She looked down at her arms and wondered why she was getting “It’s impossible for me to sleep there,” she said. “I don’t know why.” Twinkle and Milind didn’t know what to do with the room. But they knew where to start.
To Sabbath School teachers: This story is for Sabbath, February 3.
By Andrew McChesney
Can an interior designer be a witness for heaven?
A married couple felt so strongly that they were being called to share Jesus through interior design that they left cushy corporate careers to start a business of their own in India.
The couple, Twinkle and Milind, eagerly got to work when they signed their first contract in one of India’s biggest cities, Bengaluru. Wealthy parents asked for the redesign of the bedroom of their 13-year-old son, Arnav.
As Twinkle and Milind listened to the mother’s wishes for the bedroom, it seemed that she wanted more than a redesign. She was looking for a miracle. Arnav was a hyperactive boy, and she hoped that a new bedroom would calm him down. Moreover, she hadn’t been able to sleep in the bedroom for six years, and she wanted to sleep there with her son sometimes.
“It’s impossible for me to sleep there,” she said. “I don’t know why.”
Twinkle and Milind didn’t know what to do with the room. But they knew where to start. They knelt down and prayed to God.
“Dear God, please give us ideas about what colors to use to paint the bedroom and how we can decorate it for Your glory,” Twinkle prayed.
Then the couple hauled everything out of the bedroom. They carried out the boy’s bed and nightstand. They removed the bookshelves. On the shelves, they found images, and they also removed them.
Twinkle and Milind wondered what to do with the images. Arnav and his mother worshipped the images, but the father was an atheist who didn’t believe in any god.
When the father saw the images being carried from the room, he said, “Why don’t you just wrap those images in old newspaper and throw them away?”
Twinkle and Milind thought that was a good idea. They wrapped the images in old newspaper and threw them away.
Then they repainted the room. When they finished, they placed framed pictures of Bible verses and other inspiration quotations on the walls and nightstand. One framed picture read, “You are fearfully and wonderfully made.” The picture did not say that the quotation came from Psalm 139:14 in the Bible. Another framed picture read, “You are God’s masterpiece,” a paraphrase of Ephesians 2:10. A third picture said simply, “You are loved.”
Arnav and his parents were delighted with the new bedroom. Sometime later, the mother sent a grateful text message to Twinkle.
“We are seeing positive changes in Arnav’s behavior, and I’m able to go into his bedroom,” she wrote. “I feel peace in his room.”
She added that she was able to sleep in the room for the first time in six years.
Twinkle and her husband were thrilled with the news.
“The Bible promises, ‘My word … shall not return to Me void,’” Twinkle said in an interview, citing Isaiah 55:11. “So every day when Arnav read a verse, it had a positive change on his character.”
Since that first bedroom, the couple have redesigned many rooms. They always pray before starting a new project, and they never leave an image in a room, even as part of the home decor. Instead, every room is filled with Bible verses. If a client asks about God, they put him or her in touch with a friend who gives Bible studies.
Twinkle said it’s good to be in business with God. “Right now, our business is a mission,” she said. “We enter into homes as home transformers. We transform homes, not just as a space, but also the people who live there. We just put up picture frames, and God does the rest.”
Part of this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help construct a new Central English Church for Twinkle and Milind’s congregation in Bengaluru, India. Thank you for your generous offering on March 30.
