33: Jesus became so real in my family

Episode 33: Jose shares how his faith was transformed from thriving in catechism class and church groups, into something 'so real'. His story carries us from India to the Middle East and then the UK. Be encouraged by Jose's fruitful experience of evangelising across borders.

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Anointing Fire Catholic Ministries
Awakening Convention 25th January, West Bromwich

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Music: Greenleaves from Audionautix.com

Transcript

 You are listening to All Kinds of Catholic with me, Theresa Alessandro. My conversations with different Catholics will give you glimpses into some of the ways, we're living our faith today. Pope Francis has used the image of a caravan. A diverse group of people travelling together. On a sometimes chaotic journey together. That's an image that has helped shape this podcast. I hope you'll feel encouraged and affirmed and maybe challenged at times. I am too in these conversations. 

Thanks for joining me today listeners. I'm really interested to hear from Jose who's joining me from the Birmingham Archdiocese to talk about his faith journey and about an event coming up too. So welcome, Jose.

Oh, thank you, Theresa. Thank you so much. 

Why don't we begin with thinking about - were you born into a family that were already Catholic, Jose? 

My family's background was my parents were Catholics. I am from South India, basically, and we have the rich heritage about Catholic Christianity. 

And this is founded by Saint Thomas the Apostle. Am I right? 

Yeah. AD 52, he came to India, my place. So it is almost 2,000 years tradition we are holding. 

So you were born into a family that already had a long Catholic heritage. And so you were baptised as a baby, were you? 

Yes. Yes.

And did you go to Catholic schools? Is that how it works in South India? 

Not everyone. My primary school, it was a Catholic school. Then my degree time, another Catholic management-run at the college I studied. In India, in South India, there are hundreds of prestigious schools and colleges run by our Catholic dioceses. 

And so growing up, as a child and young person, was your faith important to you from the beginning? Or was it something that you came to feel the importance of later? 

Oh, my faith is always important because in our tradition, the family prayer and going to church and the Sunday catechism, that is after the holy Mass, we will have the 2 hours catechism from age 1 to age 12. So that is a kind of integral part of every family. And by God's grace, I was always attracted by God. I was a very regular student in catechism. I was top of the class, and I had good relationship with the nuns and priests, and I received lots of their love. And my mom was a very, very prayerful lady, and my grandparents, I am born and brought up in a Christian spirituality. 

It sounds like you enjoyed that. You know, you enjoyed learning about your faith, doing well, and being able to talk about it. 

Yes. Of course. It was really good. I was involved in, you know, various kinds of organisations within the church or within the diocese. But, I can tell you that time, I love my church, my faith, but everything was kind of, you know, maybe intellectual. My dad had the problem of drunkenness, and he was very addicted to alcohol. 

Your father had an alcohol problem. Okay. 

As a family, we suffered a lot because of that. Then the good thing happened, he attended one of the charismatic retreats, and miraculously is completely delivered or healed from, you know - because the person who needed alcohol before brushing the teeth within after 4 days, without any withdrawal symptom, is completely healed by the grace of God. 

Wow. And how old were you when that happened, Jose?

That time, I was maybe 18, 90. 

So as a young adult, this amazing experience happened for you and your family of feeling the power of God to transform someone's life. 

Yes. Yes. 

So that that made a difference to your faith? It made it more personal, did it? 

You know, because the bible, Jesus in the bible became so real in my own family. One particular prayer we used to make every single day for the healing of my dad. So it was always a special gift from the Lord. Then I moved to Middle East. I was working for Toyota. I moved to Bahrain the age of 22, I think. There, actually, my charismatic journey started because there was a very powerful charismatic prayer group there along with the parish. So automatically, I get involved with that prayer group, and then everyday, many ministries are happening. I get involved with charismatic renewal life since then. 

Okay. So a charismatic way of worshipping God from those days has been really important to you.

Yes. Yes. Because before, you know, I never prayed in tongues. I never raised my hands. I never prayed a loud way. Initially, everything was new. Then slowly, slowly, I came to know the biblical background, the importance. And more than that, every day, every week, there are testimonies, transformation. Things are happening in people's lives. So it is always amazing.

