Monday, May 14, 2012

UNO: Taking Care of ME

Liza Das will be our special speaker at our last MOPS event on May 24th at 7pm. Please join us as Liza shares what God has been doing in her life. Please note that we will not have MOPPETS child care available that night.


My name is Liza Das and I was born in Surat, Gujarat which is located on the north west
section of India. I come from a Christian family and my ancestors were Christians as far
back as we can remember. In fact, my paternal grandmother's parents were missionaries
in India. I grew up in a middle-class family in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, my father's
hometown before we moved to America. We were very happy in India and initially didn't
want to leave our home behind. God however, had other plans and changed the course
of our lives completely.
On December 5, 1987, a very cold and snowy afternoon, we set foot on American soil at JFK International Airport. My brother and I were very small, I was nine and Max was seven. We began to cry for our home and missed it already. Our parents probably felt the same way but put on a brave face for their children. Settling into this country was not easy at first, as any immigrant can attest to, however, through the grace of God we survived and our family found a new life in America. We first lived in Hoboken where my aunt, who had petitioned for us to come to the States, lived. In 1990 we moved to Lodi and began going to the Bible Baptist Church which was right behind our apartment complex. This is where I truly began to learn about Jesus as my own personal Savior. Though a Christian, I had never considered that I would need to repent of my sins and ask Jesus into my life. I attended Sunday School and the BBC youth
group for many years and can say that I grew up in this church. I gave my life to Christ in
November 1993 in my home along with my brother. We had just come from a bible study
which we attended every weekend in Brooklyn and that night I felt that I must give my
life to Christ so that I could be with my parents in heaven. I told my Mom and Dad that I
wanted to ask Jesus into my life and they led me into the prayer for salvation. My brother
also had the same desire and he too became born again that night. Later we four together
were baptized by Pastor Bill of the Bible Baptist Church.

After getting an Associate’s degree in Biblical Studies from PCB, now Philadelphia
Biblical University, I went into the IT industry and began a career in IT. At this point
my father had become ordained as a Pastor and entered the ministry full-time. In 2008
I went to India and became engaged. In February 2009, I was married. Life changed
incredibly at this point. In 2009 I experienced my life's greatest highs and greatest lows.
I lived a lifetime in that one year. In May of that year I found out I was three months
pregnant when I came back to the States. My husband was still in India. Over the course
of my pregnancy some truths came forward which revealed to me that my husband had
cheated me by marrying me to come to the United States. He had plans to leave me after
he acquired US citizenship. Pregnant and heartbroken with my mind reeling from these
revelations, I came to the difficult decision to divorce my husband.
Though I had loved him from the heart, he had never loved me or accepted me. I was simply a means to an end. By December of 2009, I had delivered a healthy baby boy into the world and
began life as single parent. The task was daunting and my courage sometimes failed me.
I felt that I had lost everything and all my dreams of being happy were shattered. I was
left with the huge responsibility of raising my son alone without a husband. My parents
and brother and his wife all stood by me and have supported me to this day. It is because
of their support that I have been able to overcome and begin to rebuild my life. Today
I am working as a software tester in New York City. I also attend college part-time and
am working to gain a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration. I hope to get my
Master's after I complete the Bachelor's program. I am hopeful again, the darkest times of
my life are behind me now. Though worry about the uncertainty of the future tries to steal
my joy and peace, I remember that God is still in control. God says, "Be still and know
that I am God." That is my daily goal, to surrender to His control and to be still in His
grace.

Operation: Raising Healthy Kids

We had the lovely Elizabeth Lin share with us about how we as moms can work on lifestyle and diet changes to ensure we are raising healthy kids! We definitely learnt a lot about the pesticides in our foods and diet choices that could help us reduce our risk for diabetes and heart disease.

For crafts, the moms made lovely button art on canvas and we sadly bid adieu to our lovely crafter Melba! We are really going to miss you. 

Jane had more items to sell as part of our MOPS fund raiser including some lovely mommy and me aprons.

I have to say that the highlight of our evening was the presence of a beautiful new little moppet!