This is a rush transcript edited by AI. There may be mistakes.

Mark: Hello once again and welcome to our GoMission podcast. I’m Mark Gilmore, and you know that I am always eager to hear news about what God is doing in our world. God has directed my path across a man with whom I’m sitting this evening here in South Asia. His name is Brother Deepraj, and it has been such a privilege to get to know this wonderful servant of the Lord. He was sharing with me how his story began, and I thought of you all—I knew you needed to hear it. Brother Deepraj, welcome, and thank you for joining us for this very special recording.

Mark: Could you tell us your story in brief? What was life like for you as you came into this world and in your family?

Deepraj: Praise the Lord, and thank God for the way He revealed Himself to me. I always say I did not find God—God found me. I never searched for Him; God searched for me. I was born into a Hindu family. My father, mother, and entire family were hardcore fundamental Hindus who believed in and practiced radical forms of Hinduism. In my region there are many superstitions. One says that between the births of two children there must be a gap of at least one year; if not, the child is considered unholy and bad for the family. My older brother was only eight months old when my mother became pregnant with me, so according to that superstition I was “unholy.”

Deepraj: My father practiced spirit worship and all kinds of evil rituals. A local priest told him that my birth was bad for the family, so my parents decided to abort me. My mother took thirty pills, but somehow I survived. Up to the age of eight my father beat me constantly. He favored my brother and sister but hated me. I was so confused that I asked my mother if I was really her son or if I’d been adopted, because the treatment was worse than what a dog received in our home.

Deepraj: One day I overheard my grandmother telling my mother, “I stopped you from taking those pills—you wanted to kill him!” That broke my heart. I thought, “It’s not my mistake; it’s my parents’ mistake. Why am I unholy?” My father’s hatred grew. My siblings blamed their wrongs on me, and my father punished me even when he knew I was innocent. He tied my hands with rope and made me stand for hours at night. My mother defended my brother and sister but never defended me. I felt utterly worthless.

Mark: So you were asking yourself why someone else’s mistake—your parents’ timing—should define your life. Yet in Hinduism you were taught that you were paying for sins in a previous life.

Deepraj: Exactly. The priests said it was my destiny to suffer for past-life sins. That teaching burned inside me. I searched every famous temple in Rajasthan, every god reputed to bring peace. I served in temples, cleaned idols, did everything—hoping God would give me peace. Nothing worked. I began drinking, selling wine and drugs, even went to jail at thirteen for crimes I took the blame for to earn my father’s favor. Still he hated me.

Deepraj: Despair overwhelmed me. I tried suicide three times—cutting my wrists, jumping into a crocodile-infested river, and leaping from a moving train. Miraculously, I survived each attempt. I concluded even God didn’t want me to die; He wanted me to suffer.

Mark: At this point God used an unexpected event involving your father’s heart attack. Tell us what happened.

Deepraj: Yes. My father’s heart failed. Doctors, priests, and even my mother—who is a devotee of the goddess Kali—said he would die. My uncle, the first Christian in our family, brought a pastor. They let him pray because everyone else had tried. The pastor prayed the opposite of what the others said: “He may die of something someday, but not of this heart attack.” My father traveled three days by train to a hospital, had open-heart surgery, and lived. When he recovered, he threw the Christians out—but I noticed the pastor’s prayer had come true.

Deepraj: That pastor had left a Hindi Bible. My father read it while sick, then tossed it in a corner shop. One day, searching for drugs, I found that Bible. I remembered the pastor’s prayer and began secretly reading at night because the RSS radicals in my city would break my legs if they knew. My Hindi was poor, so I read slowly from Genesis. Verses like Jeremiah 1:5 (“Before I formed you… I knew you”), Jeremiah 29:11, and Matthew 11:28 pierced me. I cried, “God, I want peace. Heal me from drink and drugs.” I heard a voice: “I never left you. I was with you in your mother’s womb, in the train, in the river.” Instantly the torment lifted. I felt peace for the first time.

Mark: You experienced God’s unconditional love—so different from the conditional mercy every religion had demanded.

Deepraj: Yes. I realized Jesus loved and forgave unconditionally, even before we accept Him. I surrendered to Christ and, over three months, God delivered me from addiction. I decided to be baptized. When I came home wet, my mother saw different clothes and guessed. She threw a grinding stone at my head; later my father beat me. Yet I was happy—at last punished for something I truly chose! My father declared me officially orphaned, made me sign away all inheritance, and expelled me. I told him, “I now have a greater Father.”

Deepraj: With only a Bible, I went to Jaipur. For three years I lived on the streets but prayed, “Lord, if You let me study, I will serve You.” In 2005 my uncle brought me back to enroll in a Bible college that provided food, clothes, and education free. When that ministry was shut down, I returned to Jaipur and met missionary Glenn Stuart. He took me into his family, taught me everything—how to open a bank account, drive, share the gospel—and modeled bold evangelism in slums. His example stirred me: if a foreigner could risk his life for Christ here in South Asia, why not me?

Deepraj: We conducted many church trainings, but traditional churches would not empower local believers to baptize or lead. So Brother Glenn and I began praying for one person per village willing to open their home. We used prayer, testimony, New Testaments, and later micro-SD audio Bibles to enter homes. People in bondage to fear eagerly accepted prayer in Jesus’ name. Those who listened to the Bible were transformed. One RSS leader took an SD card hoping to find faults; instead he wept, believed, was baptized, and now hosts a Bible study.

Mark: The numbers God has given are staggering.

Deepraj: Over the last seventeen years, God has allowed more than 600 000 people to be baptized and roughly 120 000 house churches to be planted—each begun through Scripture and the Spirit, not human persuasion. Those who come to Christ through the Word never turn back; they are ready to die for Him.

Mark: What final word would you give to young people who feel rejected like you once did?

Deepraj: Remember, God created you and will never hate you. The world may reject you, but His love is unconditional. He asks only that you believe and surrender. He can take the most broken life, heal it, and use it for His glory.

Mark: Amen. Brother Deepraj, thank you for sharing your story and for being part of what God is doing across South Asia. Friends, remember: the only way to stay at peace in a world of turmoil is to stay on mission with Jesus—in His Go Mission.