So I can hear there a combination of some study of the Bible and of the tradition of the charismatic movement and also some really important emotional connection through testimonies, that you're seeing people's lives being transformed very regularly. 

Yes. Yes. 

Okay. That's amazing. Let's fast forward a little bit. So you're now based in the UK. Is that right? 

Yes. And what do you do now for work?

Now I am working as a full time evangelist since 2010.

So you're a full time evangelist. And how did that happen? Was there an opportunity? Did you just feel called and make it happen?

You know, the year 2005, my wife is a staff nurse. We moved to UK. That also is a part of prayer and discerning the will of God. Then we had the prayer cell. We prayed a couple of weeks, then we received the message, green signal from the Lord to move to UK. When I moved to UK, me and wife asked the Lord to give us another two families to pray together. We started a small weekly prayer in my apartment with another 2 families. The Lord was doing amazing things, then many other families started to join. Then we started the night vigil, even the Skype. We started the prayer on Skype. People joined from different countries. 

So before COVID, you were already on Skype, praying with people all over the world. Wow. That's very forward moving. 

Yeah. Sharing the word of God, sharing the testimony, praying together. It was very powerful and slowly slowly I joined with some of the friends here and there in different cities. There were people coming from India at that time. The priest, you know, good speakers, lay speakers. So whenever they come for a short visit, we used to invite these people to our own local town. We used to arrange small retreat, prayer meetings at our homes. So it was a great blessing for many, many people that time. Then Father Shyju came to UK. I was able to meet him. Since then, you know, we had a connection. We used to go travel together. You know, the Holy Spirit was guiding us, and Father got the inspiration to start a monthly meeting. Two, three times he asked, Jose could be considered to become a full-timer for the Lord. Initially, I was not open to that because I was doing some of those small courses for social worker or something like that. Then me and my wife, we prayed for a couple of days, and we were discerning. We took a decision if it is the call from the Lord,  we had to say, yes. Year 2010, September 24, I became a full-timer for the Lord. 

So I'm hearing lots of prayer and discernment around decisions that you and your wife were making to come to the UK and then for your future career. And I can hear how it wasn't necessarily what you thought was the right decision, but you prayed and reflected and tried to think about what the Lord wanted and try and make that choice. That's really interesting. 

I had many good charismatic friends in different levels, and I requested them to pray also. Then most of them said, yes, there is a call for you to go ahead. So that is encouraging us. 

So you enlisted the help of the community as well. That's really interesting. That's great to hear about. What does it look like being a full time evangelist then? What does a day in your life look like now, Jose? 

One thing is it is always worthwhile, and it is really amazing. Looking back 15 years, travelled to many, many countries, I never thought about that. Maybe more than 20 countries, I preached the gospel. I have seen many miracles. When we started the ministry, nothing was to see, you know. Now every month, more than 2,000 people are attending. Many, many residential kids, foreign people, and teenagers, and many of them encounter Christ Jesus. I was the 1st full timer. Now we are 18 full timers. 

Gosh. That has really grown.

We have the Kingdom of Life magazine. We have the Little Evangelist magazine. We have the prison ministry. We have - some of the ministries are happening in Slovakia and Hungary and, you know, many things our Lord is doing. When I made the full-time shift, my son was 1 year old or one and a half years. And now this last December, we had this teenage conference. He was the leading musician and playing the keyboard and singing. 

So your family are with you in this endeavour. I was just thinking to myself while you were talking, Jose, thinking about Saint Thomas the Apostle arriving in India and founding the church there. And 2000 years later, here you are, still a fruit of that work of St Thomas's, continuing to evangelise in many countries as he travelled to other countries. You know, it's very powerful. 

Tiny part, maybe a little dot. 

I know. I know you will want to be humble about it. But I think it is very encouraging for us as Catholic Christians to see that fruit continuing to grow and flourish through the people who have been handed the message of Jesus all these years. So that's amazing. I had a look at your website, and I saw a little logo of the Jubilee year. I'm wondering what you're doing now for the Jubilee year. How is your work connecting with that? 

