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Mission to the Monks

Sharing Christ with Buddhist monks in Bhutan.

Ministry in Bhutan over the past few years has been frustrating. Like much of the world, Bhutan implemented various restrictions in the wake of Covid–19. In the years since, the severity of these rules has waxed and waned, at times restricting people to their homes to looking like normality was resuming. Only in a few weeks’ time will all restrictions be lifted. Thankfully, internal travel resumed a few months ago and our partners in Bhutan, a group of pastors, evangelists and church planters, have been able to get back out sharing Christ with the unreached Buddhists of Bhutan.

monks
monks

Buddhism is central to the Bhutanese identity. Temples, pagodas and shrines litter the landscape. Families will send one of their sons to grow up in a monastery as an offering to Buddha. These boys are taken under the care of monks who cruelly subject them to many kinds of abuse. Buddhists believe in reincarnation, and so are constantly trying to earn good karma to improve their next life. The belief is, that if enough karma can be acquired over their many lives, an individual can escape the endless cycle of reincarnation and go to Nirvana. This is completely unlike the Christian hope of heaven – Nirvana is state of annihilation, essentially the hope of every Buddhist is to cease to exist.

In Bhutan, the monasteries belong to a sect of Buddhism that believes that it’s possible to earn enough karma in just one life, with no need to go around the cycle of reincarnation. As a result, the religion is adhered to here particularly intensely.

bhutanese woman
bhutanese woman

Praise God however, for how He is working in Bhutan. One of our partners, a pastor named Tandin, was converted several years ago. He was one of the boys sent to the monastery at a young age. Discontented with the teaching of the Buddha, he came to faith in Christ when he met a believer at a mobile phone repair shop! Today, Tandin and his wife lead a small fellowship and are opening a café this month to serve as a platform for outreach to the area. He hoped that the café would also serve as a space for the church to meet but the owner of the premises has forbidden it. 

Recently, Tandin has been meeting regularly with a monk and witnessing to him. Much like Tandin before his conversion, the monk isn’t content in his faith and is seeking cleansing. Tandin has asked for particular prayer for this man to come to faith.

Elsewhere, in one of Bhutan’s major cities, one of our partner pastors is seeing the Lord bring people to faith. Two women recently came to faith and were baptised and just last month, a monk who had been meeting with the pastor was wonderfully converted and baptised alongside the women.

Praise God for His goodness and love for Bhutanese people. Pray for these new believers to remain close to the Lord and particularly for the converted monk as he will face many pressures from the life he is leaving behind.

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