Tan was born in 1986 and converted by a missionary in our village, and later attended Bible school. Afterward, Tan moved back to his village to preach the gospel and gather the converts into a local church.

Testimony of Conversion

My name is Mr. Tan Thang. I was born in a pagan family, and later on, my parents became Buddhists, and we became a Buddhist family. But I did not think seriously about a religious matter. After I finished my high school in April 2003, a Christian evangelist came to our village and conducted an evangelistic crusade. One evening, I was seeking my uncle’s son, and I happened to go to that meeting, and I listened to the preacher’s preaching. He mentioned that Jesus Christ died for you and you do not have to pay for your sin’s penalty. Jesus Christ has paid already, and what you have to do is believe Him and that gospel. A Buddhist believes in sin, and that sermon was very interesting to me. I was thinking seriously. When it came to May, I was sick, and almost died. And I prayed like this: Christian God, Jesus, if what the evangelist preached in April was true, please heal me tonight, and I will believe you. The next morning I was healed completely. Then I found that evangelist, and he explained to me again salvation, and I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and Lord. And I joined Southeast Asia Bible College in 2006, and I finished B.Th  in 2009. I joined again Faith Baptist Bible College and Seminary in 2011, and I completed M.Div in 2012. During my Master studies, I did soul-winning work, and the Lord blessed me to see some souls saved. The Lord burdened me for the lost, and sometimes I cried to God for the unsaved people.

Call to Ministry

The Lord burdened me about my village, and so after finishing my Master studies, I went back home, and I was used as an assistant pastor by a Baptist Church, which was very nominal. I started teaching and preaching salvation by grace through faith. Some people got saved, but a liberal Baptist Church did not like the gospel that I preached, and they expelled me from the Church. Some believers came out of that church and asked me to lead them, and we formed a newly established Baptist Church on June 18, 2017. I am now the pastor of the Baptist Church which is a small mission church. We worshiped at my house. I prayed, and I was looking for someone who can be my mentor and my leader for the ministry, and finally, I found William, and he gladly invited me to come down for an interview. I thank God that the Lord brought me to meet with William.

We started cutting woods and collecting some other items for a church building. We are only 14 poor families, in total 64 members including children. We did not have enough funds to buy property, and so one of the church members offered a small piece of land, and we started construction for a church building. William arrived and on May 13 [Sunday], William cut the ribbon and opened our village church building. We the G. people do not have literacy, no written language yet, therefore Timothy, William, and American linguists are helping us to have our literacy. We recently have G. Primer. Hope that we will be able to have the New Testament shortly.

Note: For security reasons, a pen name is used for this missionary.