Cedarville Magazine, Fall 2013

12 | Cedarville Magazine God Had Other Plans by Elisha Injeti I come from Andhra Pradesh, a southeastern state in India. My hometown is the port city of Visakhapatnam along the Bay of Bengal, where I still have family today. The story of my journey across the globe fromVisakhapatnam to Cedarville is a testimony of God’s grace and faithfulness. I grew up in a Christian home in India, where about 80 percent of the population is Hindu. For my family, the journey from Hinduism to Christian faith wasn’t an easy road. I grew up listening to my grandmother Ratnamma’s stories of how God rescued our family from not only the oppression of the caste system, but also from spiritual darkness. Plans for Hope Ratnamma’s older sister, Subbamma, was the first person in the family to accept the Gospel. Both sisters were born and brought up in a Hindu “untouchable” family; life for them was not easy at all. They never went to school or temple because of their gender and caste. They weren’t accepted, nor even considered human. Subbamma was married off at an early age as was the custom during that time, and she was expected to give birth to a son after the first year. After 30 years of marriage, after waiting and praying to all the Hindu gods, she still didn’t have children. She was becoming even more of an outcast; her husband’s family started to disown her. She was ready to give up hope, and one day she went down to the river to end her life. But God had other plans for her. He sent a British missionary — Mr. Whitehouse — to the river that day to stop Subbamma from going through with her plan. Mr. Whitehouse told her about Jesus Christ, and she accepted Him as her Lord and Savior. What would have been her last day on earth became the first day of her new life in Christ. God ordained all the days of Subbamma’s life (Ps. 139:16) as she began her journey as the only Christian in the entire Hindu village. The Lord blessed Subbamma’s new faith by giving her four children, two boys and two girls. As a result of Subbamma’s obedience and submission to God’s Word, her entire family — including her sister, Ratnamma, my grandmother — and most of the villagers also became Christ-followers. God began to empower the two sisters, and Mr. Whitehouse showed them how to run a church and a school. They started a school and served as midwives, delivering babies in the village, while their husbands got involved in ministry at the church. Plans to Prosper My parents were blessed to have been born in Christian homes as they were raised in the same village. Ratnamma’s daughter, Elizabeth (my mother), and my father carried the faith passed on to them and raised me in the fear of the Lord. In spite of growing up in a predominantly Hindu society, some of my best childhood memories are of singing songs of praise and memorizing Scriptures in Sunday school and sharing them with my Hindu friends. In 2 Timothy 1:5, Paul writes, “I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother, Lois, and your mother, Eunice, and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.” For me, these are not just words; they are my story. The faith that was first in my grandmother, Ratnamma, and my mother, Elizabeth, became my own faith during my first year in college. It was an exciting day when the Lord got a hold of me and The first photo ever taken of Elisha’smaternal grandparents, Nathaniel and Ratnamma, and their son. Because of the testimony of Ratnamma and her sister, most of the people in their “untouchable” village became Christians.