Sheldon Bangera: The Night That Changed His Life

How the Mumbai worshipper encountered the power of God

العربية

Recently Radio Hayah began playing "Jai Jai Naam Yeshu Naam" by Sheldon Bangera making it the first track sung in Hindi selected for the Radio Hayah playlist. Sheldon's skilled blend of East and West has caught the ears and touched the hearts of hundreds of thousands of believers in his Indian homeland and now the Mumbai-based worship leader, singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer, is impacting the international Church.

Sheldon was born and raised in the city of Mumbai. His family were nominally Christian and his parents sent Sheldon to Sunday school. However by his teenage years he had decided that religion was boring. For Sheldon and his friends, Western music, particularly hard rock, became a far more fulfilling pursuit. With some friends he formed a heavy metal band. Explained Sheldon, "The band were mostly Hindus, but not really connected to religion, not practicing their faith. When you're playing in a band, I guess music is the only religion at that point. It was a heavy metal band. We in India subscribe to a lot of things from the West, so we were into metal. I was a church boy, so I tried to keep away from the Satanic or anti-Christian music; but music is such that what you listen to you begin to act out. That's the challenge. You feed your system good things it will give you good output; but if you begin to feed hatred and violence and sex, things like that, you begin to go down that road."

Sheldon continued, "I had friends on drugs and I had lost a couple to suicide and overdoses. I was in a dark, hopeless place; I wanted to be alone. Day and night I just played my guitar and didn't go out. I had flunked a year in college, and I was sitting at home - I had a year break to clear my papers. Then one day I was invited to a prayer gathering. I was pretty allergic to prayer gatherings, coming from a rock band and that lifestyle, but they invited me to come and be part of the worship team. I took a taxi, cigarette in hand, sitting with my guitar and amplifier, heading out for a prayer meeting. But I didn't know what I was getting into. At that prayer gathering I met with the reality of Christ as something that I couldn't run away from.

"On the stage, I felt like I was the unholiest among all the guys there: I was the only guy doing drugs and smoking and drinking. The Holy Spirit just moved in that prayer meeting and a lot of people were touched; the presence and the power of God was taking over that place. For me it was a very awkward but yet a very powerful moment. All my life I'd heard about Jesus. That day on 7th August 2004, my eyes were witnessing the reality."

After his dramatic encounter with the Holy Spirit Sheldon returned home from the meeting that night in turmoil. "The big question for me was 'how am I going to face the same friends, the same habits? I really want my life to change, but is it really going to change?' There was a voice inside my head that said, 'It has changed, and it will never be the same.' I was clearly hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit. I knew something had happened that night and my life was never going to remain the same. I remember coming back home that night; I spoke to my dad and said, 'I don't want to speak to any of my friends right now. I need some time and space.' I went into my room and for the first time in many years I opened my Bible. The words from the Bible began to jump out, and I had a fresh experience of the living aspect of God's word. From then on I was so hungry I just wanted to know more, I wanted to discover “what is this that I'm going through?” I started plugging into every possible prayer meeting, fasting meeting, healing deliverance meeting - anywhere God's word was preached. Soon I was part of a local church where I began to steadily grow, getting mentored and discipled."

After his conversion Sheldon began working hard at college studying engineering. His passion for Christ continued to grow and for a season all music making stopped. He remembered, "I gave my guitars away, I deleted all my music, and I wanted to start afresh. All I did was attend prayer meetings, gatherings. When they needed me to play, I would just help out with some back-up guitar or whatever. But as time passed - a year, a year and a half - I sensed the Holy Spirit tell me, 'I want you to pick up the guitar again.' As I did that, I started playing and worshipping God. I never had any intention of going big with it, but as I started, God would give me new songs. I have to tell you that Hindi is not a strong language for me, but the Lord started giving me songs in Hindi. It was astonishing and amazing to me. I started writing songs during that private time and devotional worship time, which started to spread; young people started getting connected to these songs, singing them in their youth meetings."