A many-armed human with an elephant face grotesquely smiles down at me outside the bus window; cows lie in the road; spicy incense wafts around me as I enter a house; henna curls around the hands welcoming me in.
India.
It is a land filled with many religions, the largest being Hinduism. In the United States, this nation seems so distant and different, but during my mission trip to India, I met people who were struggling with Christianity just as they do here. Some had given up their entire identity to follow Christ: their name, their job, their family and their culture. Others were happy to continue in the Hindu traditions passed down from generation to generation since ancient times.
Raj Patel, a senior accounting major with a minor in finance, is a first-generation American immigrant whose family moved to Jackson, Tennessee from India in 1999. He’s the first in his family to not be a doctor and the first to convert to Christianity.
Every Saturday during Patel’s childhood, his family would go to the Hindu temple in Memphis to have their feet washed, give money and pray to the gods. When Patel was 15, he started traveling for competitive tennis and used that as an excuse to not go to Memphis.
“I didn’t care if I missed,” Patel said. “I never felt anything.”
He thought he would go to college for tennis after traveling the country as a junior tennis player, but God had other plans for him, and he chose to come to Union, a Baptist university. Citing his desire for a good education, his parents supported him.
Chapel at Union was a brand new experience, but Patel went along with it. During his freshman year, he also joined the fraternity Alpha Tau Omega (ATO), but he never went to church or Bible studies.
“I never even told my own friends that I wasn’t a Christian. I thought they’d hate me; they’d kick me out because it’s a Christian school,” Patel said.
Then, the summer after his freshman year, Patel took the required New Testament survey class. It was his first time reading the Bible, and he read the New Testament in 20 days.
Lucas Wilkinson, a senior social work major, had been in the same dorm as Patel freshman year, and they joined ATO at the same time. Over the summer, as Patel was reading the Bible, he had questions for Wilkinson.
“For me, that was a really cool opportunity to kind of share more about what Christianity is, what a relationship with Christ looks like and where the Bible plays a key piece in that,” Wilkinson said. “And so, throughout the summer, we chatted about different passages he was reading. We talked about different church denominations, and we could tell he was really getting interested.”
Then one of Patel’s fraternity brothers took him to a Wednesday night service at West Jackson, where Joe Ball was preaching.
“I remembered him preaching in chapel, but this time he preached, I felt the Holy Spirit taking over. And then that Sunday, I went with him to the Sunday service,” Patel said, smiling.
Patel confessed to his fraternity brothers a little later that he was not a Christian, explaining his background and how he wanted to learn more.
For Wilkinson, it was eye-opening for him and so many others in the fraternity. Many of them had assumed Patel was a Christian just from his kind and thoughtful disposition.
“I admired his vulnerability,” Wilkinson said. “We recognized that Raj is a great guy. He cares deeply about his friends. He’s very interested in becoming a Christian.”
Patel admitted that he hadn’t expected such an outpouring of love from his friends; instead of shunning him, they were excited for him.
“Now we need to step in and do our part and make sure that we can help water those seeds a little bit — make sure that we are being Christ-like figures to him that are going to nurture that growth, not do anything to steer him away, [but] help him on his spiritual journey,” Wilkinson said.
Later in the semester, Patel accepted Christ, began faithfully attending a church and was baptized in December.
“I remember all the ATOs came. It was like four full rows of guys just all there watching me. That was a special day,” Patel said.
After this, his friends committed to holding him accountable in Christian discipline, supporting him as he read the Bible, prayed and attended church. They also encouraged him to tell his family of his conversion.
“I didn’t tell my family for a year,” Patel said. “I was scared. One night, one of my friends told me, ‘Dude, if you’re a Christian, you already gave yourself to the Lord. You got baptized. You got saved. But you are keeping this conviction from your parents who are supposed to trust you?’”
His parents took the news better than Patel thought they would, accepting that if this was what he wanted, they would support him. He has tried discussing his faith with them throughout the years, but they are content to remain practicing their religion.
Wilkinson continues to be encouraged by the way that he has watched Patel grow in his faith.
“I just saw him practicing his faith of his own accord. It really showed me a lot of growth, gave me some confidence and encouraged me,” Wilkinson said. “He’s grown this much in a short amount of time, so I should be pushing myself to do the same.”
Patel laughed as he assured me that he did go back and carefully read through the Bible — taking more than 20 days — and he loves to share Scripture with others.
“Let all that you do be done in love,” Patel said, quoting 1 Corinthians 16:14.
This theme of doing everything in love continues to be a theme in Patel’s life and has encouraged Wilkinson to do the same.
“It’s super encouraging to know that God can do work in anybody, of any background. And our mission is not to go out and judge or condemn people, but to show people the love of Christ. And through that, people can be transformed,” Wilkinson said. “It doesn’t matter what that looks like, or how long that takes. Our job is to go out, share the gospel, love people well, and I think a lot of people around Raj did that.”
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