Albert
P.J., Bangalore, India
Albert P.J. has felt
the call of God on his life to start Abhayam, which means "refuge", a
center for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts, which provides a stabilizing
atmosphere for recovering addicts and over the years, hundreds of people have
received help through this ministry.
Early Days
On
a cold November day, I was born in Bangalore.
At the moment of my birth, the family was waiting around anxiously. My father especially was hopeful they would
get a baby girl. When the nurse came out
showing the baby and announced it was a baby boy, my father was strangely
silent. No one really noticed it much.
My
father was an Army officer. He believed
in the law of rule and disciple in his house, so the house was managed in an
authoritarian way. We children had to
get up early mornings, even on holidays and freezing cold Bangalore winter
mornings, we had to cultivate good eating habits and eat with etiquette and
have crew cut hairstyles for us boys.
Every thing had protocol with perfection as the goal. I had an older brother and after me a younger
sister.
As
I was growing up, I did academically very well.
Somehow, though, I did feel my father did not play around with me as I
would have liked or talk to me much, on many occasions, I felt ignored.
One
day when I was around five years old, my father said something out of the blue,
"Actually, we did not really want you, we wanted a girl." This statement cut me like a knife and I was
deeply wounded. Perhaps my father never
realized the insensitivity of his words would fester a spirit of rejection over
the ensuing years. After that statement,
I felt the need to be appreciated. I
went an extra mile to please my father; however, my father was never pleased
and I felt he was constantly finding fault with me.
My
mother loved me and was always kind to me.
Her spirit was gentle and her words were few. I, however, did not feel my father loved me,
and I grew weary and sad, I was fed up with life itself sometimes even
wondering why I was born.
School Days and
College
One
day, in the classroom, one of the boys brought forth a challenge in the break
time. He pulled out a cigarette from his
trousers and said, "I dare anyone to smoke this full cigarette while the
next class is going on." No one
dared to take that challenge; it could mean getting expelled from the
school. I stood up and calmly said,
"I'll do it." As the teacher
entered, students watched breathlessly in wonder as I smoked the entire
cigarette in his class. The teacher did
not seem to get a whiff of smoke at all!
When class was over, the boys rushed to me and picked me up hailing me
and shouting! "You are our leader."
I
felt wonderful. I felt accepted for the first time and was a hero now in their
eyes. I drew closer to these friend
circles. I felt smoking elevated my
status among friends so I continued smoking.
I was hardly in the house much now, I was drifting poles apart from my
father and brother and sister, and they slowly sensed my distance now.
I
then joined a college. During the first
year, I did well in all the classes and attended regularly, life seemed to be
having a purpose studying in the college.
As I lived in Richmand Town, the happening place in those days of
Bangalore, in the 1980s. The pub culture drew the youth in droves and college
kids hung out there most of their time.
During
the second year, I met some boys who invited me to join them in pubs. The old trick was while someone would order a
beer, another man would insidiously slip in a drug in the drink, a practice
that is still rampant to this very day in Bangalore, luring hundreds of youth
into drugs, first giving them a free taste, and then getting them hooked.
Caught in the Web
I
was one of those hundreds that got caught in a vicious cycle of drugs and
started injecting myself with heroin, alcohol, smoking pot, the whole
works. I was trapped in a wicked web of
addictions from which I could not disentangle myself. I rarely went to class, and was officially
recorded as a drop out. I started
working at odd jobs to support my drugs, trapped and hooked and I had no road
of return.
I
also got into gang fights, drug taking and drug pushing, and an aggressive form
of lifestyle, this was getting me in and out of jail very often, and no one
seeing me would believe it because I was a short skinny guy! I always carried a knife in my pocket and my
hand would draw to my knife if I found anyone staring at me for too long and
led my gang as the gang leader. But
slowly that position fell as I delved deeper into drugs.
The Darkest Alley
Finally,
I had to leave home as I could not continue staying at home while living on
dope.
Friends
started feeling a little uncomfortable having me around as did my friends'
parents. At that point in my life, I
used to only wear black clothes.
I
rarely took a bath and in fact, I even looked ugly with the gauntness of my
bones due to my drug use and an unhealthy skin pallor with a bluish tinge. So, it was not surprising I could not find a
friend to keep me even for a few nights.
One
cold winter night, I went out, searching for a place to stay. I wandered to the nearby Johnsons
Market. I shivered as the cold air
ripped me as I was thinly clad. I
gathered newspapers I saw around and huddled down on the streets covering
myself with the newspapers.
"Well,
this is a bit better!" I reflected to myself, trying to cheer myself up. I
made it through that night and many more nights and days on Johnson streets,
often having to ask passerby's for money as I had reached that state. Many would look at me, shudder and turn the
other way.
He Broke My Chains
One
evening as I was walking along Johnson Street, I saw another boy and I felt
glad to see him as he was a boy I had studied with in school though he did copy
from me in the tests! As I approached
him with a smile on my face, the boy looked at me, and abruptly turned and
walked away. He obviously recognized me
but wanted nothing to do with me. At
that moment, I felt the familiar sting of rejection.
