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Come to the Wedding

“I was not sure if anyone would come,” Jaeem confessed. “My Muslim family members were still angry that I had chosen to follow Jesus, and now I was taking a wife from a Hindu background. No one was happy!”

That day, as Jaeem and his bride-to-be, Manju, prayed about the complexities of their upcoming wedding, they were reminded of the greatness of their God, who had overcome far more challenging circumstances in both of their lives. Theirs was hardly a typical romance, after all. Both had come out of abject poverty and had first met in an orphanage. 

Jaeem was only six years old when his parents died. His oldest brother was away studying in the city, and the three younger siblings were sent to the village to live with their uncle, a man who was himself very poor. School was out of the question—the children had to work for their keep. 

Jaeem began to understand that he had not come to this orphanage by accident—God had chosen him.

“Every day, my uncle sent me out to collect fuel,” Jaeem remembered. “Buffalo dung, sugarcane leaves, dry branches from the jungle. It was very hard. We had lost everything: our family, our home, our hope.” 

In the end, Jaeem’s older brother decided to leave school, find a job, and bring his siblings to live with him in the city. Crowded together into a single room, they could barely afford the rent. “We all had to work,” Jaeem said. “Even so, there was never enough to eat. Our bodies were very small. It was a miserable situation. Sometimes we could not stop from crying.”

One day, Jaeem’s older brother heard about a Christian orphanage in the city. The home cared for over fifty children, meeting basic needs as well as providing education and discipleship in the ways of Jesus. As a Muslim he hesitated, but they were desperate. He applied for his siblings, and they were accepted. 

“The manager and wardens of the children’s home were very kind,” Jaeem recalled, “loving us as their own children. Over time, past sorrows were wiped away.” 

At the orphanage, Jaeem found what had been lost: family, home, and hope. “I also found Manju there,” he grinned, “but I did not know that I had found my future wife!”

Daily devotions and Sunday services exposed the children to the Gospel, and Jaeem began to understand that he had not come to this orphanage by accident—God had chosen him. “On my twelfth birthday, God spoke to me from Isaiah 60:1; ‘Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.’ It was at that moment that I knew I wanted to work for him.” 

When he reached adulthood, Jaeem went on to study computer engineering. While at college, he served with Campus Crusade for Christ, eagerly reaching out to fellow students with the Gospel. It was there that he ran into the little girl he had once known at the orphanage, astonished to find that she had grown into a beautiful young woman, and gratified to find that the attraction was mutual. Upon graduation, Jaeem began to work full-time for his country’s largest telecommunications services company, with Manju cheering him on. 

It was a classic success story, including a fairy-tale romance. However, Jaeem never lost sight of his humble roots. 

Jaeem chose to live with some of the other grown children from the orphanage, and did his best to be a good example, encouraging them to attend church and get involved. Jaeem modeled this by serving in his church as a youth leader. It was this work that made him realize his own inadequacies and placed within him a hunger to be more equipped. “I kept praying for a chance to do theological studies,” he said. “Then, it happened. I had the opportunity to do a graduate degree at a Bible college through distance learning. I was so thankful!”

However, as the increasing demands of his job made study almost impossible, Jaeem cried out for another opportunity. Before long, his prayers were answered when he was offered a ministry position with a non-profit organization doing community development among the poor. Not only did they employ him, but they covered his tuition. Within two years, he was ordained, working as a pastor, and planning his wedding. It seemed like a perfect ending to the story.

“That’s when it hit me,” Jaeem said, thinking about his own family. “What about my brothers? What about my sister? They were still upset that I was a Christian. They wanted me to come to my senses, find a nice Muslim girl, and settle down. Now I was marrying a girl from a Hindu family, and I had left an excellent job to become a pastor! There were threats that I would be disowned, cut off.”

Jaeem and Manju sensed God leading them to design a wedding ceremony that would somehow give both sides of the family a glimpse into the heart of God. 

Jaeem and Manju sensed God leading them to design a wedding ceremony that would somehow give both sides of the family a glimpse into the heart of God.

“One day, there will be a wedding in heaven,” they reminded each other, “the wedding of the Lamb of God with his Church. There, people from all nations will see the big, inclusive love that God has for us. How could we help our family see a little of that now, at our wedding?” 

Jaeem and Manju were able to create a ceremony that honored aspects of both the Hindu and Muslim traditions, without compromising a clear and bold statement of their faith in Jesus. On their wedding day, family members were entranced. 

“That was nine years ago!” Jaeem exclaimed. “Since that day, both of our families tell us that we have chosen the right path. Even though they have not yet come to faith in Jesus, they always invite us to speak into their important decisions and ask for our prayers when they are in difficulty.”

Their family relationships provide Jaeem and Manju with great encouragement and joy. “They came to our wedding,” they said with gratitude, “so who knows? Perhaps they will also come to the wedding of Jesus, where they, too, may be one with us as the Bride of Christ.”

Jaeem and Manju serve in partnership with Multiply in South Asia and continue to pastor several house churches, as well as providing discipleship and micro-business training for a network of churches. They have a seven-year-old daughter and twin five-year-old sons. 

PRAY

Please pray for Jaeem and Manju and their children as they serve in South Asia and live out their faith in Jesus as a testimony to their unbelieving families. 

To receive our Daily Prayer Guide and keep up to date with prayer requests from our global workers and national partners worldwide, go to multiply.net/dpg

 

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