I see the Christ in you

Jessica and Ameet Londhe are packing their bags, getting ready to leave Booth College of Mission, which has been their home for two years. Among their possessions are several precious Bibles. ‘Look at all these! There was a time when I struggled to have one secret Bible,’ recalls Jessica.

From Mumbai, India, to Wellington, New Zealand, where Jessica and Ameet will be commissioned as Salvation Army officers (ministers) on 12 December. They have travelled worlds away from their culture and home to serve the one true God they proclaim as Christ. This stand has brought persecution, physical harm and rejection—an incredible journey.

Jessica was born into an orthodox family that stood out as Hindu among the Hindus. Her father was head of their caste, responsible to their community and known far and wide. Although he was never educated, he was a successful and well-known business man.

As a girl with an older sister and two brothers, Jessica explains that ‘rules for females are stricter.’ Despite these restrictions, Jessica’s mother broke with tradition in one exceptional way: she was determined that Jessica and her sister would be educated.  She also asked neighbours to teach her children English.

At home, life centred around their daily Hindu rituals. The family worshipped the baby version of the god Krishna, with ‘idol worship’ taking around three hours every day. It included ‘bathing’ the idol in water sourced from a well, clothing it in clothes that ‘won’t irritate the skin’, offering food prepared in a separate kitchen especially for idol worship, singing in the ‘temple room’, and finally, putting the idol ‘back to sleep’.

Not only was the family strictly vegetarian, any mention of meat was considered a sin and they could not go anywhere meat was eaten.

Bigger questions

As a young girl, Jessica threw herself into the daily Hindu rituals with passion. But as she grew, questions began to bubble under the surface. ‘I asked my parents, “Why do we have to be re-born thousands of times before we get salvation?” and “Who decides that my deeds are good enough to reach salvation?” They could never give me a satisfactory answer.’

But things changed when her parents moved suburbs and she began attending a new school. ‘I had a teacher who was different from the rest of the teachers. She had a quality that made people feel very special and loved. Her name was Barbara D’Souza.’ A French teacher, Barbara offered free, private tuition at her home.

Jessica jumped at the chance and, miraculously, her parents allowed her to go. One day, Barbara warned Jessica that her next tutoring session would not be about French, it would be ‘something very important, to do with my life’.

‘That day, she told me the story of the Bible—from Genesis to Revelation. She talked about how our world was created, how sin came to be and what God did for our salvation,’ recalls Jessica. ‘What truly touched my heart was that this God loved me so much he died for my sins. I couldn’t imagine anyone doing that for me!’

After talking for three hours, Jessica said, ‘I’m ready. I want to follow this God.’ Barbara replied, ‘You can’t,’ because she knew what lay ahead for Jessica if she became a Christian.

‘I started crying and said, “I won’t leave until you show me how I can follow this Jesus.” Barbara finally said, “Okay, stop crying.”’ She took Jessica through a prayer, and then said, ‘You’re now a follower of Jesus.’

Giving Jessica a King James Version of the Bible, Barbara told her, ‘I won’t always be with you, but the Word of God will always be with you. Store this in your heart.’

Thank you, Jesus

Jessica laughs, recalling that she could not stop talking to people about Jesus—her best friends at school and some of her cousins accepted Jesus. ‘It created an uproar in my school and among my relatives,’ she explains.

My family suffered huge embarrassment within our community.’ To Jessica’s parents, being a Christian meant two things: being an ‘untouchable’ or being ‘immoral’.

Jessica’s parents brought a police complaint against Barbara. Jessica was forbidden from seeing friends or family and kept at home. The Bible she was given and any Christian literature they found was burnt. Her father slept at the doorway of her room, and said that if she wanted to go to church, she would have to ‘go through his dead body’.

Amongst all this, Jessica felt convicted that she had to abstain from idol worship. Each stand she made against her family’s rituals, were met with beatings. This became a daily battle throughout her teenage years.

Jessica salvaged some Christian scriptures and read them while hiding in the toilet. Trying to decipher the old-fashioned Bible she’d been given was almost impossible. ‘But something amazing happened. I starting hearing the audible voice of God as I read, explaining the scriptures to me and everything I was reading.

‘When I got beatings I would say, “Thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus”, and I would feel no pain from the beatings.’

Jessica is careful to explain that her parents were trying to protect her, since in Indian culture what the community thinks means everything. Jessica was sent to stay with her uncle in Goa, where she struck a deal allowing her to go to a church two hours away in exchange for doing all the domestic chores—something only considered worthy of hired help. But this arrangement came to a prompt end when Jessica led her uncle’s daughter to Christ.

Back home and now in her twenties, Jessica insisted on going to church. But she recalls with tears how her parents touched her feet as she left. ‘For your parents to touch your feet is the ultimate disgrace. To think that I brought my parents to this place …’

She continues, ‘If you get enough beatings, if you’re told that you’ve brought shame and embarrassment enough times, it is hard to keep going.’ Jessica could not see a way forward in her life. She was of marriageable age, but would not marry a Hindu. Her parents would not allow her to marry a Christian. Jessica tried to take her own life.

Other plans—Ameet’s story

But even among this most turbulent of times, God had plans for Jessica. She found her vocation working for a Christian organisation as a supervisor of a half-way home for girls rescued out of the sex industry. This is where she first met Ameet.

