A Changed Life

My name is Swapon, and I live in Bangladesh. I was born into a Hindu family; everyone in our entire community was Hindu.

When I was a young child, some Christian people came to our village. They offered many things to us and asked us to accept their religion. Most of the people here are poor, so they became Christians in order to receive the nice things that were offered to them. After a few months, they went back to Hinduism.

A few years later when I was older, some more men came to our village. But this time things were different. Instead of offering us things, these men started preaching, and it was really interesting. They talked about a man named Jesus, who loved and died for us. They also told about some of the things Jesus did while on Earth. Their preaching touched my heart.

These new people stayed for a while and visited our homes. Even though we were poor, they showed their love to us. Their preaching and the way they behaved helped me to know Jesus. During their last meeting, I told them that I wanted to learn more about Jesus and become a Seventh-day Adventist.

God Answers Prayers

Now I’m happy to know Jesus and to be a part of the Adventist family, but before I became an Adventist, my friends in the village and I often did bad things and got into trouble. But after I became a Christian, my old friends were often mean and made fun of me. One day they came to my house and bullied me. They told me to stop telling others in our village about Jesus, and then they left.

I started thinking about what I could do for them, so I started praying for them. I remembered a verse in the Bible that says to “always keep on praying” (1 Thess. 5:17), so I kept praying that God would change their hearts and they would start doing good things. A few days later they came back and said they were sorry for being mean to me! I was so happy and thankful to God for answering my prayers. Now these friends are doing nice things and helping other people in the village. Our God is really powerful; He listens to our prayers and I am very thankful to Him!

The people of my village are very poor. There is no one who can help with their needs, so I try my best to do what I can to help them. I teach the children of the village who are too poor to go to school. I don’t have money to give them, but what I do have is God’s love. If anyone gets sick or is having a problem, I visit and pray for them and share with them about Jesus—His love for us and how he gave His life on the cross. They are very surprised to hear this and are interested to learn more. I invite them to church, and they often come. The people are happy to hear about Jesus—it gives them light and hope.

No More Witch Doctors

I love to worship God because He loves me and protects me from evil. Once I became very sick, so my mother took me to the doctor, but he wasn’t able to help me. Then my mother become very worried, and wanted to take me to the witch doctor. I told her that I didn’t believe in that, and that only God could heal me and we should pray to Him. So my mother started praying and a few days later I was well again. The first thing I did was to praise Him for His care for me.

My favorite chapter in the Bible is Psalm 23. Every time I read it, I can feel God’s love more. What a promise He has given to us—that He provides everything we need. This chapter helps me to think more about and love God more than anything here on earth, and that’s why I love it so much. Please pray for me as I share about Jesus here in my village. Thank you.