Sangat’s Story of His Life and Ministry

How I became a Christian

I was born in Tokyo, Japan on September 14, 1953.  My Father was an Indian from Hoshiar Pur, Punjab, and my mother is Japanese from Tokyo.  When my Father was young, he left India, I think, during the time of World War II. He joined his elder brother in Stockton, California to assist him and other Indians in liberating India from the British rule.  As it became difficult to continue these activities in the US ( as the British were allies to the US), his brother asked him to leave for Japan, which was helping India to gain independence from Britain, to continue the liberation work.  That was why he came to Japan and there he met my Mother.

My Father’s religion was Sikhism; perhaps you might have seen an Indian man with turban, beard and mustache; that is what the Sikh looks like.  My mother was a Buddhist, but when she married my father, she followed his religion.  Sikhs believe in an invisible God, and they believe that there is “One Guru”, that through him mankind could get to that Highest Spirit, God, and to receive the way of salvation.

We had a prayer room in our house where my Father instructed us to go and pray to God in the morning and evening. Besides this we thanked God before each meal.  We prayed in the prayer room together, and he also read scriptures from “Granth”, the holy book of this religion. At that time, I did not understand anything from these scriptures because I did not know the Punjabi language in which the scripture was written.

Tokyo to Bombay

I studied in Tokyo in a Japanese school up to the seventh grade. After completing this class, I asked my Father to take me to India and enroll me in school there because I wanted to see my Father’s country which was mine also.  At that time, I only spoke Japanese. In 1968 he took my two older sisters and me to India.  We took a large ship and traveled in route to Hong Kong, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka and finally Bombay.

 The voyage was enjoyable, but when we reached Bombay, I was shocked with the poverty I saw in this country. It seemed that many people were living at a very a low standard of living.  They were living in a very different lifestyle from that of Japan.  My Father enrolled me in a school that had a hostel in Dehera Dun, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, 135 miles north of Delhi.  It was a hostel of an English Medium School where I began to learn English and a little Hindi, since the instruction was in English.

I faced difficulties in adjusting to the culture, food, way of life and language but even in those days, I prayed to God to help me overcome.  I knew a little about Jesus Christ because the founder and wife at the school I attended in Japan were devout Christians. We had begun each day with prayer and a Bible reading in the auditorium. All aspects of the school, architecture, environment and emphasis in teaching were very godly. 

In the Indian school, I loved playing various kinds of sports and I was good in them, therefore, I looked forward each day for after school and afternoon play time. Sports activities helped me to be positive in the midst of many challenges I faced living in a country that was less comfortable than that of living in Tokyo, Japan.

After three years I returned to Japan and attended an American High School in Tokyo for my Junior and Senior years. It so happened that I had many American friends who were children of Christian missionaries.  I noticed that they were loving, friendly and manifested godly qualities.  One of them gave me a Bible; I had a Japanese Bible, but it was written in an older form that was difficult for me to read or to understand. It was easier for me to read the English Bible. Of course, I did not put any effort into reading the Bible at that time. At that time, I was not inclined to the Lord Jesus Christ, though I heard about him from the Gospels that were read while I was in the Japanese school many years previously.

I attended Menlo Junior College in Pal Alto, California in 1973 and 1974. I then transferred to Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, as I thought I would like to be a farmer. ( I heard that OSU had excellent Agricultural and Engineering courses).  However, as I studied, I realized that I did not want to work as hard as a farmer, so I changed my studies to business administration.

During this college year in Corvallis, I became very hungry to know the Truth.  I prayed to God since I really did not know Him.  I prayed and said to Him, “You have to show me that you are really there and you have to show me the Truth”.  Soon after this prayer, I met Dr. Richard Walker, who was carrying out research in the Pharmaceutical Chemistry department at OSU.  He took me to a Christian Fellowship in Salem, about 25 miles from Corvallis.  During those days, since I did not see power and life in Sikhism, I was searching for answers elsewhere, and one of them was Christianity. 

I remember that the teacher who taught God’s Word that night taught in such a way that it made sense to me, though I do not recall exactly what he had taught.  Towards the end of the meeting I heard people speak in tongues and interpret.  I did not understand the unknown language. However, the interpretation was in English, and I heard words as if spoken from God.  I distinctly remember God saying that He was our Father. Immediately after the meeting, I asked Richard what was that unknown language? What was the meaning of someone speaking as if God were speaking?

He showed me from the Bible about speaking in tongues, and told me that God spoke to us through these individuals by the power of God.  I believed and I was elated and filled with joy.  What enlightened me the most was that, for the first time in my life I came to know that GOD WAS MY FATHER!  That Great God who created the heavens and earth was my Father! What a revelation to my soul, enlightening the depths of my being!  All the way back to Corvallis, I kept on asking Richard whether God was indeed my Father or not, and Richard kept on assuring me that He was my Father.

From the next day onward, I could not wait to meet Richard to learn from the Bible.  We began a Christian Campus fellowship in the student union.  I began to witness and share about God and His wonderful Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, from that day that I came to know Him with absolute certainly, which indeed was God’s mighty work He did in my heart.

We reached out to many souls to share the knowledge of manifesting the spiritual power as spoken by Jesus Christ before his ascension—that we are endued with the power from on high, the gift of holy spirit.  This is a brief sharing of how I became a Christian.

Return to India

I never thought I would return to India but, by the grace of God, I learned and grew.  God worked in me, and put the desire in my heart and showed clearly to return to India to make known His Truth to Indians.  That was why I returned to India temporarily in 1978 and 1980 and permanently in September of 1983. Since then, we have been reaching out to those who hunger and thirst for the Truth and making available teaching of God’s Word in home fellowships throughout India.

