You Will Find Me If You Seek Me With All Your Heart

The advent of the year 2020 brought in a new turn in Lathika Bharathan’s life. The advancement of age and maturity and the many bitter experiences in life had started affecting her desires. Of late, Lathika avidly desired to seek God and take refuge in Him. Clueless on how to begin the journey, she was suddenly reminded of an invitation to the church by a lady she met on the road. She recalled her name to be Susy Aby. She was sure to have lost the invitation card as she was hardly interested in it then. But something in her kept nudging her to look out for Susy. She somehow believed only Susy would be able to help her to know and seek God, the way Lathika’s heart was telling her to.

Lathika was having a general conversation with her neighbor about some property matters. It was then that she heard her neighbor mention that their adjacent property belonged to Susy Aby. This got Lathika excited and she managed to get Susy’s contact number from one of the plantation workers at Susy’s land. 

Susy Aby had been a disciple at the Calicut Church of Christ (Kerala) for the past 20 years. She was eager to work for the Lord and reached out to people she met and was always eager to share her faith. She never hesitated from testifying about the goodness of her Lord Jesus Christ. This helped her sister and Aunt to turn to God and follow Him. Susy always felt she could have won more souls as she had been faithful for a long time. She kept waiting for God’s timing. The sudden call from Lathika, reminding her about their encounter almost eight years ago, seemed to her as a sign that God had heard her prayers. 

A late February Sunday witnessed Lathika attending the church with Susy. The visits were short-lived as soon the disciples had to stop meeting physically as a church following the Covid-19 restrictions. It was during this time that a few sisters in the church formed a group and started connecting on conference calls to pray and study with each other. Susy facilitated Lathika to join the group. This helped her to study the Bible and seek God. By the end of June, she committed herself and became a disciple. 

Susy and Lathika used this newfound friendship to reach out to other people who were their acquaintances. Lathika’s neighbor, Geetha, who had joined the morning prayer group, soon turned to God and committed her life to His service by mid-August. Bharathan, Lathika’s husband, who was long suffering from psychological problems could not but help notice the changes and growth in faith of Lathika. He was touched by the word of God and he, too, accepted the Lord by the end of September. Now her sister Kanchana has started studying the Bible. Lathika now takes care of a Bible talk for women in the church. She also manages all her household affairs and her family while running a tailor shop.     

²⁷ God did this so that they would seek him

and perhaps reach out for him and find him,

though he is not far from any one of us. Acts 17:27