ENGINEERED BY HIS GRACE | KAIROS GLOBAL | JANUARY 2021

Author: Reji Francis

Intro: An engineer, Reji Francis traces two decades of journeying with the Lord that began with three prayers.

LIFE BEFORE

I was born to a traditional Catholic family. From a very young age, I was regular for Sunday Holy Mass, Catechism, Little way, KCSL and Altar boy groups. At the age of fifteen, I joined KCYM as well. To an outsider, I was an active Christian. But in reality my inner self was wounded, filled with inferiority complex and anger pock-marked with swearing. Now when I look back, it’s easy to see that I lacked a deep encounter with the Lord. My father would always say that during Mass, an altar boy received more blessings after the priest. Those words were embedded in my heart and I never missed an opportunity to serve at the altar.

ENCOUNTER

It was my dream to become an engineer. While studying in college, I was regular for daily Holy Mass. There I learned to serve the altar for Syro-Malabar Mass. One day in 2002, after Mass, a couple of medical students invited me for a Jesus Youth prayer meeting. I joined them and continued to go there as I was deeply challenged by their daily God experience. But I would try and avoid getting called for any activity. Then in 2003, they invited me to attend the Professional Conference at Vimala College Thrissur¹. Later, when one of my friends also invited me for it, I decided to give it a try. During the programme, I made a thorough confession – the best in my life till then. After that, I was in another world. Yet, I asked God for an extraordinary experience during Adoration that day. But nothing happened and feeling discouraged, I went back to the accommodation. There I encountered the Bible verse, You did not choose me. But I chose you (John 15:16). I read it many times and a deep conviction filled my heart that HE had chosen me – I was also the only one from my campus for this programme. From that moment, my prayers took a U-turn. I asked God, ‘Why have you chosen me?’ Along with that, three prayers came out from my heart.

1) Lord, give me back the years I have lost.

2) Give me the grace to do something for the campus.

3) Give me the grace to start something from scratch.

I returned to college with the realisation that I was given the grace to pray for my campus and for everyone there. I started praying the Rosary around the campus, praying while travelling and praying for all I would encounter. God also took away my habit of swearing.

INITIAL DAYS AND CHALLENGES 

I put my childhood dream of becoming an engineer on the back-burner when I decided to stop pursing further studies after the diploma and took up a job. But God gave me admission into the Muslim Association College of Engineering, Trivandrum², which had hardly any Christians. In the hostel we started a small prayer group with people of different denominations. Later when our hostel shifted to a new building inside the campus, our prayer meeting stopped. But I needed to attend daily Holy Mass. My search led me to a Syro-Malankara church at Karette, a village nearby. There was no Mass on weekdays there, but Fr. John was merciful enough to celebrate Holy Mass for me. Though it was very difficult to follow the liturgy, the Lord’s grace followed me. Soon, few of my non-Christian friends started coming for the Holy Mass and I helped them understand about the miracle happening in the Holy Eucharist.

Even though I had a desire for fellowship gathering, I couldn’t be part of one initially. Gradually, my college commitments grew as I became the college general secretary, placement in-charge, etc. One day I heard about an upcoming JY retreat at Kunnamthanam, Kottayam³ and decided to attend it. That was in 2007, my second birth in JY. During that retreat, I decided to take the six pillars seriously and started DRC in my way. After that during the same year, I attended another retreat, where I experienced a renewed zeal for mission.

I already had a few non-Christian friends who had experienced God’s love in one way or the other. Few of us would skip lunch and pray for their intentions, especially on Fridays. Friends would give their intentions to pray and I have seen God doing miracles for them. One such example was the successful marriage of my Hindu friend, Avinash’s sister, who, as per their belief, had a bad horoscope. Through it they were able to experience God’s care and his fatherly love. With a few of these friends, we started a prayer meeting at Vamanapuram⁴ Latin Church. I still remember those beautiful days with my non-Christian friends singing and dancing, Yes Lord together.

CONNECTING TO ZONE AND BEGINNING OF LEADERSHIP

One day, I received a call from the Neyyattinkara⁵ Zonal Coordinator. They wanted help for an exam preparation retreat for class 10 and 12 students. That was the first step in leadership outside my college. Soon, the Lord chose me as the campus coordinator for the zone and I became part of the zonal service team. 