Greatness of the Body of Christ

There are many Christians in India, but percentage-wise very few in a population of about 1,000,000,000. These Christians and Christian ministers have various ways of worship, doctrine and practice, but all belong to the One Body of Christ. This is true for all the Christians in the world.  The Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church of God, the Body of Christ.  God is looking after all of them with loving care and diligence regardless of their beliefs, practice, color, culture, both good Christians and bad Christians, rich Christians and poor Christians.

I am not the only one who is doing the works for the Lord Jesus in India but there are many just like me in the USA who are reaching out to the lost, teaching the faithful and unfaithful.  I do not magnify myself nor am I the center of focus, but it is the Word of God and what God is doing that is the focus. The testimonies I relate are not centered on what I do, but on what other believers believe and do.  It also shows through the testimonies that anyone could do the healing, casting out devils, and miracles; and anyone could receive deliverance from any problem.

Sangat’s family

My wife, Beautrice, is from a Christian family; her father and mother are preaching and teaching God’s Word with us in Punjab, 280 miles north of Delhi.  She looks after our children and me wonderfully. Beautrice and I have three daughters: Preet is 16 now and will be 17 in January; she is in the twelfth grade. Priya is 12 and will be 13 in November; she is in the eighth grade.Prakashini is 8 years old and is in the third grade. We have one son, Sidhant, who is three years old.

Teaching God’s Word in the family

Our family has a family fellowship daily at 8:00pm regardless of who may or may not be available, except when we have open fellowships at our home.  The home fellowship begins at 8:00 and ends around 9:00pm; it is a wonderful time to be together to communicate with one another and to share our own testimonies each day. We sing songs, pray, bring messages from God by speaking in tongues with interpretation and prophecy and receive an offering.

My wife or I teach the children God’s Word.

I thought to do this since we could easily be watching TV an hour a night. Why not make one hour for something that is the best? Taking one hour a day to recognize God and be thankful to Him and to learn His Word will go a long way after awhile.

Satya Singh prayed to God that he would get the officer’s signature and a renewed passport in the same day.  The broker might be afraid of the officer but he decided he would not because His God was with him when he faced the officer.  He entered in the room of the officer and showed all the documents. The officer smoothly and immediately stamped and signed all the necessary documents.  His passport was renewed in the same day, and Satya Singh is now getting ready to leave for his new job in the Republic of Palau, a tourists’ paradise island.

Comfort of the scriptures

Rani’s husband passed away last year.  She has two daughters who were already married and has two more daughters with her.  She was constantly worried about the future when her other daughters left home and married.  She prayed to God for direction for her life.

That night, she saw in a dream a temple of God, and I walked out of it and said to her, “Why do you look so sad and what shall I do for you?”  She said in her dream, “What should I do?”  I answered, “Read the book of Job, Philippians and James”.  Rani was illiterate, so she waited until her daughters woke up and asked them to read her the book of Job.  She was blessed to learn of Job’s faithfulness in the face of the loss of his children, complete estate and wealth, not to mention the infestation of boils over his entire body. She said that her own loss was very little compared to Job, and she was comforted from the scriptures. God did not leave Job alone; moreover, he left him with an abundance of sustenance.

Excessive drinking healed

Mahajan told us that sometime ago, he began to drink whisky before dinner at home.  Initially, he drank only about two glasses.  Eventually, he found himself drinking four glasses of whisky and then half a bottle and finally a full bottle.  Recently, he became convicted that he was spending far too much on drinking from his income that should be spent on his children. He knew that he could not quit drinking by himself.

He asked God to help him stop drinking.  Specifically, he asked God that the next time he drank, that he would vomit. The following day, as he took a sip, he felt sick and immediately vomited.  He told us that every time he thought about drinking, he would feel ill; as a result, he no longer is tempted to drink.

Importance of total trust in God

This testimony was from the other home fellowship held yesterday that I came to know when I spoke to the leader of that fellowship this morning.  Ramkreet, a believer of this fellowship, shared yesterday that he had a boil on one of his eyelids, and it became so large that his fellow factory workers told him to visit a doctor for treatment.  Many of the fellow workers with kind intentions suggested to him that he should get it treated immediately.

Ramkreet was tired of hearing their suggestions and said to them that by the end of that day’s work, the boil would be gone. He prayed to God that it should be so.  Indeed, by the end of the day, the boil was gone and, moreover, there was no trace of it.  The workers around him were surprised at the God of Ramkreet. 

Sangat’s daughter healed

This is my testimony.  The power that resides in the proper use of Holy Communion is something that has been on my mind lately. I knew that it was commanded by Lord to ‘do in remembrance of me,’ yet it was not something in which I frequently partook. This was partially true because I did not want to make it a religious ritual in my life.  As a result, I was depriving myself and others of the full power resident in the broken body and shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Recently, I had observed that the saints were not receiving healing during the Holy Communion, because they did not believe upon eating the bread that they absolutely were going to be healed. Additionally, I did not believe to put the power of the healing wholeness into the bread.

With all this in mind, I decided to experiment when my eldest daughter, Preet, who had developed a mouth ulcer in two places and a large pimple on the left side of her cheek.  Last night I administered a piece of bread representing the broken body of Christ to her.  I prayed and believed that this piece of bread had the power to make her whole, thanked God, and gave it to her.  The next morning, both the mouth ulcer and the large pimple were no longer there.  I will be sharing about this in our next fellowship as well as in the other fellowships I will be attending.

I am indeed finding a great benefit in believers sharing what God has done for them at each fellowship, as we were greatly inspired to see that our God is able.  Therefore, we have a time of sharing of what God has done in each fellowship here in India.

Acts of the Holy Spirit in South India

I arrived at Trivandrum airport at 2:30pm where I was received by Joseph Vederash, who conducts home fellowships and runs Bible classes in and around the area of Martandam that is about 40 miles further south of Trivandrum