An Indian father, Danesh, is a day labourer and he noticed many of his coworkers had an alcohol addiction. At first, he didn’t join their excessive drinking. But eventually, Danesh gave in to alcoholism and his life spiralled out of control from there.
Erik*, with Mission India says, “He ended up spending a lot of what he earned on alcohol, leaving little for his wife and his son. Unfortunately, he would just get drunk to the point where he would fall asleep. He was drunk to the point he didn’t know where he was when he would pass out.
“That would also heap shame onto his family’s name. Obviously, drunkenness is a sin, and it really heaped shame on his wife, his son and on himself to a point where his wife didn’t feel like they could actually go out in public.”
A church planter with Mission India, named Vimesh, began building a relationship with Danesh.
“Vimesh over time asked to meet with him, and Vimesh just continued to encourage him to give up alcohol. Vimesh prayed over him and for him [and] he shared the Gospel.”
“Over time, Jesus freed Danesh from that addiction and recently he received Jesus as his Saviour.”
This father went from being an alcoholic who shamed his family to a spiritual leader pointing his family to Jesus.
“Now his family attends a church, they pray together and they can go out in public and not be embarrassed. So just that [life change] of Danesh now is also [impacting] his family.”
“As an organisation, we love working with fathers and encouraging fathers to come to know Jesus and be changed by the love of Jesus,” Erik says. “Through that change, those fathers then are changing the lives of their kids, the lives of their families, and really, in some cases, changing the entire direction of the family name going forward for generations. So it is quite powerful to see.”
(Story was shortened)
*Name changed for security reasons.
Source: MNN
