My name is Ragulan Rabi and I was born in India on March 13th 1969 to a ordinary Hindu middle class family. I have 3 older sisters and 1 older brother. At 11, my family became broken due to marital problems and although they continued living together, I felt no love from them, a love I desperately needed.
At 16, I failed the tenth grade and felt there was no hope for my future so I began to drink alcohol. Later, I began studying in an auto mechanics school but could find no job. In 1995, my brother and I visited Germany as tourists and before our tourist visas expired, we applied for political asylum as Sri Lankan Tamils. We were placed in a remote area of the former East Germany where we lived in a special camp for asylum seekers. As an asylum seeker, we were not allowed to work or earn money and I became very depressed and began heavily drinking hoping to end my life. I had no hope. There was no Christian influence within the camp and no one ever came to share God’s love with me; a love I desperately needed.
After 22 months, someone informed the foreign office about us and the foreign office asked for our identification papers; due to fear, we fled to Berlin. In Berlin, I met a Christian believer who gave me shelter and took me to his church on October 1997. This was the first church I had ever attended where the people worshiped God in spirit and truth. Afterwards, the pastor whom I did not know came and hugged me and through his touch I experienced the love of God for the first time. I attended this church for several months but my heart was not committed to Christ. I wanted to remain a Hindu where I could continue in my old human & sinful ways. On Sunday May 24th, I became homeless with no food or shelter. In the early morning of May 25th 1998, I cried out to God asking for a place to sleep and food. God miraculously provided. I began helping within the church. One day, a man of God from India preached in our church about the apostle Barnabas. My heart began to burn to become a missionary. After he left, I committed my life to Christ and asked for Baptism. On July 9th 1998, my brother and I were baptized and I accepted the Christian name Joseph. As I came from the water, I felt as if I were floating sensing God’s presence and spirit. On this same day, God delivered me from my habit of smoking and alcohol.
In the year 2,000 my heart was broken as my father died. God had placed a longing and desire in my heart to see my family come to know the Lord. Later, I attempted to attend a Bible school in order to learn more so I could go back to India and share Christ; however, God placed a pastor in my life who encouraged me through his words. He explained that I have enough spiritual and practical experience that God can use me now in the midst of my difficult circumstances. He encouraged me that God could use me to begin a ministry here in Berlin and that God could use my knowledge of 4 Indian languages. This pastor also committed to helping me find a solution to having no legal documentations.
I began a ministry in faith as I had no money, resources and very little support. This same year, I led a single Sri Lankan mother with 3 children to the Lord. God began to heal her hurts and brokenness and we teamed together in reaching the South Asians in Berlin. One by one, her children accepted Christ and also became a vital part in God’s plan to reach the people. We became engaged and God began to prosper our ministry together as we began meeting South Asians in the U-bahn (subway). Excitement arose as we led a very special young Indian student to the Lord whom we had met in the subway. Through this contact God began helping us to establish a subway ministry. We began praying for God to send us helpers in the ministry.
In 2003, we became partners with a single young female IMB missionary. We partnered together through bringing volunteer teams from America to help in this outreach. These volunteers helped through prayer, sharing Christ, and in sending bibles and resources in the needed languages. A few months later, we saw a young Buddhist girl come to know the Lord and a young Muslim man from Kashmir, India. Thousands of individuals from South Asia have been flowing into Germany as refugees, or as students gaining access to the universities to further their education and God opened the doors for a refugee ministry, student ministry, and prison ministry to begin. We continued searching for an answer regarding my legal papers but no door opened, so I continued serving the Lord in faith and trust.
In 2004, our pastor invited a missionary family from the UK to join us in ministry here in Berlin. God continued opening doors for us to share and witness to the South Asians. My heart was overjoyed as I saw the miracles of the Lord and then one of my greatest prayers was answered. On July 18, 2004, my mother was baptized and following her baptism and commitment to the Lord several other family members accepted Christ.
In 2005, God sent a Nepali evangelist who helped in sharing the Lord and God brought several more South Asians into His loving grace. God also began to prepare a way for me to return to India with the help of many spiritual leaders. Through a lawyer, all my papers are being cleared and I anticipate returning to India in 2006.
In Nov. 2005, I was told that I had to return to my refugee center, which is 200 km from Berlin and wait for my plane ticket back to India. I prayed asking God to change the hearts of the foreign office so that I could stay in Berlin but God had other plans for my life. I was to return to the very place where I use to sit on the windowsill of the 3rd floor looking over the small village wishing to kill myself. God rescued my life and now I am able to share with those whose lives are as desperate as mine once was without Christ. My first day at the camp was sad as I was told I could not travel to see my friends in Berlin or my fiancée and her kids. I felt depressed but as I spoke with friends on the phone they encouraged me to reach out and let God use me in the midst of this difficult situation. Since that day, I have stood strong in the Lord and have shared my life with all those around me. In the midst of my uncertainty God has given me a deep inner peace and passion to share his Word. I am waiting for word on my departure.
My prayers are that God will continue to use me in India and that one day I’ll return to Germany to continue the ministry here and to marry my fiancée. I will return to India with great anticipation, as I will be seeing my family for the first time in 10 years, many who have become Christians. I am returning in faith as I have no money and will have no financial support. But I am placing my future and faith in God’s hands.
Christ knows the pain of being a refugee. Matthew 2:13-14 says, "When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up", he said. "Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him". So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son."
It is my prayer, that Christians see the need to share with the displaced refugees around the world and to share the Good News with the many South Asians who have relocated in the West seeking higher education and better jobs. A man of God, Pastor Dr Mahesh Chavda says in his book, ‘Only Love can make a Miracle.’ "When God’s power takes hold of a man, it can shake the world."