The long journey to serving his people

“I love my people,” Yeshi* stated, adding that that’s been true for as long as he could remember.

When Yeshi was a child living in a part of China, his mother became very sick. The family tried every possible healing method according to their Buddhist beliefs, but nothing helped. Jesus followers introduced Yeshi’s mother to the Bible and — in desperation — she tried to pray. The next day, she was healed and decided that her family would follow Christ. They removed all Buddhist symbols from their home, stopped praying the Buddhist prayers and took off the prayer beads people around them wore. Yeshi was too young to completely understand what was happening but once he started school, he realised just how different he was from his peers. “I felt like I betrayed my culture,” he recalled.

Around 99 per cent of Tibetans practise Tibetan Buddhism**, so for Yeshi’s family to not practise its customs stood out. The believers that had introduced his mother to Jesus were foreigners, and “American, Chinese and Korean Jesus followers bring their own Christian culture,” Yeshi explained. Although he appreciated their work, he saw a clash of cultures.

After moving to another city, Yeshi experienced the passionate devotion of the underground church for the first time. He asked them: “Why do you cry for someone from 2,000 years ago?” They told him of the unfathomable price Jesus had paid for mankind. He didn’t quite understand; shouldn’t that make them joyful instead? But their support and kindness moved him, and he decided to get baptised. And not only him; he went back to his hometown and was baptised together with his parents.

Yeshi’s parents were accustomed to their life of hard work, carrying heavy loads and being exhausted. Especially for his father, the baptism had a far-reaching effect; it made him feel relieved and refreshed like he had never felt before — holistically, body and soul. To see his father’s life change had a great impact on Yeshi.

Returning to work, Yeshi faced many of life’s struggles and felt undeserving of Christ’s love. “The world has so many people, how does He have time to take care of me?” he wondered frequently. Conflicts caused by cultural differences with ethnically Chinese believers and language barriers felt like a crushing weight on him.

Yeshi went to college and found new hope when he saw the ministry of a Christian businessman. The man had a heart for people, helping those with leprosy and other sicknesses. A seed was sown in Yeshi’s heart: owning a business did not just mean possible financial security, it created opportunities to give and help those in need.

An encounter that changed everything

After a broken heart and more setbacks, Yeshi decided that he’d had enough. He left his life in the city, went back home and announced to his mother that he did not believe in God anymore.

“I went home and totally gave up on myself,” he recounted. He smoked, drank, ate little and only worked when he had to. This attitude made him the talk of the town: If that is what happened to children who left and got educated in the city, why would anyone send their children to go to college? At the time, Yeshi did not care about the example he was setting.

One night, Yeshi was in bed trying to sleep, when he suddenly heard a voice telling him to get up. He tried to ignore it, but the voice kept speaking. He then realised who he heard — God. “You never cared, why now?” he asked. The voice persisted, and Yeshi finally got up, found his Bible and started reading. “Every single word was dancing before me,” Yeshi remembered. “For the first time, I cried in the presence of the Lord.” That was the moment Yeshi did not just see someone else encounter Jesus; he experienced Christ for himself.

With only a couple hours of sleep, Yeshi got up the next day and felt like a new person. Refreshed and hungry for the first time in months, he told his mother what had happened. From that moment, Yeshi knew his steps were guided by the Lord and continued to deepen his faith. He went back to the city to work and met his wife. They eventually moved abroad together.

The long journey of learning about God and different cultures was necessary, according to Yeshi: “Now I truly understand what He wants me to be.” It became clear to him what he was supposed to do: go back to serve his people.

Yeshi and his wife settled in a country in South Asia. There, they have opportunities to serve Tibetans in various ways. A complete Tibetan Bible was published in 2023 and has been a useful tool to teach the Tibetan language as well as Scripture. He also hopes to connect like-minded businessmen with his fellow Tibetans for mentorship and partnerships to create opportunities to become financially secure and be a blessing to others in turn, just like Yeshi experienced in college.

“My people mean everything to me,” Yeshi said with emphasis. He dreams of establishing a Christian Tibetan community with its own distinct culture, a space without cultural tensions or guilt, like he had felt, that can be a home for other Tibetan Christians to feel accepted in their faith.

Pray for creative ideas to utilise the Tibetan Bible for literacy and Bible classes. Pray for businessmen and women who share Yeshi’s vision to partner with him. Pray for the growth of a unique Tibetan Christian culture.

*name changed

**https://savetibet.org/why-tibet/fast-facts/