Omeet Shergill is a poor Sikh lad from Mukhtsar District, in the Indian state of Punjab. He is a self taught song and scriptwriter who was working as a typist at a small document shop near the college where Parvinder Kaur attended. Parvinder (or Bindu) came into the shop to have a paper typed and they started talking. She was from a village near his but they had never met. There were a couple of barriers to their relationship. She was from a higher cast as her parents are landowners and Omeet’s father a laborer in the cotton fields and a children’s bus driver.
Love won out and 2 years later they married without her parents permission and moved into Omeet’s parent’s home. They decided to start their own document center (one computer and a rented hole in the wall) and were living happily when Omeet’s brother met with an accident — and in India, there is no concept of health insurance for most of the population living in villages. Since Omeet’s father had no money if fell upon the elder brother to borrow to pay the hospital bills.
Unfortunately, the brother eventually died and the newly married couple were left with a huge debt. Interest mounted on a daily basis and even though the couple tried their best to make the payments they were plunged deeper into debt.
Then out of blue came an offer that could have changed the course of their life. Omeet was offered a job to kill someone for money! One of Omeet’s clients at the document center would invite Omeet out for a drink. Drunk one day, this man said:
I will pay you $10,000 to kill this person.
You can never earn this much money in your life-time and this will pay your debt! Since you have a young wife at least she can be happy. And even if you are caught, the Indian justice system will release you after 7 years – you will be out of jail, debt free and have lots of money to live on. So it is a better deal than suffering in all the debt.
Omeet was a good and honest man and refused without hearing any details.
But Omeet and Bindu were very frightened and very much in debt.
Omeet had been doing some Hindi typing for a believer (JS) for his novel NOORA. The believer then asked Omeet to work on “Kartar Singh Jugadi” a Punjabi feature film he was writing. It is a comedy about 5 nuns that go to Punjab with minimal language skills. It is loosely based on a novel called Lillies of the Field.
When Omeet would email a section of the script for approval he would add a Sikh scripture at the beginning as a ritual. JS would reply with a Bible verse and explain it. This had been going on for sometime as a form of witnessing. According to Bindu, she never heard of Jesus in her life other than news footage from television. She had never been to a church or even noticed one in her life. Clearly, the Holy Spirit had started working in their hearts!
In the midst of all this calamity, JS called Omeet about the work he was doing. Omeet started crying and begged JS to get them out of the city. So, as JS was looking for a new translation employee and scriptwriter he sent him tickets for him and his wife and one week later they were in Chennai. They both turned out to be an extremely hardworking couple. Omeet became a good video editor in the first month. Bindu started cleaning, cooking and taking care of small jobs even though she was pregnant.
For the past six months they came to the daily Bible study at the office. One day JS noticed that Bindu had a small notebook with many names and asked her what they were. She said that she prays for all her relatives everyday! Since both she and Omeet had accepted Jesus as their personal savior she wants to be baptised with her husband. After ensuring that they were indeed saved and understood they were baptized on the roof a Bible believing church which they now attend.
Bindu is pregnant with their first child and is due within a month.
Omeet and Bindu are very poor and need your prayers and financial help. If you are interested in helping with the hospital costs or even with a fund to help purchase baby clothes, you have send a tax-deductable donation to Handclasp International, Box 3287, Lake Arrowhead, CA 92352. Mark it as for Bindu and Omeet!
Stories from Asia 