About me

I am Jacob Ninan, a retired engineer, and an accredited Christian counsellor, counselling trainer, writer, speaker and teacher in Bangalore, India. I counsel Christians and non-Christians without any charges. I have two master's degrees, one in engineering and the other in counselling and psychotherapy.

I was born with a congenital heart problem and I was not expected to survive beyond the age of 18. I went through many episodes of sickness as I grew up through which all God took care of me even though I did not know Him personally at that time. Since I could not take part much in sports or games, and I was made the target of ridicule from my classmates, I withdrew into the world of books and music. When I was entering into my twenties, heart surgery became available, and my heart was set right surgically.

When I was in my mother's womb she dedicated me to the Lord saying that if I turned out to be a boy, I should become a priest in the church. In my teenage years, when I knew about this, this was one thing I was determined never to become! Later on I gave up going to church saying that it was all a sham, and went on to become atheistic, then agnostic and then confused during my college days. I was caught up with the 'in' things, with movies, novels, rock music, etc. Church attendance was nominal, and when a college prayer group invited me to attend their meetings my response was that they were all hypocrites and I knew what Christianity was all about! But all my extra-curricular interests affected my studies, and then I found myself unable to change myself. But Jesus reached out to me. Once when I was walking on the road I saw a banner about a youth meeting in a church. I went in out of curiosity, and I was surprised to hear several testimonies from young people who had been in hopeless situations with drugs, alcohol, broken relationships, etc., and whose lives Jesus had turned around. I began to think that if Jesus could do this to all those people, perhaps He could help me too. I went back to my room and prayed a sincere prayer to God in Jesus' name. I asked God to take full control over my life and deliver me from my wrong ways, promising Him that if He was willing to help me I would be willing to do anything He wanted me to do, even to the extent of becoming a priest or a missionary. But I wasn't sure I would be acceptable to God because of my sins, and so I added that if God thought that He wouldn't help me then He should take away my life. I didn't want to go on living in the way I was. I went to sleep, sincerely not being sure whether I would be alive the next day.

The next day, even though I had forgotten about my prayer, Jesus began to change my life! He forgave my sins and gave me a desire to obey and serve Him. I suddenly found myself with a great longing to study the Bible and to pray. I started also to devour Christian books and listen to messages. I started going for the college prayer meetings. I became very active in the church with preaching, writing, editing, counselling and doing many mundane things.

From the time I was born again nearly 40 ago, while working as an engineer I have been an avid student of the Bible, listening to hundreds of Bible teaching messages, reading innumerable Christian books, fighting my personal battles, and carrying out my study seeking to reach my own conclusions about various doctrines. I have also learned many valuable lessons from my own mistakes and watching those of others. During this time I have also been involved in speaking in churches and conferences, writing and counselling people personally. Now that I have retired from engineering I am able to devote more time to this ministry. My greatest satisfaction is in helping people individually to deal with their problems.

Towards the end of my engineering career I went through formal training in Christian and secular counselling. Now I am an accredited Christian counsellor.

You can read all my articles and other writings on this web site.

I like this song so much that I could call it my theme song. It's called "If I can help somebody." The words are like this:

If I can help somebody as I pass along.
If I can cheer somebody with a word or a song.
If I can show somebody they're traveling wrong, then my living shall not be in vain.
If I can do my duty as a Christian ought.
If I can bring back beauty to a world up wrought.
If I can spread love's message that the Master taught, then my living shall not be in vain.

You can listen to Glen Payne singing this on YouTube

I am in my early sixties, and my wife and I have five grown up children and five grandchildren.

Jacob Ninan
Comfort & Counsel
69, Hutchins Main Road
Bangalore 560084
India
Email. jninan@c-n-c.org

See my location on the map. Click on the image below.

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