Dream Your Dream
Once I was moaning to my mentor about how inadequate I felt. There I was in a sales job, without a college degree, whereas my classmates were well on their way to earning engineering and medical degrees, or studying whatever it was that they wanted to. He said, ‘Look at it this way. By the time they get into the workplace you’ll be ahead of them. And later, when you do succeed in getting a degree, with the practical experience that you already have, you’ll easily catch up with them and probably even race ahead of them at work. Don’t let the lack of a degree right now hold you back. Just go and be the best you can be.’
You may find it odd that I ended up in a former Soviet republic from South India. But the story of how I got here is a testament to God’s bountiful grace and His communication of purpose for me. When I completed my school finals in 2002, I wanted to attend a medical college in India so that I could fulfil my childhood dream of becoming a medical missionary. I applied for admission to several medical colleges in India but the intense competition for seats rendered all my attempts unsuccessful.
After sometime, my father came to know about my conversion and he was very upset about it. He told me to stop what I was doing and to stop following Christ. But I refused to. When he saw that I was adamant in my decision, he asked me to leave the house. With tears in my eyes, I left with the clothes on my back not knowing what to do or where to go. It has been many years now since I have not been back to my family’s home because of the deep hostilities and anger of my decision to follow Christ. I am as good as a dead son to my father.
I would wake up daily to the horrifying sight of my bed sheets covered in blood and puss, and very often, the sheets would be stuck to my skin due to the dried puss. My bed sheets went right into disinfectant. The stench of my infected skin was most unbearable. I was called a fool for my decision to only trust in God, people ridiculed the fact that I was solely dependent on God’s word for my healing, and it was beyond their comprehension that God would heal me. Nobody believed I would be healed.