My name is Pramod, I was born into a very unhappy family, my father drank and beat my mother every day. Finally, when my mother could take no more. she took my brother and left. From that time on I had no contact with her at all.
My father did not know what to do with me so when he was approached by a Christian man who offered to put me in school as long as my father would agree to not have any contact with me until I was grown and educated, he happily agreed. I then spent one year in a boarding school run by an Adventist family but I had learned some bad habits and I used to steal food and sometimes money. After punishing me repeatedly they gave up and said I could become an Asian Aid student and study in India.
For the next five years I studied in the Naxalbari SDA school in India under Asian Aid and spent my summer holidays each year at the Zenith hostel in Kathmandu as I had no family to take me.
Even during these years my stealing had not left me and when I got a message that Naseeb wanted to see me I decided to run away. I caught a bus that took me to the area of my old home and eventually found my father even though I did not recognize him. I decided I would stay with him and asked him where he lived, he told me that he did not live anywhere so for some weeks I slept on the streets with my father, one night it rained and the only way to keep warm and dry was to cover myself with newspapers and a cardboard box.
I got a job cleaning and also learned a little computer. One day I hired a cycle and when I was in a shop someone stole it. I knew I could never pay for it so I ran away again. This time I caught a bus to India.
After a few days of no money and no food I decided that lif) was not worth living. I was sitting under the shade of a tree near a railway line. I put a rock on the line so I could see what would happen if I put my head there. The rock smashed so I lay down on the track and waited to die. I wait for an hour – no train, two hours- no train, when it was getting to be three hours I decided that maybe no more trains would come today. I started walking again and after walking some distance I heard the train whistle.
For some time I worked in photo studios in India, in Calcutta I slept at a Hindu Temple and as the weather was hot and a pond was nearby I used to wash my clothes and my body in the pond and then wait for my one pair of clothes to dry and then wear them to work. For some months I lived like this.
One day I wondered how easy it would be to photocopy money the same as I was copying photos. From this I got into illegal things and made friends with men who were involved in criminal activities. Once I nearly lost my lif) through associating with them.
Again I stole money and again I went back to Nepal, hoping to buy the love of my step grandmother with money, but again it did not work.
During the next few years, I tried pulling a rickshaw, I spent a couple of weeks in a horrible jail after stealing a bicycle, I slept under trucks at night, or under haystacks. I finally made it all the way to Mumbai and had more times with no money and no food. Again I decided to die, this time I climbed up a cliff and decided to jump into the sea, I cried and cried as I tried to get enough courage to jump. Finally I did jump but believe it or not the water was only up to my chest and I did not die. I began to wonder whether maybe God had a plan for my lif).
During my time in Mumbai I even planned to rob a Bank but my friends and I could never manage to break the locks. I think this was God’s doing also.
After more time I went to Delhi and found some work there. During this time I got an idea of maybe studying again. I was good at computers so somehow I managed to find an email address for Mummy Eager. I wrote to her and immediately she replied.
Next thing I found myself in Nuzvid Adventist boarding school, I had only studied to 6th grade and now I was studying in 10th. It was like trying to read the chinese language without knowing the chinese alphabet. Miraculously I passed at the end of the year but then when the Government exam came I found that I was expected to write a paper in the Local language which was Telugu and I had not studied Telugu nor spoken it other than hearing the other boys in the hostel speaking to each other. So I failed the Government exam.
I went back to work in Delhi and planned to come and resit the failed exam but again what I was earning was not enough to save up for the long journey to Nuzvid and back. For about a year I continued to work in Delhi.
Then I got a surprise email from Mummy Eager inviting me to come to Pokhara in Nepal and work. God is so amazing that He would keep His Hand through all those years on a person like me. After I came to Pokhara I married and am a “parent” to 12 girls in one of the 3 Angels Childrens Homes. I have managed to pass the 10th grade exam here in Nepal and believe it or not I am teaching computer in the 3 Angels school right up to 9th grade children and I am able to do it.
I found my father and hoped to change him but sadly alcohol over so many years had taken its toll and he has now died.
Then surprise of surprises I had a phone call from my mother. She married someone else and has had a reasonably happy lif). She was so happy to find me living and working for God and not having followed in my fathers footsteps.
God’s love and protection and mercy follow me through all those years, I stand amazed.