I
was deeply hurt and also badly shaken. I
slowly walked down the road that cold night thinking "Why am I like
this? What happened to me?" I walked to a park near the market. I could see my house across the park. I sat down in the park and thought for a
while.
At
that moment a song suddenly popped into my head. It was as if God reminded me a song which I
learned in Sunday school. The song was like this “Jesus loves me, this I know,
for the Bible tells me so…….”. I asked God, "Do you really love me? Nobody loves me in this world. if you really love me, get me out of this
mess."
As
I spoke to God for the first time, I felt a supernatural peace filling my
heart. It was an amazing sensation. I never felt like this before, not even when
I was high on a drug trip. In fact, that
was nothing compared to this, this had the essence of purity. I knew it was God. I realized I wanted to kick something out of
my life real fast. I searched my pockets
for all the drugs I had there, and with a matchbox that I had, I made a bonfire
of all the drugs. As I watched them
going up in smoke, I felt exhilarated and liberated. It was a miracle! I was set free instantly from drugs.
I
then made my way home. As I knocked on
the door, my mother opened the door and gasped with joy to see me, declaring
happily, "I was praying for you and I knew you would come home."
This
was the beginning of a new life for me.
I had no withdrawals, no cold turkey, no shivering-wet-drenched sweats
and I never had the urge for a drug again.
That was around twenty years ago.
It was an outstanding miracle.
Jesus broke my chains and set me free instantly! I didn't go through any medication, but God
touched and healed me.
The Highway of
Holiness
After
my miraculous delivery from drugs, I regained all that I had lost. I rejoined college and came out with flying
colors as the best student in the college.
I excelled again in all that I did.
Later,
I took a little holiday time off and went to visit an aunt who lived in
Gudalur, Tamil Nadu, an agricultural village surrounded by beautiful fauna,
flora and lush paddy fields. One evening
as I was walking though the paddy fields enjoying the fresh crispy coolness of
a paddy field, I heard a very clear audible, powerful voice call my name. I jolted in shock. No one knew my official name
"Albert" in this place. I was
affectionately called "Roy" a nickname that everyone around called
me. I was still in a state of shocked
surprise by that voice calling my name.
I did not see anyone around; it was empty space for miles. I did not know what to make out of it and
felt I needed to talk to someone urgently.
I made my way to the pastor of the church of that area, a godly wise
man.
When
I shared what I heard, he listened carefully and then started explaining to me,
"God can call us in many ways, sometimes impress things in our hearts or
sometimes, very rarely though, in an audible voice, He speaks. You, Albert, have had the joy of hearing His
voice audibly. He must be calling you by
name for He has a plan for your life"
As the pastor spoke, I felt my heart warm up, I felt it was true, and
thought, yes, God has spoken, He has a plan for me, He has called me to do His
will."
I
did not waste time. When I got back to
my work, I spoke with my boss, who was a believer of Christ. When my boss heard about the voice calling
Albert, he looked at me and agreed, "God is definitely calling you out, to
do His work, and now, nothing must come in the way, go ahead and serve Him in
ministry." This was another
confirmation to join ministry and I quit my job and first decided to join a
Bible college. I joined one Bible college
in Brahmavar, a small beautiful town in Karnataka.
One
evening, the call came very clearly to me.
I knew what I had to do very suddenly.
I knew I had to help drug addicts, the broken-hearted and the unwanted
to draw them to the love of God that they might know Jesus and His mighty
delivering power, to set them free from their bondage to drugs as I had been
set free. I started praying and moving
in that direction. God did bless me and
I was used among people as I shared my testimony, sang songs, playing the
guitar, prayed, and lived a life of purity and this was a marvelous witness to
many people of the miraculous intervention of Jesus in my life of instantly
delivering me from drugs.
I
then met Laly. We were both working in
youth ministries. She was working in Campus Crusade and I was working in
Kerygma. I found Laly very calm,
sensible, down to earth and a prayer warrior and was drawn to her kind cheerful
nature and deep spiritual strength and I then proposed to her. We got married in December 1999.
After
marriage, since the call to work with drug addicts was very close to my heart,
I shared this with Laly and we both prayed much together, fasting and praying
for God's guidance. "It was a joy
for Laly and me to witness these wonders in Abhayam. We have two boys, Isaac and
Jonathan and both children are a great blessing to our lives.
Abhayam the Shelter
and Refuge
Slowly,
with fasting, prayers, as we waited on God, we started Abhayam, which means
"refuge", a center for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts, which
really provides a stabilizing atmosphere for recovering addicts. On June 6th 2007, we started Abhayam
officially." Abhayam provides a stabilizing atmosphere for the
ex-addicts. Prayers, songs of praise and
worship to God, Bible reading and studying time and exposing them to a church
atmosphere so that could provide an opportunity for God to touch muddled and
wired minds.
God
is using my wasted years for His glory.", " We cannot mention all the
names here, but we want to thank you for the families and friends who stood
with us and prayed for us in all our difficult moments and happy moments. Thank
God for allowing us to go through all difficult situations to equip us for His
glory. We want to continue to glorify
God!"
Philippians 1:6 Being
confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to
completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
