Taking Christ into Remote Buddhist Monasteries

Shalom, dear friends. I am writing to you from New Delhi, India. Over the past month, the Boyd family and I traveled up into the region of Ladakh in India’s remote northwestern state of Jammu-Kashmir. In this area, you will find Tibetan Buddhism butting right up against several factions of Islam. The two religious groups despise one another, but even more than that, they despise Christianity. For a month, I was up there in the high desert in the rain shadow of the Himalaya; and there, I found abundant opportunity to share Christ with the different groups of people that flock to the region during the summer tourist months.

Jesse's family and I went to numerous Buddhist monasteries to put out the Word of God and to talk to the monks. This is a difficult thing to do. I don't know what you have been told about Buddhism, but the religion is quite dark and tyrannical, as are all manmade religions. There is a group connecting the monasteries all over Ladakh called the Ladakhi Buddhist Association (LBA). Each town has a monastery towering above atop a rocky hill or on the precipice of the mountains. From the monastery’s windows, the watchful eyes of the lama scour the streets of the common people, looking for anyone who might be out of line. I was often reminded of the "Eye of Sauron" from the J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Tibetan Buddhism is a system built on striking fear into the common people while the monks live richly off of the people’s hard work. Walking through a monastery will give you a clear view of the many devils and spirits that lamas and monks conjure up to control the people. And, should anyone get out of line, everyone knows that the punishment will be a swift beating from a group of young and easily incited monks. So, it is no surprise that most Buddhist people live in fear. What is really sad and deplorable, though, is the fact that the Moravian Church, which came into the area and did good mission work decades ago, has, in these modern times, blasphemously signed an agreement with the LBA to refrain from evangelism to Buddhists. Consequently, the Moravian Church is now an enemy of the gospel, and its leaders have been known to report Christians or missionary activity to the authorities. Now, the very few local Christians live in constant fear as well. Ladakh is unreached and needs a great work of prayer!

Sharing the Gospel with Monastery Students

One day, as we were returning from a jaunt up near the Tibetan border, we climbed up to a monastery high on the cliffs. Sadly, once the monks discovered that we weren't going to give them money, they had no interest in speaking with us. So, we walked out of the monastery and down a little path, crossing by a school for children appointed to grow up in the monastery. The students were outside sitting around; they were about ten years old and younger. These rushed to the doorway as we stopped. One of the saddest sights I have ever seen then transpired: As soon as Jesse mentioned Jesus, all of the boys looked up at the monastery and started hiding their faces. We were told that they would probably be beaten for talking to us and that they DEFINITELY would be beaten if the monks found anything about Jesus with them. Notwithstanding, we sang to them a few songs about the Lord Christ, trusting the words and the very name of Jesus to work with power far beyond our abilities.

Prior to this episode, Jesse and I had the privilege of going to the end of the road up near the Tibetan border where the last Ladakhi village nestled itself against the massive and amazingly blue Pangong Lake. The night we arrived, a wedding was being held and not a soul in that town was at their home. All had gone to the wedding; so we had a perfect opportunity to leave Scripture on every house that we could find. During this time, we were joined by a young Ladakhi believer in much need of discipleship. It was very encouraging to see his zeal to follow the Lord.

Not long thereafter, we walked a wooden cross near the Pakistan border along the Shyok River in the Nubra valley for about thirty kilometers. Eight years ago Jesse did this in the adjacent valley along the Nubra River. Our segment finished where the two rivers met at the fork in the road. The cross we carried had “Are you ready?” painted on one side in the local language, and as we walked, we were able to hand out portions of Scriptures to the people we encountered. Because of the small diversity in those few towns along our walk we had to carry Hindi, Nepali, Urdu, and Ladakhi gospel material. And, I even ended up meeting one Israeli as well. Jesse put together I little video anthology about this cross-walking journey. Take a moment to view it below:

FPGM returns to the Nubra-Shyok Valley to complete a cross-walking route that began back in 2006.

I am immediately reminded of Christ's sobering declaration in Luke 14: 26-27: "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple." For a Ladakhi Christian, this often follows by default. Oh, we can learn so much from the persecuted church.

Anyway, the same young believer who joined us on the first trip went with us to carry the cross; and he ended up explaining to us how he had been saved but not Scripturally baptized. After going to the Scripture about this matter with him, he committed to being baptized by immersion in obedience to God's command, "not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God" (I Peter 3:21). Later, we found a suitable place outside of the city, the same secret spot where some Buddhist monks had been baptized into the faith several years earlier. With Jesse's family, another local brother, and myself bearing witness, Jesse took the young man down into the Indus River; and he took the obedient step of outwardly testifying with water what had been done inwardly by the Holy Ghost.

