Bro. Charles Praveen — Life Testimony

I was born into a good Christian family. When I was about one year old, and my sister was still in our mother's womb, my parents separated. None of our relatives came to my mother's aid, and she never asked anyone for help. She worked as a teacher and raised us through great hardship. Today I am settled in America as an engineer, living with my wife and children, saved and serving as a fisher of souls.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. Psalm chapter 23, verse 1.

Introduction:

Greetings to you in the precious name of the Lord. My name is Charles Praveen. I praise God for the valuable privilege He has given me to put my life's experiences into the form of a book. I was born on October the 8th, 1973. I want to share with you, through this testimony, how I came to know Christ in my life, how I accepted Christ as my own Savior, and all the good things God has done for me.

In my childhood, my parents separated unexpectedly. I learned from my mother that I was only about a year old at the time. My sister was still in our mother's womb. My sister and I grew up without our father by our side. In that condition, my mother came to the Nellore area and worked as a teacher in a private school. We went to live in my grandfather's house.

My grandfather was a retired police officer. Rather than lean on anyone's help to raise the two of us, my mother worked with fierce determination, keeping us at a distance even from our relatives. She struggled on her own salary to educate us, refusing to become dependent on relatives' love, sympathy, or support. All the elders made strong efforts to bring my mother and father back together. By the time I was old enough to understand, from the Bible stories, messages, and experiences my mother taught me, I learned that Joseph was sold into slavery at the age of fourteen.

By the time I was eight years old and could understand things, I would pray earnestly and persistently that my parents would be reunited, and that we could grow up in the presence of both of them. The elders thought that if we grew up under our father's care, our parents would eventually come back together. We were not yet old enough to voice our own wishes, but one morning we woke up to find that our grandfather or father had placed us in an orphanage. Our mother searched for us and found us at Domalaguda. I want you to know that God's plan and His work of salvation were plainly at work in this. In those days there were no phones; she searched every orphanage until she found us. In 1983 I studied up to the 5th grade in Nellore, and after that my education continued in Hyderabad. I completed the 6th and 7th grades there. My mother fell ill, and in that situation our finances were not sound enough to continue my studies. While still young, I was ready to work in a hardware shop for one hundred rupees. I never once asked God why He gave us these hardships; inwardly I lived by faith. Whenever I needed something to happen, I would ask for a sign, like Gideon did. From childhood I prayed earnestly. I worked at that shop faithfully for exactly three years, and because of how faithfully I worked, my employer came to love and care for me like his own child, by God's wonderful grace. By God's marvelous grace I returned to my grandfather's house in Nellore. My grandmother would teach me the word of God. I was kept with them to help care for my grandfather in his old age.

In my childhood, when the children who studied with me in the 5th grade asked me questions, I used to lie and say that I was studying. They tested me once, and I could not answer. They easily realized that I had not studied at all. In that hurt, I prayed to God. I prayed earnestly and persistently that if it was His will, since I was already of an age to be in the 10th grade, He would at least give me the chance to study up to the 8th grade. Earlier I had prayed that my mother and father would come back together and live as one. We moved back to Hyderabad. We reached a point where we could not even pay the house rent. My sister, my mother, and I spent time helplessly out on a railway platform. My grandmother gave me a Gideon Bible with a red cover. I read that Bible with great devotion. I longed to be able to study.

We moved back to Nellore and settled there again. With no shelter and no food, we went three days fasting. At the school where my mother worked, they gave me the opportunity to sit privately for the 10th grade exams. The headmaster of that school wanted to test me, and asked me to write an application to recover a bicycle that had been stolen, saying it needed to read like an official police report. I could not write it properly. Realizing that my standard was not where it needed to be, they trained me from the very fundamentals. I sat for the 10th grade exams and passed in the first class — nobody could believe it. As everyone wondered whether it was really true, I grew in trust in my Savior, reading the Bible and praying. I came to salvation before my mother and sister did, and took refuge in the Lord. I was eager to take part in church activities. Through Bible study, messages, and youth meetings, I found salvation, and through the experience of water baptism, I came to know that God Himself was guiding and caring for me. Because my father had rejected us, society looked down on us. People spoke of me with contempt, saying that without a father's upbringing I would surely turn into a thief, but the Lord's grace stayed close to me and gave me courage. I lived in gratitude for the love God had shown me, with a deep interest in His word. In 1989 I came to a settled assurance of salvation.

