The boats were lined up near the shore. There were fishermen homes near the hamlet. People go fishing from here.
We then went cruising past the south coast road, to visit another beach, the Sanguthurai Beach. It’s a virgin beach, it had a huge Conch or Sangu and a view point. Spent some time enjoying the waves and headed back home. Overall it was a great day, spending time with family.
22nd April 2011 was our first wedding anniversary; we prayed in the morning and opened our gifts. Thanks to all for all your gifts. We went off to Christopher Nagar church, to attend the Good Friday morning service. We had 7 people giving messages on the last words of Christ on the cross. After the service, the church members were served with special Kanji with 2 chutneys and a vegetable kurma. It was amazing to have fellowship lunch after the Good Friday service with all church members. In the evening I went for a walk around Parvathipuram, and I met Raja Jenish, who knows a lot about Nagercoil. He took me for a ride all around Nagercoil, lot of important places, how the name Nagercoil came up, from the Nagaraja Temple, we went past Home church, WCC, Clock Tower.
We had a lot of places planned to visit on the 23rd April 2011, plus some of our relatives were to arrive that morning from Trivandrum. Once they arrived, we spent time catching up and then had a sumptuous meal. We had hired a vehicle to go around the various places. We first headed to Padmanabhan palace in the afternoon. It is about 20kms from Nagercoil. It is a very old palace. If you love History, Kings, Queens; this is the place to be. It was good to know about the history of the place.
Later, we moved to Mathur Aqueduct (Mathur Hanging Trough). An awesome place, the view from the top of the bridge is breathtaking. We were able to view water streams on both sides. It was like walking on top of the world. Although a little scary to walk at that height, the view was just worth it.
Next we moved to Tiruparappu falls. The falls was crowded. People were enjoying the water, though the water was a little dirty. We went over to the top of the falls, from where the water was originating and took some photographs. It was thrilling to walk past the water streams at the top, the stream had a few pits, through which we were not able to pass through, hence got some help from people around to pull us from the water streams. It was the most thrilling moments of the trip.
For our last place for the evening we headed to Pechiparai dam. Pechiparai reservoir is a reservoir 43kms from Nagercoil, near the village of Pechiparai in Kanyakumari District. There are no words to express the beauty of this place. It looked like a wallpaper. The reflection of the hills on the water, the mountains surrounding the three sides of the water was amazing. It was a good day to visit all the beautiful places.
Easter Sunday, 24th April 2011, another beautiful day, we headed to Christopher Nagar church, early morning for the 6:00 AM Service. It was a special NMS Missionary dedication service. The songs for Easter Sunday were amazing. The Choir sang….Up from the grave he arose..a special song. A young boy played the organ; they had a sax player who danced to the singing of the choir. At the end of the service, we had a chance to meet the pastor, the NMS promoter at Nagercoil and the new missionary. The service was followed up by a fellowship breakfast at the church. We had Appam, Chappathy, Veg kurma, chutney and sweet kesari(really mouth watering stuff). We left for home after the service.
We planned to go to Keeriparai forest stream in the afternoon. We headed north of Nagercoil to Keeriparai, then to Kalikasam. This is a reserved forest area; tourists are not allowed to go past this place. We got special permission, since my friend knew the forest officials, and owners of the estate who pass by the place. The roads were rocky, we had a tyre puncture, and we had to change the wheels. It was getting interesting, we stopped half way, since the road was bad, and we were travelling without a spare wheel, we halted half way to see the beautiful view from the top.
Then headed down, half way through, we stopped to feel the water stream; this place was called Vattaparai Falls which is located at an elevation 40m in the Keeriparai reserve forest near Bhoothapandi village on the Pazhayar River, 32km northwest of Nagercoil.
On the way we passed by a water stream. It was a long drive, travelled a lot of distance. It was thrilling, since we passed by a place not allowed for tourist. It was a good day overall, a must see place.
Today is April 20, 2010. Last year it was April 20th 2009, I was working with TCS, but my contract was closed and hence lost my job. I thought I would look out for a job and get one soon. I attended many interviews, and didn’t get through. I attended interviews at many MNCs, but I didn’t get through. It was a long struggle, and I lost hope in myself and in life. It was difficult, and wondered what my friends and relatives thought about me.
After a long struggle, I got through at an MNC during the first week of May, while I was attending a music concert, during the middle of the concert; I received a interview call and got through it, and then finally joined My company on May 20th. Since then God has been blessing me abundantly.
During the second week of June, I was able to purchase a Pre-owned car, which I use for taking my guitars and keyboards for concerts. I thank God for this great blessing.
And then later God went on to bless me with a life partner. It was a divine connection. When I prayed for a partner, I prayed for someone who could sing well and someone wise. And God blessed me with more than I asked for, she is not only a good singer, she is a rank holder and a technical writer.
For the RYF website, we wanted someone who could do content editing for testimonies. I didn’t request for this, but God gave me someone who is a professional in this field. www.ryf.co.in
And then we got to know each other better. We got engaged on September 26th 2009. We sang the song “Just a closer walk with thee” during our engagement. And God’s abundant presence was felt throughout the engagement.
