Manufacture

RAISED FORM PARALYSIS

The day was mid June cash register desk 1995. I woke up by 5 a.m. as my habit was, and pulled myself out of bed to get ready to go and inspect the project site – a quarry, being an engineer by profession. However, my legs would not obey me as they did the night before. My feet felt sluggish. Yet ma ambition and my workoholism was so great that I managed to drive myself and return. Climbing up the stairway was difficult. It was then that my wife observed that I was not walking normally. She was alarmed though I had tried to hide the situation from her.

Within the day, I admitted myself to a well known private hospital on the advice of my family physician and friend DR. Vere Edirisinghe. He said whatever that affected the nerve supply of the legs, had to do with a viral infection of the spinal cord. It could affect my intercostal (rib) muscles and affect my breathing.

The best known neurologist was consulted. He diagnosed my condition as Guillain Barre Syndrome where viral antibodies affect the spinal cord and causes paralysis. Within the first 3 days I became quadriparetic- i.e. paralysed in all four of my limbs. On the 3rd day, the consultant observed that my breathing was being affected as the spinal cord paralysis was ascending. He requested me to be admitted immediately to the Neurology unit of the NHSL, since respiratory paralysis was setting in. At the neurology unit, a respirator was kept standby and my pulse and respiratory rate was measure hourly. Needless say I was scared.

Helpless
I was brought up in a godly family and studied at St. Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia. My wife was a graduate in Science. My uncle was a minister of the Anglican Church. I thought I had led a godly life. My life was given for my professional and monetary advancement. Recently, I had got a big break when a telecom company had asked me to pioneer telecom tower construction in Sri Lanka. I was to go to India to study the field when this tragedy hit me. As days rolled on with me on my back, unable to walk or comb my hair, with breathing difficulty, at the age of 30, I could only cry and hope in God.

My great ambitions for myself looked ridiculous, as I helplessly lay on my back, 3rd week into the illness. The doctors tried everything. Gammaglobulin injections were flown in. Plasmaphoresis was attempted. This is a procedure where my plasma is removed and fresh plasma is infused, in the hope of removing viral antibodies that caused the spinal cord paralysis. Yet I did not improve. My wife had to feed me and how much a breathing difficulty instils fear into one’s heart will be understood only by those who have had such a life threatening breathing difficulty. I was greatly humbled and kept praying desperately, the best I knew how. It is then that I remembered to inform my cousin who is a lawyer and her husband , a doctor to come and pray for me. I knew that he had been once an atheist but had healing from bad migraine and was praying for others.

Night Vision & Healing
They came and sent another person to pray for me. They saw my pathetic condition. A bleak future of paralysis stared me in my face. They laid hands on my head and prayed for me. I began to sweat profusely. I felt loans no credit check no employment verification as if some electricity ran through my body.

That night I woke suddenly, hearing my mobile phone ringing. When I took it, no one was on the end. Only my family members new the number, and later when I checked up none of them had phoned me. The time was exactly midnight and no one in his right senses would have rung up a sick man at that time. As I was awake I felt instructed to read a certain portion of my Bible. This was a passage about what God spoke to an ancient king.

“(Daniel 5:22-27) And you, Belshazzar his son, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this! You have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven! You have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know; but the God in whose power is your very breath, and to whom belong all your ways, you have not honored. “So from his presence the hand was sent and this writing was inscribed. And this is the writing that was 25 “This is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPARSIN

This is what these words mean: Mene : God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Tekel : You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting”.In my pursuit of my own advancement, I had acted like God. That night I repented and prayed.

When I woke up in the morning, I felt renewed. I remembered the night episode. I swung my legs over the bed and my legs obeyed my intention after 3 weeks. I walked by myself to the toilet. My wife who saw me later and the doctor were surprised. I was home in a few days.

Miracle Child
This was only the beginning of God’s miracles for me. We had been married for 4 years without a child. We received prayer specifically for this, on our fourth wedding anniversary. To the day, 40 weeks later, we had our daughter. When I was ready to be a father, God gave us the child and later a son.

Leader in Telecom Tower Construction
When my partner and I embarked on fabricating members for the towers, we were the only Sri Lankan company doing this without any foreign collaboration. Our capital outlay was small. To give you one example, when we were constructing a tower in Chilaw, a rival company was erecting a tower for another cellular company. We both had to work on marshy land. They had 3 pumps at their site and we had only one. It was dangerous work, as the sides of the pit could collapse. I prayed through the whole effort, knowing our littleness. The other company had much better equipment and a larger work force. In my weakness, I cried to the Lord. We were finished the work on time. The other company had to close the project as three workers died when the pit collapsed. In our very high risk work of erecting towers on precarious sites, we have had only one accident. The Lord has been merciful.

In another impossible situation, we had to convey materials from one mountain top to another. We had to locate a cable of 1000 feet. It would have been too costly to import and we also faced a deadline. I prayed desperately. I was given instruction, while I 1 hour money was in prayer, to go to Gampola, to a certain scrap iron yard. When I went there, to my utter surprise, I was able to locate a cable of adequate length that had been removed from an old tea factory. When we fitted the conveyor system, this length was exactly right to the last foot.

One of the largest telecom developments undertaken in Sri Lanka by a foreign company was given to us as against foreign competitors..

More recently, we constructed our own furnace cum galvanizing bath without any foreign consultation. A similar project undertaken by another company cost over 20 million rupees. We did this under one million rupees, by ourselves. It is my pattern to pray through at every stage, trusting God to give wisdom and even point out any errors. On the day of the firing, we were very nervous not knowing how it would be, since we had no expertise in the matter. I thank god that the bath works perfectly. Recently, the Sri Lanka telecom approved our quality standard for galvanizing.

We have learnt to be merciful to our employees, as God had been merciful to us. We have about 200 on our pay role. We are in the process of supplying overseas markets. The Lord has graciously opened avenues for other manufacturing products. In one of our subsidiaries we were able to obtain 40% of the market in 5 months. We have refrained from offering bribes, because we cannot expect God’s blessing if we resort to such measures. We are not interested in crushing anyone else. In our constructions, in the war affected areas, the Lord has miraculously saved us from many perils. I have experienced the truth of Matt 6:33. “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well”.

In recent times, I have read in newspapers, derogatory articles about the belief in God for healing. For me who experienced such healing and was saved from a life of bed-riddenness, I can say, the test of the pudding is in the eating. The Lord Jesus is a true Friend and Counselor who never fails. He has also kept me from wild pursuits and grandiose expenditure that sometimes land entrepreneurs in trouble. I have learnt the scriptural truth that godliness with contentment is great gain. You can cast your cares on Him entirely. Riches do not have to be our God. Poverty need not be our curse.

New Field of Manufacture
We prayed to the Lord and received the guidance of the Lord to launch a new manufacturing line. Within one year we became market leaders without giving any bribes in the tender procedures. This I know is a miracle because we humbly asked God to help us. The demand was so great that we had to import new machinery. We had planned to open the LC to import the machinery from India for a cost of 7 million rupees. However as I prayed I did not have God’s leading to go ahead with the LC. Within a week, I received an email from a Chinese manufacturer offering the machinery. I travelled to China and was able to secure better machinery for 2 million rupees. What a great miracle this was.

Miracles continue to happen for us. Recently a British contractor offered us a contract to fabricate and erect telecom towers in Nigeria. We only need to humbly walk with our God.

Leave a Reply