Manoj's Story

My life before I became a follower of Jesus, it was a period in which I was consumed by the love of money
My name is Manoj and this is my story
I was a businessman, a property trader, and my whole world revolved around trying to buy as many blocks as I could throughout the UK to essentially make the most amount of money that I could physically make in my lifetime
In terms of my business, 2008 was gonna be the big year for us but then we all know what happened in 2008
The mortgage market collapsed
For me the credit crunch was like literally being in an earthquake
Everything just started to crumble overnight
It was during that same time that my son also became ill
He was rushed to hospital and he was rushed into resuscitation where essentially he stopped breathing and there were all kinds of complications but what do you do when you're ushered into the room next door
I turned to God in the hope that he would somehow come and help us
My son was transferred to St
Thomas' in London and then the consultant comes and sees us on the fourth day and says I'm really sorry but you know, your son is not gonna open his eyes for some time yet
They were still trying to work out what was going on, and yet, what was resonating throughout the four days was the fact that this American couple that had come over from the States, we'd recently befriended them and they were praying
It really impacted me because they called us so many times and talked about the church lifting up my son in prayer and it really gave me a lift and what really, really impacted me was the fact that this lady in particular collapsed on the floor and wept for my son
There was something there that I felt that she had that was different
So, on that fourth day the consultant had said to us your son is not gonna open his eyes for some time yet and as she did the ward round, my son suddenly just bolted, literally just bolted upright in bed and as you can imagine, there's so much elation and there's so much joy and I remember turning to my wife and said to her that, you know, when we get out of this hospital, let's just go to that couple's church that prayed for our son
It was a big sort of experience that I had in that church in the sense that I literally walked out a different person
My wife really didn't recognise me
My mother thought I'd joined some kind of cult because suddenly I wanted to try and do everything differently, particularly in the area of business
Before that I was very, very arrogant, very ruthless, and very money driven and as someone who had essentially lived such a sinful life, and in the midst of all of that sin there's a God that says I forgive you and I'm gonna wipe the slate clean
Now how do you get your head round that