FIRE SIDE CHAT WITH DRS. ANUP & ANNILYN | KAIROS GLOBAL | PILOT ISSUE | 2017

Author : Athulya Johnson

Dr. Anup Kudakkasseril, a sincere and zealous

Jesus Youth leader, graduated from Kottayam

Medical College, Kerala. After encountering

Christ in a very difficult time of his medical college

career, Dr. Anup decided to commit his life to the Lord.

Dr. Annilyn Sebastian, an ardent leader and minister

of Christ, graduated from Thiruvananthapuram

Medical College, Kerala.Dr. Annilyn was deeply

moved by God's helping hand during her entrance

into an especially selective residency program. As

young people who loved Christ and grew through the

JesusYouth movement in medical school, Dr. Anup and

Dr. Annilyn got married on February 6th,2003. Later

that year they moved to the United States, where they

both completed their medical residency at Hershey

Medical Center, Pennsylvania. A traditional, model

Catholic family rooted in the JesusYouth lifestyle,

Anup, Annilyn, and their seven children – Anita, Antony,

Albert, Aaron, Abel, Abraham and Ann – now live in

Houston, Texas. Anup practices as a pediatrician in

Houston, and is the JesusYouth America National

Family Coordinator. In addition to managing their

family, Annilyn coordinates homeschoolers, mentors

families, and facilitates marriage preparation courses.

Dr. Anup and Dr. Annilyn lead a large, beautiful family

together, and are actively engaged in the JesusYouth

Houston ministries. Here is some insight into the story

behind this inspiring family

How have you integrated the Jesus Youth

family lifestyle, with its pillars, into your

family?

Three aspects of Jesus Youth spirituality are prayer,

fellowship, and mission. Bringing these aspects to the

dynamics of the family ministry is one of the main

goals of the family ministry. Prayer and a personal

relationship with God is the foundation for everything.

Knowing the will of God, and being able to strive for

it, is only possible through prayer. The fellowship of

the movement brings together families who strive

for the same goal, which is a great inspiration and

encouragement for all. Formation of young people

is one of the foremost missions of the families in

the movement. Reaching out to other families, and

encouraging them to lead an active Catholic life, is

another area that we focus on. We strive our best to

achieve these goals with a lot of encouragement

and support from other Jesus Youth families

and youth. We try to keep our house open for all

families and youth.

How do you impart the Catholic values,

with its traditions, to your children and

family?

We believe children learn best from examples.

Besides giving them an introduction to the basics

of our faith, we strive to become role models for

our children. This challenges and inspires us to

practice what we preach, but at the same time,

acknowledge our limitations. We keep our focus

on God, knowing that He alone can work through

our weaknesses to impart the formation that our

children need. We try to instill an atmosphere

of faith, discipline, and virtues. We encourage kids to

see God’s helping hands in our daily activities and life.

We also encourage our children to develop a personal

relationship with God, through personal prayer.

Through the fellowship of the Jesus

Youth movement, and spirituality, how

have you been impacted, and your family

blessed? What struggles do you encounter

in managing both a large family and a

ministry?

We owe a lot to the Jesus Youth movement for

everything that we have today. We are able to see

the beauty of many other families who are striving

to attain the same goal that we are working towards.

The Lord, working through the movement, continues

to give us clarity about the various teachings of the

Church on marriage and family life. Keeping an open house for

family and youth, we have been blessed tremendously through

the fellowship and relationships we have made over the years.

Our kids are also blessed with the benefits of these fellowships,

as they now have lots of uncles, aunties, and friends they

look upto. We have definitely experienced growth in our

spirituality as the Jesus Youth spirituality keeps challenging us

to live upto its standards. Having a large family brings along its

own challenges and struggles. We have, by God’s grace, been

able to keep a reasonable level of organization within the family,

which has helped us a lot in running a large family. Even with

the struggles of a large family, what we have seen repeatedly

is that when we are ready to make a sacrifice, and are open to

receive grace, He is very ready to provide the grace we need.

Having said that, we don’t feel that we are responding enough

to God’s call in our lives. Giving first priority to the Kingdom

of God is our hope and prayer, which is not always easy. Our

limitations come in the way. Our hope and prayer is that the

Lord will give us the courage and strength to do His will each day

of our lives.

Despite Dr. Annilyn being a trained physician,

your family has chosen to have her stay at

home – managing the family and homeschooling

children, among other things. Why is that?

What is the motivation behind leading such

a traditional family unit?

Annilyn completed her MD in Pathology and

fellowship in Blood Banking and Transfusion Medicine.

After residency and fellowship, she applied for a job.

She was offered a job in San Antonio, which was later

retracted due to certain managerial issues of the

institution, which was beyond our control. By that

time we had our fourth child. We felt that the Lord

was telling us that we should be focusing more on the

formation of our children. “Parents are the primary

educators of their children.” CCC 2221-2231. This

means that we should be actively engaged in the lives

and formation of our children, regardless of whether

they are educated at home or school. We also knew

of some families within the movement, who taught

their children at home. This was an inspiration for

us to start homeschooling our children and Annilyn

decided to stay at home for this purpose. The most

compelling reason was to be able to provide a strong

Catholic foundation, and impart family values and

morality, which to us seemed very challenging with a

‘modern’ lifestyle. As parents, we believe that we are

in the best position to help our children reach their

full potential, which God has bestowed on each one

of them. We as parents should not forgo our duties

to impart education in faith and virtues. We can only

do so by spending time with the children. For us,

homeschooling has been providing a means to do so.

Most families today are quite nuclear

and small. What is the inspiration behind

choosing to raise a large family, now with

seven children?

We have always tried to be open to the will of God

in our lives. Children are a blessing from the Lord

Understanding the Church’s teaching helped us realize

that we should be open to life, and to accept the

children that God is giving us. Learning the Church’s

teaching on Natural Family Planning helped us to

realize that God has a way of planning for a family.

We felt that we need to come out of our selfishness

and comfort zone, and embrace God’s plan in our

lives.Though we were both open to the idea of a large

family, we had never imagined or dreamed that we

would end up with seven kids! As each child was

born, we were really able to treasure and cherish the

uniqueness of that child, and the joy each one gave us.

This led us to where we are now, and we thank God for

blessing us abundantly! Each of our seven children is a

special blessing. Our life wouldn’t have been complete

without all of them.

How has faith and family life been working

together in your life?

Our Catholic faith is of foremost importance in our

family life. Not only do we try to live according to the

Church’s teachings, but we also try to tap into the

graces flowing through the Church. We try to attend

regular communion and have regular confessions. We

also try to celebrate the lives of the many saints in our

day to day life. We pray with the children throughout

the day, and have family prayer at night. We try to lead

a life dependant on God. Through all these, we try to

integrate faith into our family life. Children need to see

that faith life and family life go hand in hand, and are

not two separate entities.

You are the JesusYouth America National

Family Coordinator. How has the ministry

helped further furnish your family life?

What do you see yourself, both you and

Annilyn, in near future with ministry?

The Church’s teaching on family is based on the selfgiving

life of the husband and wife, and the formation

of the children. The movement has helped us to live

this in our daily lives as much as possible. The Lord has

blessed us in many ways, and we feel that we have not

responded to His call enough. Our innate weaknesses

prevent us in executing His will in our lives. Our hope

and prayer is that we may gain the strength to do

His will in our day to day lives. We also pray for the

courage to take that blind leap of faith when we realize

His will.

Athulya Johnson is a 2nd year biology undergraduate student from

Houston, Texas at University of Houston. She is part of Jesus Youth in

Houston and have been very blessed through the movement.