I prayed about it. The next day was a Saturday and we got a money order in the post, from an uncle who had started a new job. He sent a note with it, saying it was for shoes for Enoch.

I was very young then, perhaps seven, but I was super excited! My dad explained that my uncle would have sent it some time ago, before I prayed. He explained that God answers prayer even before we ask him. God knows our needs, and he provides and guides and leads. God likes to guide us, in the big and small things.

It’s stayed with me ever since. When I was about 16, I was feeling that I wasn’t living up to the Christian life. There were secret things in my life, and I wasn’t sure if I belonged to Jesus. So I prayed, asking God to show me. Then I opened my Bible to my scheduled reading. It was Luke 5, where Peter fell at Jesus’ feet, saying, “I am a sinful man!” (v8).

It was an answer to my prayer. In the next passage, Jesus told the leper that he was clean. I also knelt before God and said, “I’m a sinful man.” I knew then, without a doubt, that I was forgiven and made clean by Jesus. It was very reassuring.

Then, in my second year of uni, a friend of mine died. I went to the mortuary to see his body, with a few of my friends. I removed the cloth from his face. It hit me really hard. That night, I went home and I became physically ill, with a high temperature. During the night, I was reminded of a poem about a man who had died but sent a letter to his best friend, asking him why he hadn’t shared his faith in Jesus with him.

It affected me so much. I prayed and made a commitment to God that by the time I left uni, I would share Jesus with all my friends. There were 110 friends in my class and they were from different religious backgrounds.

Sometime later, a few of us formed a small prayer group and we planned a Christmas event. We felt that God was directing us. It was amazing! We ended up sharing Jesus with the whole college – more than 500 staff and students turned up! It was the first time that a Christian event had been run in that college. And I came to see that God was guiding me, and launching me into something new, even through a friend’s death.

I finished my bachelor’s degree and wanted to pursue my master’s. I thought I might go to Scotland, but then another friend mentioned Australia, which I’d never considered. I started to wonder whether God wanted me in Scotland or Australia. One day, I was praying about it on a bus in Bangalore, and as I was praying, the bus jolted and stopped. I opened my eyes. Right in front of me was a man, standing up, and on the back of his T-shirt was a picture of a kangaroo with an arrow on it, saying ‘Way to Australia’.

I went to Australia! And God has continued to lead and guide me since then, mostly through his word in the Bible. I am now blessed with a lovely wife and two beautiful children and another due this month. But it hasn’t always been easy. I’ve made some decisions without praying. I’ve failed, on numerous occasions. But God has kept on leading me, even into full-time ministry.

One of the reasons I came to Australia was to make money, so in some ways it has felt like a downward spiral (in some people’s eyes). But I trust in what God is doing. Nobody cares for me like Jesus. And I know that God really likes to guide us. We’re better off when we listen!”

Enoch’s story is part of Eternity’s Faith Stories series, compiled by Naomi Reed. Click here for more Faith Stories.