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“MY PERSONAL TESTIMONY.”
My Dear Brothers and Sisters In Christ Jesus our Lord.
At the very outset, let me introduce myself to you. My
name is N. Siromani, wife of Pastor N. David Raju. Presently I am residing in
Janipalli, Vilasa, East Godavari District, and Andhra Pradesh, India. I have four children, 3 sons and 1 daughter. By Gods marvelous
grace we are living together. Enjoying the grace and glory of our Saviour Jesus
Christ.
THE FOLLOWING IS MY BACKGROUND:
In 1962, March 2nd, I was born in a remote village called Chintalapalli, about 40 Kms from
Vilasa. My parents were poor, yet my father was a gentlemen and a leading personality,
resolving village problems. He was dependable in every angle in whom the
villagers put their trust as he lived an upright life. During that time we were
Hindus, no knowledge of Christianity and moreover we belonged to an untouchable community which was treated as a low degraded
caste called Scheduled Caste, in short SC. When things were like this, my father became sick and died in 1965. I was 3 years old and I became an orphan living with my mother. Though
I had relatives they never cared for us and neglected us totally. By that way
we became helpless. Since there was no support for me and my mother, some
of our well wishers advised my mother to opt for another man’s hand so that he would take care of us. So, my mother agreed for 2nd marriage and got married to a man called Anjelam. We shifted to Antervedi, my step father’s native place.
He was a police constable. My mother was confined and gave him a son. At this time my step father went to visit my mother’s brother who was sick at
a village, Mori, about 8 Kms. My mother pleaded and begged him not to go at that
time and advised him to visit in future. But, without giving any consideration
to her request, he went ahead to visit my maternal uncle, they received him very warmly and arranged a nice lunch. Along with the lunch they offered him alcoholic drink. After
his marriage with my mother he stopped drinking Alcohol, but my relatives forced him to drink, so he drank. When he was returning to his home by a cycle a bus was coming opposite to him and instead of getting down
from his bicycle he leaned on a mile stone and having lost his balance because of alcohol he slipped and fell under the rear
tire of the bus and died instantly and his head was crushed.
Once again my infant brother and I became orphans and my mother became a widow. Fortunately my father bought enough of grocery enough for 6 six months and we lived for 6 months without
difficulty. Trouble started from the point where we ran short of grocery supplies. Our relatives started to drive us away; It was at that time a the Pentecostal church
close to my house was established. My mother started attending the church
and by and by she accepted Jesus as her personal Saviour. She began to give her
testimony every week as a result many people began to weep as they heard my mother’s pathetic story. They used to give my mother some help and we survived on that for some time.
To assist my mother in our survival, I went out every morning and evening to houses begging for rice
for both of us and milk for my infant brother. At the time of my begging, I was
5 or 6 years old and because of sheer poverty I went begging literally necked, same sympathized me and gave me their clothes. Some hated me because of my uncombed hair and shabby appearance. My grant mother abused my mother, scolded her because she was attending the church. They ill treated my
mother which was humiliating to all of us.
I love flowers very much. They are so dear to me and
I love them more than I love any thing. In India the women put flowers
in their hair and I loved to put myself too. But, I have no money to buy the
flowers. People buy flowers and put in their hairs. Since I had no money to buy, my mother used to go out into the fields and pick up wild flowers and put
in my hair. I used to feel great. One
day as usual I went begging with shabby outlook. When I entered a house, I saw
a beautiful rose flower and it was so tempting and I plucked the flower unnoticed by any one in the house and put the flower
in my hair. Perhaps the house lady noticed me plucking the rose flower from her
garden, she came to my mother to question her. She roared like a lion at my mother
and my mother begged her pardon. She could only cool down when she saw my mother
beating me black and blue. Since that time when I look at flowers, there is a
kind of fear that haunts me. And now I don’t go to them even though they
are beautiful and colorful.
It was in 1970, the Pentecostal pastors had pity on us and sent us to an affiliated orphanage called WINGS OF HEALING
CHILDREN’S HOME in Antervedipalem. My mother was helping as a kitchen
and me and my brother as students in the hostel. In the same year missionaries
from Germany by name JOHAN UPPERMAN came to India and adopted some children from the hostel, among them me and my brother were there. We became their
adopted children son and daughter.