During this time, I must have met about thirty Israelis. Not a single one of them refused a Hebrew gospel tract. In fact, I would ask that you pray for Ben and Andre. I met them at separate times up in Ladakh, but they both were so much more open than anyone else. Ben took a book about Messianic prophecies and fulfillments and thanked me for sharing with him. Andre was shocked to meet people that loved the God of Israel. I believe it truly touched his heart. This area is somewhere I would like to go in and out of with the tourist seasons each year. Countless Israelis pass through here; and my time up there proved to me that it is an excellent place for such a ministry, especially as I would be extremely limited in Kathmandu during the summer monsoon rains.

Sharing with Israelis on the streets of Leh Town.

There were so many other things that happened during our time up in Ladakh, but time does not permit me to share everything. There is one more experience I must tell you about, though. There is a group of young men up in Ladakh that basically grew up orphaned by their families, and without going into a million details, they have ended up sitting around wasting their lives like a group of adolescent-minded twenty-five year olds. They have been “tour guides” for many western mission teams, so they call themselves Christians, but most of them have never been born again. God gave me an incredible opportunity as they all gathered together one night in a small apartment to hear my testimony. However, knowing their situation and after three or four days of the Lord burdening my heart, I poured into them not only my testimony but also several commands from Scripture and exhortations about living for the Lord. I was in tears most of the time which led to a few of them mocking me after I had left that night; but I was told that others took it quite seriously and really needed to process all of the heavy things they had never heard from anyone before. About midway through sharing with them, I asked them point blank who in the room could truly testify before men that they were saved and knew the Lord Jesus Christ. Only four of the nine confessed to believing on Christ. The others remained silent. My point was that the men truly “know” the Lord more intimately than a man could ever know his spouse. Please pray hard for these young men. The darkness that surrounds them would stagger the strongest of Christian men in America.

Preaching the Gospel to Delhi Trash Collectors

Jesse and I finally left the area and made it back to New Delhi where we met up with Pastor James from Bangladesh. Please pray for Jesse's family; the remained behind in Ladakh and will be rendezvousing with us in Kathmandu in a couple of weeks. It was so great to Brother James again. He joined us in the U. S. last year to preach at college campuses around the country. We have spent the last few days continuing in these evangelistic efforts, but not among the rich and educated as in America. Here in Delhi, we went to some Muslim neighborhoods and into a slum area to witness to the poor. One place was literally a trash dump where a handful of families lives in the refuse to sort out the plastic and glass and so on. After praying with the people and sharing the gospel for an hour or so, the owner of the property came up and started telling everyone that they could never leave Islam. The owner claimed that he drinks alcohol daily and only goes to the mosque twice a year but that no Muslim can ever leave Islam. He then proceeded to claim that Pastor James and another brother that was with us were being paid by Americans to be Christians. I honestly believe that the Lord was shining His glorious light on the situation. I am sure that those poor families saw the genuine goodness and honesty of Christianity and the filthy rottenness of Islam. I was honored to stand with my Bangladeshi Christian brothers that day. In the face of false accusations and threatenings, they stood firm and rebuked that man. Later that night, we received a call from one of the poor trash collectors apologizing for the way that property owner treated us. This situation too could use much prayer.

Tomorrow morning, we are going overland into Far Western Nepal to meet up with Brother Bishnu and a team of Nepali believers for a week or so of labor up in remote corners of the Baitadi and Bhajang Districts. Then, Lord willing, we will rendezvous with Jesse's family in Kathmandu and prepare to host a couple of teams coming from North Carolina to labor with us in Bangladesh and Nepal. There is still much ahead, and until Jesus comes for His Church or calls me home, I hope to stay busy for the Gospel.

Please pray for the local church teams who are coming over to help in the ministry and for other volunteers who are planning to come help me in December. This current journey is well underway; and expenses continue to pile up. Please pray that God reminds the saints of our needs and that the Lord Himself would provide everything for His laborers.

May God bless the soul whose heart delights in these testimonies. It is a simple recollection of what the Lord is currently doing in our midst. He will always prove Himself to be faithful and faithfully loving His enemies around the world. Thank God for the peculiar people like you and me whom He has called out of every tribe tongue and nation (1 Peter 2:9)!

fearful buddhism