I grew up in Allahabad, a town in northern India that is considered one of the most religious and holy places for Hindus. Thousands of Hindus come from all over the world to take a dip in the holy river Ganges, believing that this sacred ritual will give them freedom from their sins and grant them salvation.

From birth, I was a very sick child. A severe skin condition caused rashes and boils all over my body—to the extent that even in the scorching 90°F summer heat, I had to cover my head and neck with a scarf, like Muslim girls wear, just to hide my wounds. On top of that, polio had affected the right side of my body.

My mother was very religious and took me to countless temples and Hindu priests seeking a cure. My father believed more in science and doctors, taking me to some of the top medical professionals in the country. But nothing helped. Despite all the prayers to Hindu gods and despite the expertise of doctors, the sickness and suffering remained.

My first encounter with Christ came when I was around 5 years old. One of the families in my neighborhood was Christian, and they told my parents about a healing meeting led by a Christian minister. My parents were desperate at this point—they had tried everything else—so they decided to take me to that meeting.

I remember the minister meeting with me and praying for me. She prayed over a bottle of anointed oil and then placed the oil on my shoulder and prayed. After that, she instructed my mom to do the same at home every day—to pray in the name of Jesus and apply that oil on my shoulder.

This was my first encounter with Christ. But I was just a child, and honestly, I used to refuse the oil. That bottle sat in my room for years as I grew up. Yet it always made me wonder: Did that oil, which had been prayed over, have any power to heal?

The question lingered in my mind, unanswered. Seeds had been planted, but I wasn't ready to believe. Not yet.

A few years later, when I was in fifth grade, something unexpected happened. As I walked out of school one day, someone handed me a small booklet—just five pages—containing the Good News of Jesus.

I still vividly remember the picture on the last page of that booklet: Jesus on the cross, and then rising up to heaven after rising from the grave on the third day.

Even though I was just a child with no real knowledge about Jesus, that image and that story raised so many questions in my mind. Who was this Jesus? Why did He die on a cross? How could someone rise from the dead? What did this mean for me?

These questions remained unanswered for quite a few years. I read the booklet, thought about it, and then life moved on. I forgot about it. Or so I thought.

But God was still pursuing me. The seeds planted when I was 5 with the oil bottle, now watered by this simple gospel booklet around age 10 or 11, were slowly taking root in my heart. I didn't know it yet, but another encounter was coming—one that would change everything.

When I was around 13 years old, my situation became desperately bad. By this time, the skin disease had spread all over my body. I had to wake up each morning and go straight to the shower to remove my undergarments, as they would be stuck to my skin from pus and blood oozing from my wounds overnight. If I slept on my back, my entire shirt would be stuck to my wounds, dried overnight.

I started hearing voices telling me that my life was worthless. I was bullied and mocked in school. The devil's voice tried to convince me to take my own life. I reached a point where I thought there was no point in living—I couldn't go to college in this condition or get a job. The voices in my head became louder, convincing me I was worthless, and I started seriously contemplating ending my life.

One day, I was sitting alone in my classroom with all these dark thoughts swirling in my mind. Then a teacher—who was a Christian and had been watching me in that school for a long time—walked in and said, "Son, I will tell you something which will heal you."

I saw a confidence on his face that I had never seen in a Hindu priest or doctor before. Then he opened his Bible and explained the first commandment of Moses: "You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." This verse made me think deeply, as I used to go to temples and cry out to idols, wondering if those idols were even listening to me.

That teacher invited me to his house for prayer. I decided to go the next day. When I arrived, he had a table set up with a cup of oil. He and his wife prayed for me—he dipped his fingers in the oil and placed it on my forehead. I don't remember exactly what he prayed, but he prayed with such intensity. He spoke in tongues, which I could not understand at the time, until I became well-versed with the Bible years later.

After praying, he gave me a Gideon's pocket Bible and marked Psalm 23, asking me to read it whenever I was alone. Psalm 23, verse 5 says: "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over."

Years later, I realized that this Psalm was prophetically for me. God did prepare a table and anointed my head with oil through that teacher in the presence of my enemies. Who were my enemies? Depression, suicidal thoughts, and hopelessness—the belief that I would never be healed and never escape this condition.