A big church was attached to the school and orphanage. Both
of us and my mother became members of the Church – Indian Pentecostal Church. My mother had an opportunity to give the members a Testimony about her
personal life, by and large she became a famous lady and the people began to love and respect her.
The local church pastor was the director of the orphanage and was a good Bible student. We learnt many things from the Bible about salvation of Christ. The
director was very loving and respectful to us.
In 1975, the doctors detected that my mother was having cancer and it was in the final stage. However, she was taken to Kakinada General Hospital for treatment and she was treated for 1 months.
They administered 90 saline bottles, and I was with my mother day and night for 1 months without studies. She became so serious and she developed Tetanus and died. Before
she died she told me to take care of my little brother and also assured me that I would be cared for by the pastor and he
would arrange my marriage etc. in future and later on she died in front of me. As
I witnessed her death scene I became delirium and my situation was unpredictable and I was remained in sorrow for many months.
In 1979 Johan upper man came to India from Germany to take both of us to Germany and said he would get me married and settle me there, unfortunately
when he visited us, the orphanage director was out of station and therefore, he could not take us to Germany. That was how, we could not be in Germany. Since, he was disappointed for not taking us to Germany, he discontinued his
help to us. In the same year, in May 21, 1979 the pastor found a Christian young man
and solemnized my wedding for which about 500 people attended.
From the time of our marriage the director asked us to work in their Organization, but my husband
refused to work as he wanted to work as an independent minister for God and give service to hundreds of deprived children. Immediately, we went to Mumbai. My husband
and I joined a pen company and worked for 6 months at which time I was pregnant. My
husband was selected in an interview to work in a constructing company in Dubai, Gulf countries.
Before he left for Dubai he left me with his parents in Mutyalapalli, West Godavari District.
Since, I was an orphan girl , my in-laws never took care of me and on the other hand they assigned me heavy work in
the home and refused me to give enough food. It is very painful to say that they
treated me as an out-cast. As a result I lost my first born.
After 2 ½ years my husband returned home from Dubai, then again I became pregnant second time, God blessed
us with a baby boy and we named him as Emmanuel. In 1985 my husband returned
from Dubai because his VISA Expired. For about an year or so, he got into a small traveling business like selling clothes, pens,
jewelleries, etc., and soon he gave up his business because he ended up in a great loss.
Whatever the money he brought from Gulf was exhausted and we were short of money even for a few days survival.
In the year 1986, there was a heavy and terrible cyclone with heavy continuous rainfall successively
for 5 days and there was a big flood. All the fields and villages were denudated, 5 to 6 feet water remained on the ground
for several days. Many houses were completely washed away and my house was one
of them. We were sheltered in some shelters operated by the government. We were dependent on the government for 3 weeks as we lost all of our clothes, utensils
and practically every thing. Just imagine our plight. There was no possibility for rehabilitation even the government was in a dilemma who should be helped
and who should not be. The results of the flood were famine which began
to increase day by day until it grew from bad to worse. Communicable diseases
and epidemics began to spread. Cholera was rampant, no water to drink, no medicines.
Life became miserable and intolerable.
At this time of predicament our entire family rolled our clothes into a bundle, because we had no
box to carry clothes, but went to Jaggayyapeta in Krishna District and landed in Bethesda Pentecostal Church. I and my husband underwent a course in Bible Training
for 1 year and they gave us free boarding and lodging. Rev. Ratna Raju was so
kind to us at that time. There is a village called Pokku nuru in that area
we were asked to work as church pastor after the training without any salary benefits.
We had to live on the offerings and first fruits whatever is being offered in the church. During those days my older boy Emmanuel met with a bus accident and we thought he would die. But God really helped us in sparing his life.
In that village, we had an amazing experience. We saw
the miraculous working of God in healing a young woman who was admitted in the government hospital because of paralysis. The doctors tried their best to bring her back to normal life, but they
could not. Finally they sent her home.
The parents were poor, they could not extend any more medical help so they confined her in a room to die. She was looking so awkward, skin and bones and smelling horribly.
