Jacob's Story, Part 2

I’m amazed at how God reveals things to us. Sometimes the revelations come slowly, and at other times He reveals things quite rapidly.

Jacob Kunthara, 23, is working on his master’s in engineering in Trivandrum, India. 

 

At the end of the school year I took my mock exams and had a bit of free time on Saturdays, so I found the Adventist church in the city and began attending. It felt like heaven to worship with these people. The mission stories really impressed me, showing how God is the same God all around the world. 

During the school year the time I spent reading the Bible had showed me that God is a very personal God. I didn’t understand some classes, but after I prayed about it, God showed me how to understand it. 

I sometimes shared what I was discovering in the Bible with another guy from a Sunday church, and he came to believe as well. I didn’t know how to explain the prophecies very well to show that our former church was not the true church, so I just prayed and explained as well as I could, and the boy understood and accepted it. His family warned him to stay away from my church and me.

I returned home and asked to be baptized. My parents were so happy that God had become such a part of my life. I stopped composing music for my friends in the band, and my mom and I were baptized together. 

My father would record sermons from the Adventist television programs, and that summer I listened to many of them. They taught me so much about what Adventists believe. 

I’m amazed at how God reveals things to us. Sometimes the revelations come slowly, and at other times He reveals things quite rapidly. I met with the youth in this church, and we grew in faith together.  

I enrolled in an engineering school in Thrissur, where I first attended the Adventist church. I was so happy about that. I attend church in Thrissur whenever I wasn’t home for the weekend. We don’t have a church near our home, so we travel about 17 miles (28 kilometers) to go to church. 

My sister hadn’t been all that serious about religion either until the end of her twelfth grade. I was worried about her, because she was still living a secular life. She thought I was strange for going from my love for secular music to being such a “God nut.” When her government exams schedule was announced, two of her exams were on Sabbaths. To our surprise, she stood firm and refused to take these exams. This meant that she must study two more years to take her exams again.

She enrolled in the Adventist higher secondary school and has become so much stronger in her faith. Now she shares her faith with her friends and has led some to Christ. This situation changed her life in so many ways. God has become real to her, and she is strong in her faith. Often she calls me to ask for books that she can give to others. 

I love to see how God is working in our lives. He has allowed us to share our faith with others—classmates, cousins, even my grandfather. Several people have studied the Bible with us and are now convinced to follow Christ and His will for their lives.