When I moved to Coimbatore⁶ for my Masters, I was already in touch with the JY community there, so getting to work for the upcoming zonal family gathering was easy. During the family gathering, I got to meet all the JYs in Coimbatore. In the days that followed, focus was on ‘Rhythm of Love’, a reach out programme for north-west districts of Tamil Nadu⁷, for which I was responsible for Coimbatore mobilisation.

During that programme, the first Tamil Nadu campus team was formed and the Lord chose me as the team coordinator. We started praying for Tamil Nadu with colleges listed on a map. The first programme conducted was at Tindivanam TTI (a place close to Chennai⁸) for Tamil youth. Without much knowledge of the geography, culture or language, we moved forward with the Lord. The song, God will make a way was sung umpteen times as prayer. The programme turned out to be an anointed one with many God experiences. As a result, they started a daily prayer group with over twenty students. 

After that, we visited many places and conducted many programmes. The days were fully packed. Starting with morning Holy Mass, followed by family or youth visits. After college, we would continue with visiting prayer meetings, families or youth, going for Tamil Holy Mass, etc. Weekends were for long travels to meet people or for meetings across Tamil Nadu.

One day, the National Campus Coordinator, Jordy Michael invited me for the first campus leaders training – a training I had longed for. I confirmed my availability and grabbed the chance the Lord brought me. As the days drew near, I learnt that my campus was to host companies for placement the same week. Still I stuck to my decision to attend the training. On the last day of the programme, I became a part of a new National Campus team. We travelled the length and breadth of India to initiate campus ministries and to connect with the existing ones. After my Masters, I responded to God’s call to commit a year for the campus ministry. During that time, I got the opportunity to coordinate the National Campus Meet 2009, for which we visited twenty states and interacted with students of different cultures and languages. Not even for a single moment did I feel language and culture, a barrier for the mission. It was the Holy Spirit who planned, guided and took us to these places and people.

I would like to share a small experience during one of our team meetings at Hyderabad. We had decided to travel to North Indian states for two weeks. When we checked with the leaders there, the possibility of meeting students seemed vague. Still, we kept the faith and went all the way to Nagpur⁹. The day we set foot there, it was a regional holiday – the students were free and we met them all. From there, we continued to Pune¹⁰. The sweltering heat in these parts was unbearable in the train and we desperately began praying small prayers for rain. Unbelievably, a few minutes later, it began to rain! When we reached Pune, it was a holiday there too and so we could meet most of the JY leaders. All of them were amazed by the rain since they too had been long praying for it. We continued our journey through Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi¹¹. Everywhere, HIS hands were visible and the Holy Spirit guided us.

JUBILEE GRACE

2010 was a year of great blessing for my family. My sister got married in February; I said yes to the new responsibility of National Campus Coordinator on Easter Sunday in April; I completed my MBA exams in May, the very next day joined the Kerala State Electricity Board as Assistant Engineer and in August I got married to Treesa. Along with the Jubilee Conference held that year.

STRUGGLES IN LIFE

The initial days of our marriage were not smooth sailing. It took time to get to know and understand each other. It was hard for me to accept initially but through the movement, my faith deepened and that led to surrendering our lives before Him – the third person in marriage – during Holy Mass and praying through the intercession of Mother Mary. Day by day, I grew under the guidance of Our Lady. Along with that we had great support from JY elders. Patiently, both of us got to accept each other.

Another crisis we went through was the miscarriage of our first child. With great longing, we had been praying for a child. But HE took back. Even though it was painful, the understanding that ‘every child is a gift of God’ and ‘God knows everything and He has a plan for you,’ penetrated deeply into our lives and consoled us to accept.

The third crisis was during the delivery of our second child on Dec 8, 2015. After the delivery, Treesa had severe bleeding. The doctor briefed me on the situation and asked for my consent to remove the uterus to save her life. We had dreamt of having at least five children. It was painful but our Lord gave me an inner peace. That was the day of the opening of the Door of Mercy in the Vatican. It truly was the Mercy of Lord extended to me and my family to bring Treesa back to life.