Ameet was in his third year of a four-year Bachelor of Divinity and doing an internship with another Christian organisation. The groups would meet for fellowship, and Jessica shared her story. Ameet recalls, ‘As I listened to her story, I felt God speak to me and tell me that she was the one for me.’

Ameet was born into a Christian family. His father was  a Presbyterian minister—like his grandfather and great-grandfather before him. ‘As a teenager, I thought I was born into a priestly family and the blessings would be passed on to me. So I used to think, why bother to live a good Christian life?’

He hated being labelled a ‘pastor’s kid’ and went out of his way to be ‘worldly’. As a young man in his twenties, Ameet found success as a marketing manager, earning a good salary. He became vice president of the youth wing of a major political party, which gave him great status.

One night, he went out drinking with a large group of young men from his party. They began a bar fight with another group and severely beat up a young man. When the police arrived, Ameet—along with the others—ran away and took refuge in a local politician’s house.

The next day, the politician told him, ‘The young man you beat up died, but don’t worry, I’ll take care of it and make it go away.’ Ameet was devastated.

‘I started thinking about my father’s reputation. I realised I had done a terrible thing. I cried out to God, “If you help me, I will spend the rest of my life following you.” I went to the police station to turn myself in.

‘When I got there, they said, “No, the man is not dead; he is recovering in hospital.” The politician had lied to secure power over me.’ Then and there, Ameet gave his life to Christ. ‘I went on my knees, crying and crying, just wanting to give my life to Christ.’ He immediately stopped smoking and drinking, and shared his new-found faith with his friends.

That was 1999, and four years later, Ameet was completing his studies to become a full-time minister.

Coming together

Ameet and Jessica prayed for three years that God would change her father’s heart so they could marry. But when Ameet visited Jessica’s home, her father would not speak to him.

‘Eventually, Jessica’s sister and brothers persuaded her father to visit my home,’ says Ameet. For a family who would never enter where meat was eaten, this was a huge step. But when he got there, a miracle took place. ‘We had about 50 relatives around, and as soon as he saw we were a community people too, he was completely transformed.’

Finally, the couple were able to start planning for marriage. Ameet’s father said he would like Jessica’s father to give her away at the church. In exchange, he promised no meat would be eaten at the wedding. ‘When they saw what church was, they were completely changed. We gave them a place of honour and had a translator so they could understand the ceremony. We had a huge feast of a 1000 people—minus the meat,’ recalls Ameet.

Today, Jessica’s family embrace their marriage. ‘They come to our house, even though we are not vegetarian. And when they have a need, they have even started saying, “Please pray to your Jesus about this.” ’

The land of milk and honey

Three years after they were married, Jessica felt God put the words ‘New Zealand’ on her heart. She didn’t even know where this country was and had to look it up on the map. She felt God promise her that ‘I will take you to the land of milk and honey.’

Jessica asked for confirmation, and suddenly the daily papers started running a series on how to migrate to New Zealand. Ameet went along with Jessica to meet an immigration officer ‘just to keep her happy’. But after about four months, on 10 February 2009, they arrived in New Zealand. Jessica saw an advert saying: Land of milk. Land of honey.’ She couldn’t help smiling to herself.

But as they settled into New Zealand, this promise seemed far removed. They both had to get work at McDonalds. ‘I used to cry as I was cleaning the McDonalds toilets,’ admits Ameet. ‘I asked God, “Why have you brought us here? In India we had good jobs, now I’m cleaning toilets—the lowest of the low.” In that moment God answered my prayer—there is no job too lowly, God was humbling us.’

They decided to try out the Salvation Army church in Glenfield, Auckland, as it was only 10 minutes’ walk away from where they were staying. ‘We prayed about it and started going to this church, and God started using us in leadership and different ministries,’ says Ameet. Within a year, they both found social work positions at Auckland City Mission.

And God had more miracles in store. After seven years and being told they would never have children, Jessica became pregnant. But shortly before the birth, they were devastated to discover that Ameet had a brain aneurism and would have to undergo an emergency operation.  

‘Jessica texted all the church people she had on her phone and my family in India to pray for me while I was in the hospital,’ remembers Ameet. ‘That night was one of the terrible nights I can remember. I asked God why he brought us to this point of happiness, just to take everything away.’ The next day, Ameet had another scan and the aneurism had disappeared. ‘The doctors didn’t know what had happened. But I know what happened,’ he says.  A boy was born to them and they called him ‘Yahshua’, meaning ‘God is my salvation’.

Namaste

Ameet and Jessica’s ministry is beautifully summarised in the traditional Indian greeting, ‘Namaste’, meaning ‘I see the God in you’. When Ameet and Jessica give the greeting, they interpret it as ‘I see the Christ in you’.
‘As we become Salvation Army officers, we want to be Christ to people,’ explains Ameet. ‘But more than that, we want to see the Christ in people.’  

Their first appointment will be as assistant officers at East City Corps in Auckland, with responsibility to plant a new Salvation Army church at Flatbush. For Ameet, training as an officer has meant humbling himself before God and allowing his character to be shaped. For Jessica, studying the Bible is a dream that she could never have imagined coming true. Not only does she own her own Bible, but Jessica is now able to freely proclaim its message.

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by Ingrid Barratt(c) 'War Cry' magazine, 28 November 2015, pp 5-7.
You can read 'War Cry' at your nearest Salvation Army church or centre, or subscribe through Salvationist Resources.