That day, when the teacher prayed for me, I felt someone touch me from behind and hug me. I felt so much warmth and love that I couldn't stop crying. I had a bicycle in those days which I rode to school. I took my bike from his house, and the tears wouldn't stop. I didn't know why I was crying or what I was experiencing—it was so different from anything I had ever felt in my entire life. That deep touch and love I experienced in that first moment when the teacher prayed for me—I had never felt anything like it before.

I went home and told my parents what had happened. Of course, they didn't like it. They thought the teacher was trying to convert me to Christianity. My dad warned me that if the teacher contacted me again, I should let him know so he could file a complaint about him. I obeyed my parents and never met that teacher again.

But I kept reading that Bible—hiding it from them. God had touched my life in an undeniable way, and nothing would ever be the same.

Reading the Bible in Secret

After my parents instructed me not to meet that teacher ever again, I kept reading the Bible on my own. I mostly read the book of Psalms during my alone time or whenever I was in pain or restless. As I read the Psalms, each passage would speak to me and resonate with the situation I was facing.

I would often read Psalm 23 as my daily prayer to God without fully understanding its significance. Psalm 23:1 says, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." This was the only verse I could understand at that time, and it made me believe that the God of the Bible was my shepherd and He would lead me.

For the next couple of months, I kept reading the Bible on my own. Even though I couldn't fully understand it, it gave me comfort and a sense of hope that things would change. My healing did not come immediately overnight like a miracle. Looking back now, I realize that I never fully believed that the God of the Bible could heal me completely.

The Prayer That Changed Everything

One winter, I was sitting alone with my Bible on my rooftop, in excruciating pain from a golf ball-sized boil that had been operated on that week and bandaged. I used to get many boils all over my body, but this one was particularly large and would return every few months on my left leg.

As a result, my dad would take me to the hospital, where 2-3 people would hold me down while the doctors cut and cleaned the boil without any anesthesia. It would cause excruciating pain and burning sensations for several days.

It was one of those days when I was suffering from that pain while reading my Bible. The pain was so intense that I closed the Bible, looked up at the sky, and asked God in my heart: "O God, if You are seeing my state and if You are the true God of the Bible, then give me proof of Your healing. Heal this recurring boil on my left leg."

Within that month, the boil disappeared from my leg and never came back.

Going to Church and Complete Healing

About a year later, when I was in 11th grade, a classmate walked up to me and said the same words my teacher had said. He told me, "I will tell you something which will completely heal you." Then he shared some testimonies about his own healing and invited me to his church.

I started attending church without telling anyone in my family. This classmate, who is now my good friend, would faithfully pick me up and take me to church. I had imagined it would be a large, fancy church with many people, but it turned out to be a small gathering of 5-10 believers who faithfully met every week to pray together.

The ministers of that church inquired about me and started praying for me. I don't even know the exact date of my healing, but as I started attending church, healing began to come. Within a year, my skin was clean from head to toe.

I continued taking medicines during this time, but those medicines had never worked for 16 years of my life. Only Jesus could bring healing. He gave me a new life, just as 2 Corinthians 5:17 says: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."

God's Faithfulness Continues

Challenges did not stop there. When you come to Christ, the devil plays with your mind and tries to lead you into wrong friendships, bad habits, and temptations. But God is faithful—once He chooses you, He will never leave you. As it is written in the Bible: "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5 NKJV).

God took me through a transformational journey over these years. The music I used to listen to, I don't listen to anymore. The foul language I sometimes used, I don't use anymore. If by any chance wrong words come out of my mouth, the Holy Spirit immediately convicts me.

God helped me to cut off friendships that were unfruitful and were pulling me in the wrong direction. He was shaping me, refining me, transforming me from the inside out.

Even regarding my marriage, I had certain requirements in my heart which I never told anybody. I wanted someone in my life who was also saved from a Hindu background and had a real experience with Jesus. I used to reason with God: "If You give me a life partner who is saved from the same background as I am, she will be able to understand my family and help bring them to Christ."

Christ is still working in my life and refining me. He is not done with me yet. The journey of sanctification continues daily as I walk with Him.

I hope this testimony helps you and encourages you to follow Christ in every aspect of your life. If He can heal a broken, sick child from India who was covered in wounds and hopelessness, He can reach you too—wherever you are, whatever you're facing. Jesus is real. His love is real. His healing is real.