All those struggles helped both of us to come close to Jesus and to surrender our lives to him as a thanksgiving and we started enjoying the little sacrifices we made for his glory.

MISSION AS FAMILY

I got married to Treesa four months after becoming National Campus Coordinator. Though not part of the movement, she had a strong Catholic background and was active in Church. I was working at Idukki¹² Powerhouse at the time and would get four days off after twelve continuous days of work. Whenever possible, I would club two pairs of offs together and go for a week’s ministry visits; we mostly travelled together. Those travels were filled with graceful experiences. Once we were travelling from Angamaly¹³ to Mumbai with our four-month-old daughter, Rachel. Our tickets were on the waiting list when booked, and we hoped it would get confirmed. But when we reached the station, our tickets were the first two on the waiting list. Since it was bought directly from the station, we could travel but without reservation. We had our baby and two bags. A family waiting for the same train were heading to Udupi¹⁴. We befriended them and shared our plight and they were kind enough to offer their upper berth to us. The train was crowded and Treesa, Rachel and me, along with our luggage settled in the upper berth for our long journey to Mumbai. The family got off at Udupi but in spite of the rush, no one came to occupy the upper berth. We experienced the providence of God in our need.

When Rachel was a year old, we went to Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh along with campus students for a mission exposure. The simple lives yet deep faith of people there challenged us. The sacrifices of the priests to build twelve mission centers was yet another motivation for us to deepen our commitments. Even though we worked outdoors without any warm clothes that winter, we didn’t endure any hardship.

During the past ten years, I have worked in six offices in various parts of Kerala. After my commitment as National Campus Coordinator, I got elected to the National Council for two terms. Currently I am serving as the National Mission Coordinator. Being a dentist by profession, Treesa started a dental clinic in 2014 and got involved in the Neyyattinkara zone, serving as Household Core Team member and Zonal Teens Animator. In all of our life, we have experienced the loving hands of our Lord. Be it small or big, the Lord provided for our needs. Whenever we were needed at the family, we were available there and when needed for the Lord, we were also available for him too – only by his grace.

In this ‘tin jubilee’ of our marriage, the support I get is amazing. When I am tired or have to make some calls, Treesa takes over. Constantly interceding for everything in the ministry, serving the food at my workstation when I am loaded with work, serving tea at regular intervals when I skip sleep, sitting with me and helping me in all possible way, her support is beyond words. She knows almost all of my contacts and responds to calls when I am busy. And in my absence, she takes care of our family.

There is an incident which I can never forget. In 2015, there was a national-level coordinators’ gathering at Hyderabad from December 5th to 6th. Her delivery due date was on December 10th. I was very confused as to what to do as the meeting was important. But she assured me that she would be fine till I came back and encouraged me to attend the meeting. Assured, I peacefully went to Hyderabad and returned on December 7th, the baby was born on December 8th. 

When I look back at the two-decade journey with the Lord, I can see the numerous blessings that HE has showered in my life. He granted the prayers of my soul back in 2003 by giving me many years back through different dimensions – education, job, ministry, marriage, children and so on. Regarding my second prayer, the Lord gave me the chance to serve him at all levels in the Campus Ministry. He also formed in me a heart that could always accommodate campus youth. As an answer to my third prayer to start something from scratch, he gave me many opportunities to build ministries in colleges, zones, and at national level, including my present responsibility as Mission Coordinator. In a nutshell, through all these years my purpose in life is ‘to be a channel of grace from the Holy Eucharist to many and to build young missionaries for Christ.’

AMEN.

^{1-5, 12-13} Thrissur, Trivandrum, Kottayam, Vamanapuram, Neyyattinkara, Idukki and Angamaly are places in India’s southern state, Kerala.

^6-8 Coimbatore and Chennai are cities in India’s southern state, Tamil Nadu.

^10-11 Pune and Mumbai are cities, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi are states in North India.

¹⁴ Uduppi is a city in India’s southern state, Karnataka.

Reji Francis works as an Assistant Engineer with Kerala State Electricity Board and is the National Mission Coordinator. He is married to Dr. Treesa Reji and they have two daughters.