Getting a transfer from Bangalore to Chennai is not that easy at our Company. The scripture says “ Is there anything too hard for the Lord” , the Lord says, is there anything too hard for me, Gracia got a transfer, and joined my company at Chennai location on December.
When I joined My company, it was three shifts for me, it was difficult, but we had a team which had 6 weeks of day and 3 weeks night. We are a 50 member team, but my manager chose me out of the 50 to be a part of this team which had 6 weeks of day shift. “The lord says, if you will delight yourselves in the Lord, he will give you the desires of your heart.” And I was happy to be a part of this team. The team is now moving towards total day shift work
Ephesians 3:20 says, “God is willing to do exceeding, abundantly, above and beyond what we could ask think or imagine”, and now God has blessed us with a small home. We are thankful to God for this great blessing.
When God wants something to be done, he will get it done. Nobody can stand against our God. He is the Lord of the all the earth. To God be the glory.
Last year I didn’t have a job, but God gave me one, then another blessing, and another. God has helped me to Walk in the fullness of the blessing.
God says “this is just the beginning, He says, your best days are out in front of you. And that You and I have not touched the surface of what God has in store for us.
In May 2009, when I received a job offer at Wipro Technologies, I had been informed by my manager during the interview that, there will be three work shifts- morning, evening, and night. I had also been informed that the shifts changed on a weekly basis. I was not happy about this, and had requested him for some alternative. Since the whole team followed the same schedule, my manager said that I will also have to follow the same. And since I had no other job offer then, I had no other choice but to follow as was instructed.
After around four weeks of work at Wipro, I had a talk with my manager and told that I was happy about the project, my profile, my friends, and the Company. But the only thing that I didn’t prefer, were the night shifts. I never wanted to come for night shifts. He told me, if you find someone to swap your shift with, you could do so. And then he left.
As days progressed, I got to know about a team which had day shifts within my project itself. It was the Nestle USA (NUSA) team. The team worked six weeks of day shifts and three weeks of night shifts. I thought it would be really good, if I were to get an opening in this team.
It so happened, at that time the NUSA team manager had an issue with his office laptop. And I did him a favor by giving his laptop for service at the HP service centre. At that time, I knew that, God had a plan for me through this situation.
Just two weeks ago, I got a call from my manager saying, “Jeba, we have an opening in the NUSA Team, would you like to take it?”. I said, I would be more than happy to take it and be a part of this team. Then he told me, that we will soon have a discussion with the client. And so I had a 30 minute discussion with my client about my profile. He asked me to tell him about myself. So I began describing all what I did from my first company till my present job at Wipro. He then asked, “Why do you want to move to the NUSA Team?” I plainly told him "You have a lot of day shifts here." And so, everything went on well.I later got a call that day confirming that I had made it through the interview and that I could join the NUSA team, next week.
I am now in the new team and am currently undergoing my training. It feels good to be here, and also now, my chances of moving onsite are much more.
So, what was that- supernatural favor? God says, if you delight yourself in him, he will give you the desires of your heart. If you keep God first place, and honor him with your life, He will cause people to want to be good to you. He will cause you to be at the right place, at the right time. His blessings will chase you down, and overtake you.
Why don’t you take the limits off of God? Get out of your box and say, “God, I’m ready for some of these explosive blessings. I am ready for some of your ‘far and beyond’ favors”. What are you believing for? Well if you think, Jeba this will never happen to me, I never get any good breaks, I will never get promoted. I say you need to know that God is longing to be good to you. But, you got to get your thoughts going in the right direction. All you need to do is believe.
I love what God said in Genesis 18:14-" Is there anything too hard for the Lord?" Do you think that your dreams are too big to come to pass? Get a new vision today. Put on a new attitude. God is all powerful. He can turn any situation around. It doesn’t matter what it looks like in the natural, He is a supernatural God. Sometimes when we here stories like these, we think, this is too good to be true. Just a few days ago I had dreamt of being a part of a new team, and sure enough I am now living that dream.
Another translation calls it the ‘secret petitions’ of your heart. Those hidden dreams, those secret desires, those promises, that you haven’t told anybody about and are just between you and God, He wants to bring these ‘secret petitions’ to pass. God is the one that puts these dreams in your heart. He wants to amaze you with his goodness. When you believe, it sets a series of events into motion. In my situation, God gave me, my team manager, to want to be good to me. Here he is, calling me out of a team of 40 members, and asking me, if I would like to take up the offer of joining the NUSA Team. Why weren’t the other team members called and given the offer?
God wants to give you the desires of your heart. Just say "Lord I believe". God is arranging things ‘in your favor’. He is lining up the right people and the right opportunities. In the coming days, you will see God’s supernatural favor and explosive blessings. God has you in the palm of his hands. He knows every need, He knows every struggle, He knows every dream, and He knows every desire. The good news is, God has it all figured out, cause he is a supernatural God. So, put your faith out there and just believe..
