MY JOURNEY FROM BUDDHA TO CHRIST

By Pr Lhatru Wangchuk, Bhutan Lutheran Church

Family background

I was born in 1966 and brought up in an ordinary Buddhist family, the youngest son of the late Jigme and Kezang Chedon from Bartsam Jamung village in Trashigang district, Eastern Bhutan. When I was six years old, I lost my mother and when seven years old, I lost my father. I had four older brothers who have since passed; and two older sisters.

Education

In our village in the 1960s, we had no hospital or elementary school so medicine and education were alien to us. When we got sick, we would lie down and wait for natural healing to occur. I was seriously ill many times, and I’m sure that the Lord healed me because there was no way that I could have survived those episodes without medicine. Many of my peers died without knowing Christ because there was no medical care.

Regarding education: I had a great desire to be educated but that was impossible because I was a semi-orphan and my older siblings were very poor so could not afford to send me to school.

In the winter vacation of the 60s, my friends who attended Lower Kinder Garden returned home with the English and Dzongkha Alphabets. Looking at them, I wanted very much to study but had no pen and paper. So, I decided to make a board to write on. While chopping wood to make the board, I almost chopped off my left index finger. To this day, it is permanently curved from the injury. Despite this difficult situation, I managed to make the board and used a piece of coal as a pen. By doing this, I started to learn and study the English Alphabet.

Sorrowful Teenage Life

Being an orphan and very poor, I was often very hungry and didn’t sleep well at night because of my empty stomach. The bitter cold during our severe winters made this worse. I had no warm blanket or warm clothes. My only defensive protection against the harsh winter was a small torn, old blanket left by my late parents; my clothes were a worn, mended shirt and one half-pant with two holes at the buttocks which hardly hid my private parts. At night in the freezing bitter cold, I curled myself inside the worn-out old blanket and waited for the winter sun to rise. As a result, I used to get enormous back pain from sleeping in this curled-up position. In Tsanglha there is a saying: “Winter sun is clothes for the orphan child”.

In such pathetic conditions, I cried out time and again. Often I dreamt of my loving mother, Kezang Chedon, comforting me in a dream. I remember her dying words as she whispered to me in a low voice, “You are the youngest and I’ll be with you no more”. She was so worried about me, that I would suffer a lot because I was so young. I was just six years old. Often when I remembered my mother’s last words to me, I cried and even now, I am in tears while writing this story because my past teenage life was not happy.

Three Appearances of Christ to me

In 1976, at the age of ten, I managed to enrol at Bidung Primary School and completed year 6 by 1984. I looked forward to pursuing further studies but there were issues as I had no financial support. Then in 1988, I was selected for a three month course for the post of Dispatch Inspector with the Department of Geology and Mines in Bhutan. I passed in the First Division and was appointed as Dispatch Inspector for the export of coal and gypsum to India, Nepal and Bangladesh. I worked there for one year and had a very comfortable life.

However, on February 15, 1990, my life changed completely when Jesus Christ appeared to me in a dream. I had suffered from severe and chronic headaches and in the dream, this man touched my forehead. When I woke up, the headache was gone – I was completely healed. This was the first time that I saw Christ in a dream. However, I didn’t know who Christ was and I was totally restless because I knew it was no ordinary dream. I went to India to search for a church (the are no churches in Bhutan) as I needed someone to explain this dream to me. In Assam, God found Pastor Joseph Reddy for me. Pastor Joseph explained that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the world. I didn’t understand a lot because Pastor Joseph didn’t speak much English and I couldn’t really understand Hindi. However, on  February 18, I was baptised without further delay. The day that I confessed Christ as my Lord and Saviour, post-Baptism, all the sorrows and sadness disappeared from my life. I was a totally free man.

I was the first man in my village to change my faith from Buddhist to Christian and the first to preach the Gospel of Christ. Initially, my older brother was totally against me and wanted to kill me. Later in 2003, he accepted Christ and went to the Lord when he passed. His youngest daughter, her husband and daughters are also now believers.

In 1999, I had another dream where the Gospel of John was written on the Black Mountain, Bhutan. (the Black Mountains are a spur of the Assam Himalayas) The mountain is located in the heart of Bhutan. The inscription of the Gospel which was written on the Black Mountain had faded away because of heavy rain and hot sunshine. I heard a voice that instructed me to rewrite the Gospel of John. In my dream, I was rewriting the Gospel of John from 8pm to 5am and completed it all, Chapters 1-21. When I woke up, I realized that it was a dream.

In my third dream (2001), I heard the people of Bhutan shouting; beating drums, cymbals and bells; blowing trumpets and burning incense. I thought it was to Guru Rinpoche, the 2nd Buddha in Tibetan Buddhism. But in my dream, as I peeped through the window, it was Jesus Christ who appeared in the sky in the midst of sun rays. Below His waist, He was covered with white cloud and He said to me “Victory to you”.

 My Unquenchable Thirst for Education

My handwriting and English vocabulary were very weak so to improve this situation, I used to write 10 pages and read 20-25 pages every day. As a result, I completed eighty-four exercise books of 300 hundred pages each and have read 250 books. I have a love of books and over many years, have collected a library of books on Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism. In order to present the unique Christ to this pluralistic society, I needed to study Buddhism and Hinduism in depth. It was a sacrifice to collect the books. I often went without meals, tea and coffee so that I could buy books. With this background, by God’s grace and for His Glory, I have completed the following degrees: C.Th., B.Th., BPP., BA., M.Div., M.Th. and D. Min (Doctor of Ministry - Honorary) University of Great Commission under Discipleship Institute for Apostolic Ministries. Nagaland, India.

Unreached Brokpa Tribe in Eastern Bhutan

In 1995, I felt a burden to reach out to the small Brokpa Tribe in East Bhutan. They were responsive to the Gospel but I was arrested there and moved to the Trashigang Central Jail. When the Police Superintendent questioned me about Christianity, I was unable to explain the difference between the God of Christianity and Buddha because in Bhutanese there is no word for “God”. Even the Tsanglha New Testament has translated God as “Buddha” (Konchhok). I believe this incorrect translation has created a stagnation of evangelical growth because God of the Bible and Buddha have become the same in two different religions.

Conclusion

As a pastor, teacher and evangelist, I lead underground fellowships in nine different locations and am an apologist for Christ in this multi-pluralistic society. I am also re-translating the Tsanglha Bible because it is translating God of the Bible as Buddha (Konchhok) and this is compromising the faith of the Tsanglha tribes and their contacts, wherever they settle.

Jesus Christ is the Only Way, the Only Truth and the Only Life. Without faith in Christ, no one can enter Heaven. (John 14:6) This is the Gospel that we need to preach and what our 21st century chaotic world is waiting for ... please pray.