No hope to regain her health. At that time, my husband visited her parents,
and the parents requested him to pray. My husband was praying for her, very earnestly
and the prayers went on behalf of the paralytic patient for 5 days with fasting prayer and on the 5th day God miraculously
healed her and she was able to stretch her limbs and she became a normal young girl.
We prayed God for his miraculous healing Fasting for a long time made my husband physically weak and he was captured
by evil spirit and so he became mentally unsound. Unconsciously he left us and
went away somewhere. We waited for few days and we returned to our place with
the children. My in-laws took us back to the orphanage in Antervedi palem where
we first landed. There they suggested us to go to Miriam Children’s
home in Amalapuram, where I worked as a Aya, and my 3 children were placed in the school.
My father-in-law and mother-in-law and the brother went in search of my husband after two years of
hectic search they found him still mentally disturbed and got him admitted in Visakhapatnam Mental
Hospital for 6 months for treatment. After he became mentally well and came back to join us. By
Gods grace our family was reunited and for 2 ½ years my husband worked in the same orphanage as an attender and sweeper. Since we were paid a meager salary we could not give even the least facilities to
our children. When Christmas came, we could hardly buy new clothes at least for
children. There were some local pastors who invited my husband for preaching
during nights. So, he accepted their invitation and he was giving the testimony
and preaching the Word of God. The people appreciated the messages given
by him. So, they developed a kind of love for him.
In
the course of time we felt like opening an Orphanage and we earnestly prayed about it.
God approved our desire and he helped us to start an orphanage in 1996 at Vilasa.
Again there was another destructive cyclone in that area, and 2000 people died, houses devastated, even our house was
blown off, but we took shelter in Miriam Children’s Home. Since many districts
had been wiped away there was property loss, parents, husbands died leaving many children’s as orphans. So, this triggered us to start an orphanage and widows home, with 10 children, we started the Orphan home
staying in a rented house. Before that we were receiving 100 dollars from Spring
Town Church of Christ, Texas. They sent us some extra money and we distributed relief to the flood victims like food, clothes,
medicines and material. While doing this, we began to notice the difficulties
of the victims and their sufferings. All these things disturbed us mentally and
we felt happy and satisfied because we started an orphanage and a widow’s home to help relieve to some extent the pain
and suffering of the people. At that time, we were also blessed with a baby girl and we named her Mani Grace. We separated
from Manna Ministries and started our own Ministry with 10 Orphan Children.
In 2002, Brother Andrew and Betsy, a couple from America asked us to open a center by the name
of TABITHA SEWING CENTRE for poor young girls and school dropouts for educating them in Tailoring and other handicrafts. So that after the training they could earn their own living. This couple has sponsored six sewing machines and needed material.
We started this TABITHA SEWING CENTRE in a rented house and we are pleased to tell you that many young girls are coming
to the centre and learning the work. We promised them that at the completion
of their one year course, they would be given a sewing machine free of cost. The embroidery course is also being taught by
skilled teachers. We are paying salaries for the full time teachers. Our desire is to extend this facility to many young women of far off places and provide them lodging and
boarding until they become trained and skilled workers.
I know God wrought many miracles in my life. Therefore,
taking my orphan life into consideration, I opened this TABITHA SEWING CENTRE
with a sole purpose of helping and educating dropout students, widows and helpless women,
so that, they don’t have to depend upon someone for livelihood. At
the same time this gives me an opportunity to witness to them how God took care of me and provided me every day and want to
preach to them the message of salvation to the dying generations.
I am praying for all the poor people, sick people. God
gave me a good house, I share my house with orphan children, widows and my other blessings too. All the ladies join me in praising and praying to God. I
thank God once again, for using me as a small instrument to be of help to helpless and request you to pray for my Women’s Ministry.,
My sincere thanks to you all.
In His Service for the women,
(N.SIROMANI)
PS: Have mercy upon me, O LORD; consider my trouble [which I suffer] of them that hate me, thou that
liftest me up from the gates of death: Psalms 9:13.
For the needy shall not alway be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall [not] perish for ever.
Psalms 9:18.
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