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2008: Former Hindu businessman, Ash Kotecha, told a Norwich audience how his search for meaning in life ended when he came to faith in Jesus, despite fierce opposition from his family.

Ash, who is a UK university graduate, said: "Perhaps it was my family background, but even as a student I was also seriously searching for truth. I wanted to know if God was real." He often asked himself the question: "Is anyone up there?"

Eventually, he came to faith in Jesus Christ, but soon faced tough opposition from his family in the UK.

"My Hindu family were deeply upset with me 'for bringing unthinkable shame on the family name'. Jesus, they said, was the white man's God."

But their anger turned to amazement when several sick family members were healed when he prayed for them "in the name of Jesus".

This was a life-changing experience for Ash Kotecha, too, because he had only been a believer for a few months. 

Ash had visited his perplexed Hindu parents, who had moved here from Malawi, in south-east Africa. He found his father sick in bed with a slipped disk and much pain.

"My mother, a devout Hindu, shouted in frustration: 'Why don't you ask your Jesus to help your father?'

"What was I to do? I laid a hand on my father's head and prayed for a few seconds," said Ash. "Then I heard an inner voice telling me he was healed.

"Dad," I said, "I think you are healed." To his surprise, Ash's father jumped out of bed and then rushed his son to a sick nephew's home "to do his 'magic' again".

This time the nephew was healed too, said Ash, who was speaking at a dinner organised by the Norwich Chapter of the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship.