Evangelist Vijay Menon has died. A service of thanksgiving for his life and ministry was held at Moulton Parish Church, Northampton, on 24 April.
In an article published by en in 2013, Menon wrote of how he was born into a "very devout" Hindu family - in the state of Kerala, India. "As far as I can remember, I always loved God, believed in God and was willing to serve him in whatever capacity," Menon recalled. "I always prayed to him and asked his guidance before any major decision in my life."
In 1961, Menon took the job of Senior Engineer Surveyor with Lloyds Register, at the company's head office in London.
Jesus died for Hindus
Years later, in March 1965, Menon was doing "a spot of shopping" on his lunch break and "happened" to walk along Bishopsgate at one o'clock. "To my surprise I saw hundreds of city gents in their pinstripe suits, bowler hats... and ‘stiff upper lips’ all rushing through a cubby hole at Great St. Helen’s," Menon described. "I followed them out of curiosity and landed up in a big packed hall with hundreds of men, some even sitting on the concrete steps."
Menon had ended up in a church: "You wouldn’t have seen me dead in a church; but I couldn’t get out and had to sit down and suffer for half an hour!
"Can you imagine over 500 people coming to a church in five minutes, managing directors, brokers, underwriters, bank managers, solicitors, accountants, clerks, engineers and others. Men and women listening to a 20-minute talk from the Bible and then lunch."
It was there that Menon heard for the first time that Jesus died for Hindus: "I sat down and heard for the first time that Jesus died for me, the Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, those who go to church and those who don’t, so that I may know God today and all I had to do was to come to him and receive it as a free gift. It is not what I can do for God that is important, but what God has done for me."
He continued: "I knew, if I had died on that night as a Hindu, I would have to face God as my judge, ending in reincarnation. A chink of light gave me the hope that I could avoid all that. I didn’t have to sit for a final exam with God (I hated exams and have nightmares about them sometimes). I can get a pass mark now and avoid my final! So I prayed then and there, ‘I will have a try’ — I didn’t know any Christian prayers."
From there, Menon asked a colleague - who, as it turned out, went to St. Helen's Church every Tuesday and had been praying for Menon for two years - how he could get "one of his religious books to know all about Jesus". Menon was given a Bible, with a bookmark in John's Gospel, and was advised to read it from there.
Writing over ten years ago, Menon shared: "It took me a long time to fully understand the gospel, but, as an engineer, I was curious, so what I understood I accepted, but what I didn’t I waited for an explanation and prayed... I am following Jesus today because real Christianity is true, and Jesus has never let me down once, even though I have had to go through some tough times, including suspected cancer of my spine."
Early retirement and evangelism
Menon took early retirement to concentrate on his ministry, having become an "enthusiastic evangelist".
Alongside public engagements, Menon had a passion for one-to-one training in Christian discipleship; he recorded his training sessions and they can be accessed here.
To end with Menon's words about the hope he had in Jesus: "If I was not 100% convinced that Jesus lived, died, rose again from the dead and that he is fully God and will one day come again to destroy all evil and establish his Kingdom, I would have given up Christianity a long time ago. Everyone is free to find out. If it is true we can accept it, if not, we must reject it. But, for me, to be threatened with death is to be threatened with heaven. As a Hindu I knew about God, but, as I now follow Jesus, I know God personally. You may fool everybody else, but you cannot fool yourself. I know God as my Saviour, Friend and Master."
