This is the story of Jaideep Singh, who recently became a Maryknoll missionary, a societies of apostolic life founded in the United States in the early 1900s. Today he is Fr. Stephen James Taluja. Born in 1981, the youngest child of an important Indian Sikh family, the only male eagerly awaited by his parents after three daughters. Fr. Stephen talks to AsiaNews about his unique and personal story that revolves around his discovery that Christ is the Mighty God "in weakness" and the certainty that "God is faithful." "My mother was a very devout woman who introduced me to the teachings of the Guru Granth Sahib educated us at home in the prayer and recitation of the hymns of the sacred scriptures. My father accompanied me to the Gurdwara, the Sikh temple, and he raised me in the faith of the almighty. My parents instilled in us children love for God and a sense of service to the community."

I am Sunil Rane and this is my story. I come from a Goan orthodox Hindu family. Ever since my childhood, I had a very strong desire to learn more about God. My parents taught me prayers that I used to chant every day while worshiping the idols placed in our house, but I had many questions and queries which neither my family members nor the priests in the temple could answer . . . Such was my immense craving for God that I traveled to different places just to learn more about spirituality and meditation, I went to ashrams, I met Gurus and I read many religious books. I was already working at that time when in 1996, I came across a religious book exhibition where I found some old scriptures in Hindu books called Vishnu Puran and Books on Vedas .

I am a computer professional and majority of the time, I am sitting working at my office desktop, if I am not in business or technical meetings. However, as soon as I reached my office, I had to work on some urgent technical issues and almost forgot about the website. At around 4:30 pm after fixing the issue, I had a chance to relax in my office and took a look at my “To Do” list. I realized my plan to visit the Benny Hinn Ministries website. I wasted no time and started browsing the site. As I browsed the site, I became excited about the various biblical places that were part of tour itinerary of Israel. My spirit immediately longed to be part of this tour but I knew that it would be very difficult for me to go as I had many pending work assigments. 

"No, brother. I cannot go to Nuremberg. It is too late for me. Look! Look what four years in the mines have done to my hands! The bones in every finger have been smashed at least once, and lately I have been suffering from arthritis so badly in my right hand that I cannot even hold a glass to return your toast, much less make delicate lines on parchment or canvas with a pen or a brush. No, brother for me it is too late." . . . . One day, to pay homage to Albert for all that he had sacrificed, Albrecht Durer painstakingly drew his brother's abused hands with palms together and thin fingers stretched skyward. He called his powerful drawing simply "Hands," but the entire world almost immediately opened their hearts to his great masterpiece and renamed his tribute of love "The Praying Hands."

Like so many immigrants, Bhupinder Singh moved to Canada from India within the last decade. Working in the banking industry as an Information technology professional, . . . he was thankful to God for that. "I thought whatever I had," says Bhupinder, "was a blessing from WAHEGURU - my own religion, my own faith, my own scriptures." But that began to change. "One night, after praying and reading our scriptures, my wife had a dream. In this dream, the Lord Jesus himself came to her and told her about what she has been praying for. . . .