Testimony: Ashlyn, a precious gift of God

14th Feb 2012. The most eventful day in my memory. It was valentines day, my birthday, in fact the first ever birthday with my parents in USA.The day supposed to be one of the best days of my life.

My wife Regen was carrying our second daughter, Ashlyn in her womb. We happened to had the 19th week ultra sound scanning scheduled on the same day. Me and Regen went to the hospital for ultra sound and we were really happy till that very moment. Our world drastically changed in 30 minutes time. After 10 minutes into scanning, the doctor mentioned that the baby's nasal born is not visible and there is a very high risk of Down's syndrome(Autism). He also mentioned that the baby has an abnormal kidney and most likely need a surgery once she is born. He was explaining all the challenges about autism and was trying to persuade us for further tests. I was sitting next to the ultra sound table, we locked our hands, looked at each other; we were in complete shock. We had a short discussion, and we took the courage to respond to the doctor that we are not going to do any tests on the baby or do an abortion, its the child that God given us and we are not going to harm her in anyways. Doctor took our signature that he explained all the risks on the observations. We were shattered; got into the car in the parking lot and we started crying for a while. We discussed and Regen took the decision to resign as teaching assistant job from the Montessori school where she was working. She resigned on the same day. She was not gaining enough weight during this pregnancy and baby was continue falling the growth rate from 59 percentile to an alarming 13 percentile and finally to a very abnormal level of 9 percentile. Regen undergone 19 ultra sounds in total and weekly checkups there after.

Due to visa constraints our parents couldn't be with us during the delivery. Our first child, Irene was born in India and we had a lot of dependency on them, specially since it was a c-section; we were used to their spoon feeding. There weren't many hospitals in Dallas that allow a normal delivery after a c-section. We wanted to have a normal delivery since the recovery was expected to be much more quicker. Fortunately our gynecologist allowed us to go for a normal delivery and also recommended a hospital which allows that. Delivery was very smooth and doctor was really surprised to see baby Ashlyn in her hand the third push itself!! Ashlyn weighed just 6 pounds, Doctor mentioned that since she was tiny the delivery was quick and smooth. She was perfectly normal, no abnormality found in her kidneys in the tests that followed. We got discharged from the hospital on the second day itself. Ashlyn gained weight and she was normal as per the growth curve within 15 days.

We received lots of help from our friends, they took care of us well till we get adjusted with the situation. They visited us, cooked for us, helped us with everything they could. They were the guardian angels that God sent for us.

God knew all these coming in our ways, so He already blessed us with an extremely 'mature' (she was just 3 that time) Irene as our first child. She was really obedient and was even ready to stay with our friends' s house while we were at hospital, ready to share the attention to the new born.

Ashlyn, a precious gift that brought us closer to the God and strengthen our bonds within the family, parents and with our friends. He heard our our prayers and provided us enough faith to go through this situation. We have an amazing god, who takes care of minute details. Mathew 11:28 Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest". He is  worthy of praise and worship. He paid it all for us. Thank you Jesus for transforming our life.

I am writing this testimony three years later since  I know the power of testimony much better now than ever before. The words are spirit and it activates faith in people and guide them in their walk of life. Encourage you to take steps in faith, however small it is. The unseen world is much more real, and it operates through faith and obedience in God. Thank for reading our testimony and God bless you.

Miracle vs Message; Follower vs Disciple

Jesus Christ came to this world for all the people. His birth was proclaimed to everyone, but the tools were different. A star guided the wise men, but an angel was sent to proclaim the good news to the shepherds.  So the message is essentially the same but the tools to deliver it do vary. His birth, messages, death and resurrection is universal, because the sin that he was targeting is universal.

Its a a human nature that we many er times dazzled by the miracle and completely ignore the message attached to it. So for an average christian believer he needs many visions, miracles to hold on to their beliefs. For example the message of transformation is completely ignored in water to wine miracle, the message of sharing is ignored in miracle about Jesus feeding a crowd of 5000.So the point here is miracle is mostly performed for conveying a message. To have a firm christian belief, understanding the Jesus's teaching and the core messages that he delivered are vital.

I would like to share few thoughts that I came across on John 6. This chapter contains the core message of the gospel itself. The various characters we see in this chapter are Jesus, a crowd of people, many followers and few disciples. It narrates two popular miracles that Jesus did in this earth, but also mentions the messages delivered by Jesus about the purpose for his life in this earth.

The verses John 6: 1- 5 set the context. Jesus started doing many miracles on sick, It was very close to passover festival and a huge crowd of people heard about him came to see and hear him preaching. In verse 5 we see Jesus wanting to feed this entire gathering. Jesus concern about physical needs of his followers. He performs the popular miracle of feeding the crowd of 5000 in John 6 : 9-13. In verse 14 the crowd acknowledge that he is the true prophet that was expected, in 15 they even went up to make him the king as well. So far the crowd is  heard about miracles, took pain to see him, saw one miracle and started believing in him and wanted to make him as their king. Day 1 is over. At the night he performs another miracle of walking on the sea (John 6: 16-24).

In verse 26, Jesus looks  to be little harsh, he said that they came to see him again because they got satisfied with the food on day1 rather than the miracle. He then started speaking about food that gives eternal life. And in verse 29 he underlines that the God expects them to believe in whom he has sent. The crowd started questioning his credentials, asks what he has done to believe in him. This is the crowd psychology, forgets everything that they see and experience easily. See the drastic change they wanted him to be their king and now challenges that he has not done enough. 

The verses from 35 - 40 is the core message, Jesus declares that he is the bread of life, and whoever eat him will never be hungry or thirsty again. Verse 40 says that whoever see and believe him will have eternal life and he will raise him up in the last day. He explains this in detail till verse 58. It would have been very hard for the entire crowd to comprehend, they may not have heard anything like that till that day. See how even followers responded(verse 60) followers says that the message is very hard and who can hear it?. The crowd of 5000 may not have many followers, even they think that the message is very hard to digest. Miracles are very easy to comprehend but messages aren't. 



Verse 63 underlines that the flesh is of no use, its the spirit that gives eternal life. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Have you experienced the holy spirit yet? If not pray for the holy spirit,once you receive your life is not going to be the same. Bible says if you ask you will be given, if you seek you will find it. 

Verse 66 mentions that most of his followers stopped following him from that time. Jesus didn't change his message and the message remains eternal. In verse 67 Jesus checks if his disciples also want to leave?. Disciples continue to stay with him mentioning that they believe no one else can give them eternal life.

Most of the people followed Jesus because they see wonders and signs, thought he could change the condition of their life. They often impressed, at times doubted, questioned and finally deserted him since his purpose was not really change their physical life in this world. They couldn't comprehend 'the' message. The people who wanted the eternal life stayed back as the disciples.