Ten Questions for Christopher David

Q1: Your were born in India. What do you remember about your homeland?            

A: NO RULES!! There is more freedom. No life guard on duty when we bath in the river. No mattress needed to sleep on the river bed. No FDA needed to eat food on the road side. All I remember is a colorful life.

 

Q2: What caste system were you born into? What was it like? 

A: I was born in an agricultural family, basically farmers. In India people are segregated based on their occupation. The lifestyle of farmers is entirely different from any other people. There is no profit or loss in their business. All they do is hard work in the fields, eat and drink, not giving any thought to education or future. They worship nature and all the evil gods and goddesses. In villages every year they spend a lot of money on animal sacrifices, and end up hurting themselves to please these evil forces.

 

Q3: You once told me that your mother out of desperation was going to take her own life as well as her kids'. What happened that spared your life? 

A: Due to my dad’s alcoholism, my mom decided to migrate over to the nearest town hoping life might be better there than in the village. There we could only find a slum to settle, but my mom did so happily as she felt at least from there she could provide education to us. She always desired to educate us as both my parents are not so educated. But all of  her thoughts became futile. We ended up in poverty as we could not afford a town life, and we struggled to have even a single meal a day. There were no changes in my dad’s attitude, and he was always drunk and slept on the roadside. At one point of time, he even sold me for a meager amount to buy drinks and my mom retrieved me miraculously from my buyer. This hopeless situation made my mom make the decision to kill herself and all of her children, myself and my two elder sisters. At this point of our suicide plan, one missionary lady came to the slum to share the Good News of Jesus. She entered right into our house and shared the love of Jesus. Finally, my mom found hope in Jesus. She decided to live for Jesus. Then all that we knew about Him was that Jesus is our provider of food. But as time passed by, slowly our lives began to change and He not only took care of all of our needs but gave us a new beginning in the hopeless world of ours. I give all the glory and honor to my Jesus because He spared not only our lives but also brought my dad back from alcoholism.

 

Q4: You were a sponsored child similar to World Vision. Tell us about that experience. Have you ever met the family that sponsored you?

A: After I finished my 12th grade, my parents struggled to give me a college education. Due to the financial crisis in our family, I had to stop my education and go to a hot hat job on the roadside to earn a living for myself and my family. But then, my Lord did not forget me, He remembered me and had a plan for my life. He led me to find a Christian college. I went to join the college with all faith and no money to pay for my seat. God spoke to the College Principal, and he allowed me to stay in a hostel where I could get a sponsorship from CE (Germany). Even though I had no idea of taking Computer Science, the Lord lead me to make the right choice through God-sent people at the right time. The Lord also helped me to pay my tuition fees with the help of local believers. By this, I was able to complete my Masters in Computer. God is so good at all times. I never ever even imagined I would have such a wonderful life on the earth. But our Lord provided me everything above all that I could ask or imagine.

 

Till now I have not seen or had any correspondence with my sponsor parents from Germany, but I heard that most of them are poor German laborers.


Q5: You are a database programmer for the Deutsche Bank.  How did you get your education and how did you land this job?

A: Basically, I am a Web Based Application Developer (Microsoft guy). I was recruited by a company in India, and they sent me here to the U.S. to execute their projects. My past assignments were with various companies in the U.S. like GE-Energy and Verizon Wireless. I am currently working at Deutsche Bank, to execute their project.

 

The degree which I hold in computers is a divine plan of our Lord. I had not even touched a computer or had a feel of it before I joined my Bachelor's degree in Computer Science. I would say it is all because of Jesus that I have a future now. I am just clay in His hands.

 

 

Q6: Tell us about your family.  How did you meet your wife?  How long have you been married and how many children do you have?

A: God has blessed me with a wonderful life partner. It is an interesting story how I found my wife. Before I came to the U.S., my parents and I went to my wife’s home and asked them to give her as my wife. Both of our families were happy over the decision to get us married. And so after my first assignment in the U.S., I went for a vacation and got married. I thank the Lord for her. We got married in April 2006, and in May 2007, God blessed us with a little angel' Matthew Isaiah.

 

Q7: What brought you and your family to Harbor Light?

A: In the beginning we thought that walking with the Lord is only to receive worldly blessings. But very soon God changed our lifestyle and called us to live a Spirit-filled life. For this reason, He anointed us with the Holy Spirit and gave us gifts and brought us from Dallas to the Bay Area to grow more in Him. God gave us divine peace and purpose when we were at Harbor Light for the first time. Here for the first time we found a church that follows the agenda of the Holy Spirit.

Q8: You are currently writing the code for the Compassion Network database.  Why would you spend your free time on such an enormous task?

A: I thank our Lord for choosing me to do His work. It gives me great joy and satisfaction when I use my technology for His work and so I enjoy doing it a lot. I am just an instrument, and I am nothing here.

Q9: For those in our church who love Indian food, what are the best restaurants in the area for Indian cuisine? 

A: I would suggest “Spice Hut” in Fremont were you get both the north & the south Indian cuisine and Saravana Bhavan and is considered a high class restaurant in India, having branches even in  Sunnyvale.

 

Q10: For those of us with Indian co-workers and neighbors, how would you suggest we befriend them and show them Christ's love?

A: As far as I know, Indians are very religious and intellectual people. They firmly hold on to their faith on many gods and goddesses. But they are very poor listeners and aggressive people. They have very strong ideas about re-incarnation after death, so they will never worry about the true “Eternal Life”. But you can share the Gospel in their time of need (most of them struggle with peace and happiness), and they would give Jesus a try.

Never ever compromise with them as “Jesus is also one of  the gods”.  For them, it is not hard to add one more God to their list of million gods. We need to be uncompromising in that area with the truth.