Danesh P. Manik’s way to America’s Midwest covered 10,000 miles. But his faith trip took even longer, a bridge to infinity that spanned the cultural and divine chasm between his Indian Hindu upbringing and the gospel of Christ.
Born into a Brahman family — the maximum caste in Hinduism — Manik was projected to follow his grandfather and father in priestly duties for the ancient, polytheistic religion of an estimated 1 billion people. The Mumbai occupant went to school to study with a Hindu guru.
But improbably, yet miraculously, the 53-year-old Manik today pastors Bellevue Christian Church, an Assemblies of God congregation in Michigan.
As he grew into young adulthood, Manik knew he didn’t want to be a Hindu priest. In its place, he studied to become a computer engineer. He did well, being engaged and hired by a company supplying employees to the then hastily growing technology industry in the U.S.
In 1989, an excited Manik arrived in Lansing, Michigan. Though a state capital, Lansing’s population of 118,000 pales in judgment to Mumbai, a metropolis of 12.5 million.
“It was quite a culture shock,” he recalls. Yet Manik settled into his new job, making friends. One day, a co-worker invited him to an Easter passion play.
“I didn’t know much about the Christian faith at all,” Manik says. “When they put Jesus upon the Cross, I was about to leave; that was the end, I thought. Then, there was Jesus walking out of the tomb and angels singing.”
A disbelieving Manik thought the Resurrection had to be made up, poetic license to make the tragic finale easier to swallow. The lady who invited him explained that Christians base their whole faith on the fact that Jesus rose from the dead.
Unconvinced but intrigued, he attended Mount Hope Assemblies of God for the next year. In February 1991, he replied to an altar invitation.
“I didn’t want to miss the moment,” Manik says. “I knew something about Jesus was real.”
Manik awoke the next morning expended with the desire to share his new faith with others, including families in India. In a phone discussion, his brother Kamal in India passed out when he heard the news of Manik’s conversion.
However, Manik persevered, traveling back to India, where family members cautioned him to be quiet about his new faith; his mother, Jyoti, even tried to arrange a Hindu marriage for him. Manik felt compelled to try talking with his mother once more.
Manik recognized Jyoti for being a good mother, told her he loved her and then defined how Jesus loved her even more. That morning, Jyoti accepted Jesus as her Savior.
Shortly, Manik’s mother had packed up the household idols and frightened them in the nearby Arabian Sea. Finally, Kamal, initially skeptical, also believed in Christ.
Meanwhile, Manik returned to the U.S., graduated from Mount Hope Bible Training Institute in Lansing, met, and in 1999, married his wife, Michigan native Michele. The couple has two daughters, Rachel, 18, and Amanda, 16. Michele directs children and preteen ministry at the church.
In 2008, Manik became pastor of the small AG church in Bellevue, a rural village of 1,300 — more than 96 percent of them white — in south-central Michigan. Gradually, the newcomer and the congregation-built trust in the community by agreeing and leading community outreach projects.
Earlier this year, Manik traveled to Suriname, a South American nation with a population that is one-fourth Indian Hindu. He joined Saginaw, Michigan-based Assemblies of God world missionary Steven Puffpaff Sr. during June meetings with local pastors and congregations, including several recent Hindu converts.
“He fit into ministry to Hindus like he had been doing it all along,” Puffpaff says. “He shared his testimony at the main AG church in Paramaribo, and people came to the Lord.”
Manik always will remember the revelation of the Easter play he attended.
“I came 10,000 miles to find a better life,” Manik says. “Instead, I found eternal life.”
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Thank you AG News and Robert E. Mims for sharing this.
