October 16, 2009
Ratna Paul grew up in an Indian village of 6,200 people. Everyone in the village was Hindu. There was not a Christian of any kind in the community.
When Ratna Paul became a man, he worked for the Pithapuram Sugar Factory as a Mechanical Fitter. One day, in an accident at work, his right eye was seriously injured. In fact, he lost the sight in his right eye. His company spent a lot of money on surgeries, but none was successful.
Finally, a preacher from the Church of Christ, Brother Prakasam Reddy, introduced Ratna Paul to Christ and advised him to pray. That is when things began to change. Slowly, God answered Ratna Paul’s prayers. His eye healed, and he regained the sight he had lost. He was baptized into Christ and dedicated his life to God. From that time onward, he began preaching Christ to all his villagers and to other people throughout the area. His personal history is not unlike that of the apostle Paul. Ratna Paul’s own family members, his blood relatives, and his friends turned against him and became his enemies. The whole community met together and expelled him from the village.
Brother Paul then constructed a small hut in another place and began worshiping God. For many years, people objected to this and commanded him not to worship. They beat him and tried to burn his hut. They sternly warned him not to preach the word of God. Four times, they gathered together and tried to kill him. But God saved him, and now he has become a preacher of the gospel in that area. God is capable of changing a man’s social status. In the village where people once hated Ratna Paul, they now love him.
God’s power has been demonstrated again and again in Brother Paul’s life. Today, everyone honors him, and many join him in worship.
Prabhu Kumar writes, “God is now using this brother to work with us by using our WEI study material. He was a good student while he studied the WEI lessons. I hope that God uses him to open a new door to the whole Hindu community.
“Please pray for him and for me that we may work together to win many souls for Christ from the strong Hindu community of Kandarada in the year 2010.”