My sister, too, was hurt that she never received our father's love. In that season, in despair, she once swallowed a large number of tablets. The doctor made her vomit, but some of the tablets would not come back up. I placed the Bible near her head and prayed. Through the power of that prayer, God healed her by morning. We had no one to help us financially. My mother's salary was never enough. We suffered greatly, unable to pay the hospital bill, but the Lord Himself helped us at just the right time. I spoke to my sister about the love of Christ, and taught her about the need for salvation. She went to a nearby church, knelt down, and prayed in repentance, and was filled with the Holy Spirit. In this way my sister came to know the value of Christ's love and began to pray devoutly. After coming to a settled assurance of salvation, we went through the experience of baptism as well.

Our mother, weighed down by neglect from her husband as well as the lack of support from her own parents, had not drawn close to God. She was always anxious for our sake. Once, when she was suffering from a severe fever, she saw, in a dream at night, the verse Obadiah chapter 1, verse 10. Frightened, she told me about it. The three of us prayed together, and God, just as He had done for Hezekiah, extended her life by fifteen years and restored her health. My mother, too, came to salvation. Like Joshua, I and my household now serve the Lord. We began to grow in faith.

I joined the M.P.C. group for my intermediate studies at a government college. I earned money by tutoring 10th grade children, and we used that to meet our needs. There were times we went two days without eating. Once, at a house gathering, I was given some refreshments; I ate a little and was carrying the rest back for my mother and sister when a young boy pressed 150 rupees into my hand. I accepted it as tuition fees. This was a wondrous provision from God that reached us. Without asking anyone, we lived on, trusting in God, even when we had to go hungry. One day our pastor visited our home and prayed for us. Even though it was we who owed him an offering, he was the one who gave us some money and helped us instead.

In 1991, when I finished my intermediate studies, there were no reservations available to me. I was part of the N.C.C., and although I did not get a seat through it, I was able to take EAMCET coaching. I got a rank of 8,267. The fee came to 10,000 rupees a year, which meant 40,000 rupees over four years. Even with an N.C.C. quota seat, I still had to pay the full 40,000. It took four years to complete my engineering degree, though at times it felt to me like it had taken only four days. Our pastor taught me spiritual truths during this time. There were several moments when I nearly had to give up my studies altogether. Every year there was the 10,000 rupee fee on top of the hostel mess bill and daily necessities. My mother borrowed money to keep me in college. When the first year's 10,000 rupees came due, we sold the television and some other belongings from our house. I worked for a time as an agent somewhere. God gave me assurance, comforted me, and strengthened me through His word — Psalm 23 gave me so much courage and carried me through.

God, as my shepherd, made sure I never lacked anything, working wonders for me day after day. Even as He kept surprising me, I gave thanks to Christ with a full heart for the blessing of leaning on God through the years of my youth. In 1989, around the time I sat for my 10th grade exams, I had to undergo surgery for appendicitis. By God's grace, I was given good health afterward. During my engineering years, I prayed that I would be spared a hernia surgery and be healed instead. But my own wishes were one thing, and God's purpose was another, so I stayed quiet and accepted it. At the time of that surgery, my mother had only 20 rupees to her name. Yet God strengthened us, both spiritually and financially. This happened in the year 1992.

In those days, strengthened spiritually through revival meetings and filled with the Holy Spirit, God began to use me powerfully in the ministry of the word at small gatherings and prayer meetings. Sharing my testimony in different places, I was able to encourage many people, drawing on the strength of God's hand at work in my own life. I found joy in laboring among Hindu friends, recognizing the need to bear witness to the gospel there. In those days, brother Srinivasa Reddy was a spiritual role model for me. Working as a lecturer among Hindus, he encouraged me spiritually, taught me spiritual discernment, and strengthened me in my walk with God.

