Growing up in a Hindu family, Sharon was struck by the message of love, grace and forgiveness found in the Bible.
Sharen (South Africa) serves with OM’s International team in the personnel department. Here, she shares her story of growing up in a Hindu family and finding her place in God’s plan.
I was born and raised in a Hindu family, where faith and tradition were part of daily life. Both sets of my grandparents were deeply committed Hindus, though my parents were non-practising. From a young age, my grandparents taught me about the many gods and goddesses, the rituals and the significance of festivals. I joined them in prayers, attended Tamil school to learn the language and went with them to the temple on Sunday mornings as well as on important prayer days.
In Hinduism, there is freedom to worship many gods, and our home reflected that with numerous statues and framed images. Interestingly, among them was also a statue of Jesus. I remember praying in the Hindu way before the different deities, and then turning to the statue of Jesus to pray to Him as well.
When I was a teenager, my paternal grandmother came to faith, and I know she prayed faithfully for the rest of the family to know Christ. Around the same time, my mum worked alongside several believers and would often come home and share with us the conversations she had with them about Jesus. My mum suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, and these friends came one Sunday afternoon to pray for her. To our amazement, she was miraculously healed! I felt a deep sense of awe and wonder at God’s power in that moment.
Soon after, they invited us to church, and attending for the first time filled me with curiosity, excitement and a growing desire to know God personally. I was 18 years old at that time. Through that experience, our entire family came to faith, and I began to understand what it truly meant to have a living, personal relationship with Jesus. At first, it felt very different; too simple compared to the many practices I was used to. But what struck me was the message of love, grace and forgiveness. Unlike the endless striving I often felt within Hinduism — where pleasing the gods depended on offerings, duties and rituals — Christianity spoke of a God who reached out to me first, who loved me unconditionally and who offered salvation through Jesus, not through my own efforts.
The biggest difference I noticed was my relationship with who I was praying to. In Hinduism, my experience of the divine felt distant, spread out among many gods with different attributes. In Christianity, I discovered one God who wanted to know me personally — to walk with me in every part of life. Prayer changed to simply speaking to God as a Father and friend.
Becoming a Christian didn’t mean rejecting my heritage; I still value the respect, community and devotion that I learnt from Hindu culture, but I’ve found true peace, joy and assurance in Jesus Christ.
When I was 23, a visiting preacher prophesied over me, saying that I would be involved in missions. At the time, I had very little understanding of what that meant, and my first thought was, “I’m not going into the bush!” Yet, over time, I participated in many short-term outreaches in rural areas of Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland. Through these experiences, my love for missions grew, and I felt called to serve alongside the local church.
Since then, I have been grateful for opportunities to serve on outreaches in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, with a particular highlight being a few months with a church in Portugal.
In 2015, I joined a home group which some OM workers were part of and often heard inspiring stories about OM. In 2017, I was encouraged by these workers to apply for a position with OM in South Africa, which I did. That was the beginning of my journey with OM. I served with OM in South Africa and had the privilege of working with the Africa area, which broadened my understanding of different cultures. Later, I moved to work with the International team, where I have been serving for the past three years.