User:Gera. Ratna Babu

I would like to share about how God has blessed me and pray that it blesses you as you read my short story. I was born and brought up in a Christian family in a small village called Annaparru in Andhra Pradesh. My father died of asthma in 1990, and I was placed in an orphanage hostel in 1994. I studied within the same hostel for 15 years, but after I left the hostel I stopped studying because of my family and financial problems. When my father died my mother remarried, and my grandfather has been taking care of me ever since. I don’t have any sisters or brothers. I didn’t do my intermediate (10+2) course, but I started my computer courses in 2009, specializing in multimedia and animation. During this animation course, my mother became ill and when I took her to hospital the doctor they did a blood test and they told me that she has HIV AIDS. I was shocked and was at a tremendous duress because I just didn’t know what to do at that time. I didn’t have any money with me and I didn’t have any moral support from my family members. My mother was admitted in hospital for two months, but nobody came to see her while she was in hospital bed. I cried for many days, staying by her bedside for two months. The only person who helped my mum was her younger brother who bought medicine for my mom. My mother went to be with God on 15/08/2010. The last two months was the most memorable and most painful moment of my life. When she was still alive she never took care of me or stayed in the same place with me leaving me with my grandfather to raise me up. The only time that I ever stayed with her was those last two months of her life in the death bed. SO while I was wracked with sorrow, I was also grateful to God because I got to be with her to the end. I finished my animation course in 2011, but I was unemployed because I didn’t find any job opportunities. To earn for my living I had to work in a farm every day. At that time I had a friend, and I was unaware that he was from YWAM (Youth With A Mission). When I met him, his testimony touched my heart. I told him that I wanted to do MDTS (media discipleship training school), but it was in JAIPUR in Rajasthan and I don’t have any money with me to go to there. I didn’t have any job that time, but in faith I borrowed Rupees 6,000/-. I didn’t know if it was God’s plan or not but I went to do my MDTS anyway. My YWAM life started in July.15.2011. In YWAM I am started to know God and make him known. I started praying, reading the Bible. It was amazing. I never had peace in my heart before but now I am so happy in my life and I got peace. I don’t worry now because our Father Jesus Christ is with me. He has big plans for me in my life! He even provided my MDTS total fees. I learned how to speak English too. In my MDTS we went to our outreach in some states. We did children ministry and road side ministry. I never thought that my life is going to become this much busy. Afterwards again I went to do MDTS staffing in Jaipur. God provided my staff fees also. One thing I want to say my friends is that I don’t have any support and sponsors. I believe that God can help me. That I am trusting God he will send supports for me. I learned in my MDTS about God characters and most importantly I learned how to use media for ministry. Now I am interesting about photography, designs and film making. Since I became interested in photography and video editing, after MDTS staffing I got a chance to do School of Design (SOD) in Pune. I didn’t have the financial backing, but God spoke to my heart when I prayed and he said I should do the school. It was a trying time, because I depended on God for answers and then later on, early in the morning 1:00 am I got a call. They told me to check my mail on Facebook and then promptly the line got disconnected. I checked my Facebook and it was written there, “Ratna, we paid your administration fees 6000Rs/-. Go and do your school”. Early in the morning I woke up and got ready to go to Pune, I was so blessed and happy. In Pune, I learned lots of things (in my SOD) and one of the most important things that happened was that my proficiency in English improved. The school fees amounted to a total of Rs. 30,000/-. One day, our school leader came to me and asked me to pay off the remaining balance of the school fees because I had paid only 6000/- and had to pay an amount of 24,000/-. I told to him that I didn’t have any money with me to pay my school fees but that on faith I came to do this course. Back home, my friends prayed for me and my school fees and God answered my prayers after two days provided my school fees 20,000rs. When the school leader came and told me that the amount of 20,000/- was paid off, I was overcome with happiness. But God blessed me unexpectedly, even more when I received an extra sum of Rs. 20,000/- because of newsletter that was shared from our base. Today I am a media missionary and I am happy and at peace. Having said that, my relatives do not share my happiness because they don’t like what I am doing. They want me to do a job and earn a living. I on the other hand, believe that God has called me to do something for Him with my life. After my SOD (school of design) I went to Jaipur for base staffing where I made films about Jaipur, web/new media designs, marketing and even cooking. I really enjoyed serving people and have found my calling in my life to do “media ministry”. What I want to do in my media ministry: 1. Whatever I learned about using Media, I want teach to the youth people. 2. With media I want teach to unreached people about Jesus Christ. 3. I want help YWAM bases all over India to make designs and make short promo films. 4. I want to help in the churches to take pictures/photos and shoot videos for their ministry as a volunteer. Since my village people don’t have access to this kind of technology and knowledge this would help them to spread the gospel.