We got the inspiration to start the year with - we call it this awakening, evangelisation and healing convention. So it is going to happen January 25th. It is open to all, complete service in English. So there will be powerful praise and worship, preaching the word of God, healing ministry, sessions for children, testimonies, and we are inviting every people from every background across the country. Few people are coming from Slovakia, few of them are coming from Ireland, and people are travelling from Belfast. So we need the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to see the healings, deliverances, transformations, conversions upon the people in every background. I invite everyone along with Father Xavier, Father Shyju, to come and participate at Awakening Convention and please pray. 

That's a wonderful invitation. And if they come, Jose, will people have a chance to meet you in person instead of just listening to you on podcast? Will you be there? 

Yeah. Definitely, I will be there with many of our ministers. Let us talk together. Let us pray together. There will be opportunity for confession. It will be a very blessed day. 

Listeners might remember, people that listen every week to the podcast - in Episode 23, we had a guest called Shantel who was talking about one of your other conventions, I think, that she had been to last year, in the summer. And she was saying how much she got out of it herself and how it, you know, refreshed her, renewed her in her faith and her commitment to our Lord. And so people could have a little listen to Shantel in Episode 23 if they needed any more encouragement. Now I myself have been in roles where I've had lots of events to organise and it's pretty tiring. How do you stay refreshed as somebody who's a full-time evangelist and needing to travel and host events and encourage people to come to events? How do you stay refreshed through all of that? 

It's a good question. Always the sacraments, the promises of the Lord. Sometimes our sufferings and struggles make us stronger. Ultimately, it is the grace of the Lord. Yes. As you said, you know, it is not easy journey because when my children were very young, now they are saying that they missed me a lot that time because I am constantly travelling. But God's grace, they understand the value in the renewal, and they have that personal relationship with Jesus. And they're practicing their faith, that is such a blessing. I pray they might continue that beautiful journey, and they become more powerful than me. And my wife, especially, has suffering. Her dedication is very important because she has to go to work, and she has to cook. She has to handle everything. The Holy Spirit has strengthened her in many ways. Our community, our place. If you have a real call or a zeal or inspiration, never hesitate to give your life to Jesus Christ. Maybe we will not see the bigger picture. The Spirit of the Lord God himself will guide us. If we go for our own logic, our own understanding, we cannot be effective because God's ways are totally different. When I became the full-timer, it was challenging for me because in the Indian tradition, normally, younger children look after the parents. Then what the good Lord done when my father passed away. The Lord has arranged me to go to India, and I was with my father two weeks. Day and night, we were praying together, having the meal together. Sometimes I'm taking him to the hospital. God has arranged that beautiful time. Whatever you give to the Lord, Lord will give you a double portion. 

Thank you, Jose. And then I sometimes ask people, if there's a particular part of the Gospel that speaks to them or of the Bible that you keep coming back to that inspires you.

The uniqueness of Jesus Christ, why Jesus is Lord, why Jesus is God. That is very, very important for me. The Old Testament fulfilling the person of Jesus Christ. In our marriage, I took the verse, The Almighty has done great things for me, from Luke. When we moved to UK, Romans 8: 31, If God is with us, who will come against us? And let us try in this Jubilee year to read and meditate and obey the word of God. Because every word will give us life, encouragement, healing. 

Well, on those words of evangelisation, Jose, from someone who is a full time evangelist, that's a really good place to end our conversation. I will, Jose, I will put links to the website and the convention booking and everything in the episode notes so people can find those. 

Thank you so much.

It's been really lovely talking to you today. And I know there's lots there that listeners will find interesting and reflect on and maybe be inspired to come along to the awakening convention on the 25th January. So thanks so much for making the time. 

Thank you so much, Theresa, what you are doing. I thank the Lord for this beautiful opportunity and all those who are listening. I wish everyone a very fruitful Jubilee year, and let us build up the Kingdom of God. 

Thanks so much for joining me on All Kinds of Catholic this time. I hope today's conversation has resonated with you. A new episode is released each Wednesday. Follow All Kinds of Catholic on the usual podcast platforms. Rate and review to help others find it. And follow our X, Twitter and Facebook accounts, @KindsofCatholic. You can comment on episodes and be part of the dialogue there. You can also text me if you're listening to the podcast on your phone, although I won't be able to reply to those texts. Until the next time.