How beautiful are the feet of those that bring the gospel
My name is Esha and I am married with two children (7 years and 2 years). Here is a snapshot of my story and why I am here.
I committed to follow God at a very young age, as if God had secured my heart from the very beginning. This doesn’t mean childhood was easy. Growing up in India, it wasn’t easy, especially living out a Christian life among non-believers. [Gujarat state has about 0.5% Christianity]. But it was as if God had chosen that path to train me. Every step that I took after that, I can see God’s mighty hand even in the midst of storms. In fact, the trials and troubles made my faith stronger and my roots deeper in Christ. “Let endurance come to its perfection so that you may be fully mature lacking in nothing.” So there I was, the Lord shaping me each day. I made many mistakes, but thanks be to our God who held on to my hand through everything. Therefore, everything I did and do and will do is centered around that faith. At the age of 9, I knew in my heart, I will be a missionary. But when, how, where, I did not know. I just knew. God the Holy Spirit pressed this so clear on my heart. I always wanted to serve in India because it has the greatest number of unreached people groups in the world. I thought - here I was. In the very country that needed the Gospel, so why not! But things changed drastically and against every ounce of my wish, I left India with heavy heart and came to the US. It is here that God opened door for serving Him, and I am so grateful to Him. My desire and commitment to reach the unreached with the Gospel was fulfilled by God providing me an international students ministry and every year I get to personally share Gospel with numerous students, not to mention train many Christian students to do that. I love sharing about Jesus – it is such a joy! I served in the International students’ ministry for about 7 years, and then fundraised to serve in a staff setting. For past two years I have been serving as a staff of Intervarsity, and all these times God kept sending Asian students to me. I had expected to meet more Indian students, but no. It was clear. God wanted me to serve the students from China, Japan and S. Korea. It has been such a joy to reach out to Asian students who come the US. This year, God pressed on my heart to learn more about Japan. The inside out of it. Why? It is still unclear to me. I purchased and read “the Japanese mind” and was sweetly surprised that my culture is so similar. I know why I can relate to Japanese because it is similar indirect shame-based culture that’s rooted in group consciousness and not individualism. I hope it is ok to say this - that I find it comforting almost. I hope I can learn a lot from you all and from this class and that God uses this opportunity to shape me more. “LORD, my hands are open, and I am still learning.”