QUOTES ON TOP

“I want something really worthwhile to live for. I want to invest this one life of mine as wisely as possible, in the place that yields the richest profits to the world and me…wherever it is, I want it to be God’s choice for me and not my own… Christ said, “He that would find his life shall lose it” and proved the truth of this divine paradox at Calvary. I want Him to lead me and His Holy Spirit to fill me.” – Betty Stam

Thursday, April 19, 2018

HIGHER STUDIES AT GERMANY - TESTIMONY OF MR. GEORGE ESLI (PART THREE)

By God's grace I graduated from Karunya University. It was a wonderful feeling.  My friends and class mates all had job offers and they knew what to do next. I wanted to go back to Germany and continue my Master Studies. Although I was assured a place in the university, there was an opportunity to get a full scholarship, and I had applied for it. All through my life GOD had been showering me with amazing grace and I thought I will surely get the scholarship and wouldn’t be a burden to my parents anymore financially. I felt it was my duty from now on to take care of myself even if I wanted to study further.

I prayed with a lot of faith, got as much recommendation letters that could help me and sent in my application. Many weeks passed and it was time to get the results of the scholarship. I was so excited to open the email but unfortunately, I didn’t get the scholarship. It felt like my entire life cracked, I was so upset that I wanted to break something. I really couldn’t understand, what could have gone wrong. I thought of myself as an eligible candidate for the scholarship, I had the favor of GOD, it should have been a done deal.

Now I realize, after many years since this happened, how wrong it is to make our own plan and then ask God's approval on it. Our GOD is the GOD of wisdom and it is not so wise to trust in your planning instead of GOD’s planning. Although GOD had done amazing things in my life and done wonders, I was in way not letting GOD take control of my life.  I later learnt that the Christian life is a learning life. We should always be open to learn about GOD and his relationship with us.

After looking at the email, I was so confused and I didn’t want to go to Germany anymore. Life almost stopped. I didn’t have a job like my friends. When I told my parents that I didn’t want to go to Germany. They were calming me down and said not to worry and asked me not to think about money but asked to do my higher studies as planned.  In a way that was very supportive of them. To be honest I didn’t expect this.  I couldn’t convince myself to go, but neither did I have a choice as there was nothing else I could do in India.

Reluctantly I started preparing for my studies. E.g. admission confirmation, hostel availability, Visa and flight tickets.  The most painful part was to see my parents struggle to get the money (nearly 8 Lakhs) for my Visa.  GOD made a way for my family and me. And I was on my way to Germany again. During my entire journey in the flight I had mixed feelings about going there and starting over again. I realized that it was God's plan from the start. Sometimes He works in mysteries ways. One thing I did was not be stubborn but gave into the will of GOD.

It was hard to settle in, GOD provided everything what I needed, whether it was a room, nice class mates, good surroundings, great place to continue my studies. It took me some time to accept my situation and go ahead with my life.  GOD again provided all the support for this, good Christian friends and opportunity to continue in the ministry of GOD at an English-speaking church, although it took 1.5hour to reach the church every Sunday it was totally worth that time spending for GOD.

Soon I could get a part time Job at the University Laboratory as a programmer. In the summer break I got an internship as a communication engineer at Orange Telecom in Poland and after that I could get a job at a Software development company.  During my second year of Master Studies, I was employed by these companies and I didn’t need money to pay for my education, stay and food. When I think about it now, maybe I wouldn’t have tried to find a student job and end up with so much industrial exposure and experience, if I had a scholarship. My dream was to do my final year project in Procter and Gamble and by God's amazing grace I was also able to get this. I had to work extremely hard to do all the jobs along with my studies. A lot of time was lost in travelling between all the places. But GOD blessed me with such good friends to sometimes carry me through this session and He gave the heart and strength to really put in the effort.

In many occasions I really felt God's favor on me through different people, when they helped me out, when I was doing my project at Procter and Gamble. I was reflecting on what if I was stubborn and stayed in India, perhaps I would have missed all these great experiences. I understood and learnt about how God's ways would be different from our plans and all things will work together for good to those who love GOD. By God's amazing grace I successfully finished my final project with high grades and completed my subjects on time. Praise GOD

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