I came to understand, in real depth, the disciplines and the obedience the Christian life requires. I came to believe that receiving salvation is important, but that guarding that salvation and growing in it is just as essential for a believer. During the difficult years of my studies, none of our own relatives lent us any support — they would not even speak kindly to us, and behaved selfishly toward us. My mother and I bore our emotional pain alone. We found comfort only by depending on the Lord and pouring out our hearts to Him in tears. The room we lived in was very small, and the bathroom was in poor condition. Unexpectedly, we learned that my father, who had been living far away, had come to salvation. Seeing my situation, he said he could help me financially. I went to see him. He paid my second year's fees, but he could not pay the fourth year's fees — he, too, was not doing well financially. We learned that he had left us, moved far away, remarried, and was now raising three children and caring for a wife. He had since left his job and was serving God full-time. When the second year's fees came due, something happened.

My father came to my college. I was not in my room at the time; he left a note there. When my father came, my friend happened to be there. What my friend told me was that my father had introduced himself to him as my uncle. Hearing that, I was deeply grieved. Afterward, I shut the door, praised God, and worshiped Him. Even though my earthly father would not accept me as his own son, I praised God that my Heavenly Father, who had made me, had accepted me as His own child. I held tightly to my Heavenly Father, who had received me — a sinner, a wretched man, with no worthiness of my own. God was keeping me safe in His embrace. I came to believe that earthly kinship, however strange it can be, cannot love people with a love that never fails and never fades, while God's love is everlasting and imperishable.

Though a mother might forget the child she bore, and even if she should forget, I will not forget you — I praised God for this promise. During my engineering years, I used to carry my Bible everywhere with me, and people called me "the Bible man." God taught me many mysteries in those days and strengthened me through them. Wherever I read, in the Scriptures of my Father whom I trusted, the words "my son," I would take them and apply them directly to myself.

In 1996 I came to Vijayawada. I waited for a job. I worked as a lecturer for intermediate students, earning 2,000 rupees a month. From 1997 to 1999 I worked in Kuwait for 12,000 rupees, and my superiors there regarded me very fondly. Just as God prospered Potiphar because of Joseph, my company prospered because of me. Because of my education, I longed and prayed to work in the IT field, in a computer job. I received a job offer in Bangalore.

In 2002, when it was time for my sister to be married, my earthly father asked that his name not be included on the wedding card. Even so, her wedding took place wonderfully.

Wonderfully, my own wedding to Pavitra took place in September of 2002. I traveled abroad for three months and then returned. When both my sister and my wife were expecting at the same time, we went through great financial hardship. My father-in-law understood my situation. For six months I had no job, yet I did not give up on God — I remained a witness to Him. Then I was called and given a job in Bangalore. My first child, a son, was born to us, and we named him Immanuel. Exactly three months later, my company sent me to America. I came to America on a visiting visa in 2003. Even though we had many debts, God helped us. We put down an advance of 30,000 rupees for a house. We bought the house for 1,623,000 rupees. My work in Saudi Arabia went very pleasantly, and there I found fellowship at Hebron.

In 2006 I tried again for America. My passport and visa were stamped. There was a great deal of ministry work in Saudi. As I wondered what life in America would be like with children, we were blessed with another daughter. Within two years, wonderfully, I received my green card. By God's kindness, just as God was with Joseph, He was with me too. Those who watched my life saw it and said that God had blessed me. I came to believe that I could do all things through Him who strengthens me.

In every circumstance, I have been able to see God's blessing clearly. There was a time I did not get the rank I hoped for in my intermediate exams — it appeared correctly in the newspaper only the next day. God does not put to shame the children who trust in Him. He can prepare a table before us in the presence of our enemies. At first, people looked at me and doubted, saying, "He looks like such a small boy — can he really do this work?" Back in those working years, my wife, my sister, and I would pray together and resolve not to depend on anyone else. God met our needs. God gave me the experience of ministering His word in two congregations in America, and of serving in cooperation across every area of church life. In this way, as a believer who was saved, I have remained, from my very first day, a student and a witness within the church. While I was in Saudi Arabia, I was used in the ministry of the church there. In 2006 we settled in Dallas. The people of the UECF church in New Jersey have received me and my family with so much love.

In 2014-15 we settled in Harrisburg. There, going door to door, we strengthened believers, and personally too, to God's glory, my wife Pavitra, my son Bittu, and my daughter Tanya and I served God as a family, like Joshua's household, taking part earnestly in youth programs with singing. My mother often comes to visit America. In Hyderabad, she lives with my sister. Please pray for us, that we may be used greatly in the Lord's service, so that God may be glorified.

Amen.