Discovering talents for God’s kingdom
Esther grew up the eldest of four daughters of daily-wage workers, and was pulled out of English-medium school so a younger sister could stay in. Then the church asked for someone to learn the mixer.
Ricky Biswasi led an orchestra in Jeypore singing film songs. He talks about the year his friends left, the verse that stopped him, and why he no longer thinks of prayer as asking.
Maria Clara works at Genpact, runs a household, and paints. Some canvases take six months. She talks about Daniel among lion-faced men, and why she calls it a mission rather than a hobby.
He sat in the corner of a room until he was ten. Then a pastor asked whether he wanted to go to school. Our 2012 conversation with the flutist, who died in May.
Pavithran Golconda grew up in a Christian home in Hyderabad and wanted nothing to do with it. He talks about the night that changed him, the band he started, and why he tells beginners to learn on film.
A Hyderabad designer on childhood play that turned into a profession, and on why the smallest talent is worth refining.
A Hyderabad worship leader on being chosen to lead, staying undistracted on a stage, and why a gift is never a burden.
She had been a Crusader, then Legion of Mary, then twenty-five years in the Christian Workers Movement. She was a nominated Member of the Legislative Assembly. And she could not name a single Bible reference.
She wanted to be a doctor, followed her friends into a diploma she did not understand, and then heard a voice tell her to resign a job she had held for thirteen months. She ended up running a theological college.
The verse that fitted was "I am fearfully and wonderfully made". Months later a pastor in Trivandrum reached for that candle while sitting with a couple who had been told to abort their baby.
