Bro. M. J. Manoj Matthai — Life Testimony

I was born into a good Christian family. I received a good education, and while working a senior software position in America, running businesses across various organizations, and living happily with a good wife and children, doctors examined me and told me it was stage three cancer. Learning from the Bible that if a man gains the whole world and loses his own soul, it profits him nothing, I turned to Christ. Wonderfully healed, I now live as a witness for Christ.

Brother M. J. Manoj Matthai, Virginia, U.S.A.

He alone is my rock of salvation, my defense, my high tower; I shall not be shaken. Psalm chapter 62, verse 6.

May grace be to you in the holy name of the Lord. I am ready to share my testimony. My name is M. J. Manoj Matthai, and I am glad to tell you about myself. We live in the Washington, D.C. metro area. We work in the software business field within the federal government, in various areas of information technology. I have two daughters, and both are married. I live together with my wife and children. My daughters are well educated, and along with their husbands they hold jobs and live happily together with their children. We have six grandchildren, granddaughters and grandsons.

In the year 2023, a situation that arose in my life became the beginning of my own personal experience. By the way God had blessed us, we had come to own two homes. On the eleventh of February, we held a housewarming gathering. Seeking my father's blessing, we planned for my parents to come from India.

In July of 2023, I bought the tickets for my father to come. He arrived in America at eight-thirty. We thought he was simply very tired, but he was suffering from chest pain. We assumed he was just worn out from the journey. He looked at our house and blessed our children. He said, "I am not able to breathe properly."

We immediately took him to the doctor, and on the way, my father passed away. None of us in the family knew what to do. All of us sank into an ocean of grief. We were completely devastated.

Some days passed. Unexpectedly, I experienced a helpless feeling from pressure on my lungs. Everyone panicked and took me to the doctor to be examined. They took me to the emergency room and ran tests. They said there was no danger, and that night we returned home. Afterward, I got a call from the doctor's office saying more tests needed to be done.

I met with that doctor at an appointment. It had been two months since I'd last seen him. Of the three tests, one was related to my blood, one to my heart, and another to my stomach. In truth, I told them I would get all the tests done in order. They said my lungs needed to be examined too. I told them I'd had that done before and nothing had ever come up. I told the doctor I would check with H R at my company and get back to them. I resolved to go when the doctor called for me.

On August the eleventh, they called me to come to the office. I went at eleven in the morning; my wife Sudha had gone to a different meeting. The doctor told me my heart was fine and my blood work looked good. I said, so I told you, didn't I — all the reports are normal. But the doctor said he had some distressing news to share with me. When I asked what it was, he said an eight-point-five centimeter tumor had been found in me. I was thrown into a panic.

That tumor was above my kidneys, and they said it appeared to be a cancerous growth.

When the CT scan was done, the reports came back positive. I was fifty-seven years old, and I had been living with the confidence that I still had many more years to live. My business was going very well. My family was very happy. But now we met with the doctor wondering whether the goals of our life, our very dreams, were about to collapse. I asked, "Did you look at my report correctly?" He said he had seen the report that had come from radiology, and that it was moving from stage three to stage four.

I told my wife I had some distressing news for her. I told her everything the doctor had told me, all the reports. The two of us gathered every detail we could find through Google. We sank deep into sorrow and fell into despair. There seemed to be no hope in any direction. The doctors told us I might have as little as six months, or at most two years, to live. We didn't know which doctor to consult or where to go. We spent the most difficult days of our lives. Every night my wife Sudha would weep and pray. Sleep escaped me. I came to understand what it meant to pray to God, to depend on Him, and to cry out to Him in a time of crisis, and so we prayed.

I began taking pills just to sleep. I prepared myself for still more tests. They did an MRI, a CT scan, and other examinations. There was a great hospital, Johns Hopkins Hospital, where Ben Carson himself had once worked. It is one of the world's leading medical institutions, and my wife Sudha told me we should try to consult the doctors there. Getting an appointment there was very difficult; they told her it might take six months. I told her that after praying, I felt we should reach out to them anyway. She checked again and found that on the seventeenth of August there was an opening, and that we could come and consult that day. I learned that the doctor I had been directed to was not just a cancer and nerve specialist, but the very Dean who headed that institution. As the result of the prayer we had prayed with tears, we gave thanks to God that we were so fortunate to get an appointment with that doctor that very day — surely it was God's will.

The doctor said all the tests needed to be done again. He examined everything very carefully, and told us that the growth on my kidneys had not spread to any other part of my body, that my bones were fine, and that surgery would need to be performed.

After that, we returned home to Virginia. By God's grace, a call came from the hospital. They gave us the good news that the surgery would be done at five in the morning on August the twenty-eighth. In this state of illness, the ongoing journey felt painful to bear. I wondered how the surgery would go, whether there might be other complications. In that season, we turned to meditating on God's Word and to prayer.

He alone is my rock of salvation, my defense, my high tower; I shall not be shaken. Psalm chapter 62, verses 6 and 7 — we found in Him our strong refuge, our hiding place. A certain assurance settled within me. I knew that if death were to come to me, I would see Christ face to face.

For a Christian, there is eternal life after death. Christ is my Father and my Master. He is my God; the Holy Spirit of God is near to me. As it says in Psalm 23, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Psalm chapter 23, verse 3.

That word gave me great courage. On August the eleventh, I was diagnosed with cancer. On the twenty-eighth, through surgery, an eight-point-six centimeter growth was removed. After that, the cancer was completely removed from my body.

God worked a miracle for me — He removed the cancer from me and restored me to health. Whoever has lost hope in life, whoever is confused, whoever is going through hardship, whoever is suffering not knowing where help will come from in a time of crisis, whoever is struggling to find help hidden somewhere in the midst of difficulty — take courage, and believe in Christ. Turn to Him. In this life, eternal life has been prepared for us. Through the blood Christ shed for us on the cross, salvation is made possible. Turn to the loving Christ. No doctor and no human being can give you the love, the comfort, the strength, and the peace that you need. Christ alone can work a miracle in our lives.

In my sickness, through surgery, He healed me and gave me good health. We ought to follow the Christ who brings change to the heart. Through this testimony, I am telling you this so that I might follow Christ all the more, honor Him, and glorify Him. God is a God of love; even in the hour when death had come upon me, within seventeen days He wonderfully healed me through surgery. Christ is my hero — this is my story. I will live as a witness for Christ against cancer.

May God bless all of you who have read this testimony. May He lead into salvation those who have not yet been saved. Amen.

Manoj garu and his wife set his testimony to a song, which they shared on YouTube.

You did not let go of me — even when I ran away, You sought me and caught hold of me. Even when I strayed far from You, even when I refused You, You pursued me and drew me close. Your grace never fails to have mercy on me; Your love keeps following after me. Thank You, my Jesus, thank You.

Mine was a stubborn life, one that refused to change; pride swelled and surged within me. The arrogance of having everything kept me from hearing Your sweet voice. Suddenly my life fell into darkness. My heart was shattered and scattered, left in fragments, with nothing left but tears. Yet Your love alone kept following after me; Your grace never failed to have mercy on me. Thank You, my Jesus, thank You.

Thick darkness wrapped around me on every side, and crushed me until I had no hope of living. With tears, I knelt down and bowed my face and prayed. In those dark days, You appeared to me and filled me with divine light. You changed my condition and my course; You gave me new life. Your love alone kept following after me; Your grace never failed to have mercy on me. Thank You, my Jesus, thank You.