Last September, at an evangelistic meeting near Hat Yai, the zone pastor pulled me aside and said, “Someone is getting baptized this Sabbath that I want you to meet. You really need to hear his story.”

I did not actually meet Mr. M until the final night of the meetings. When I spotted him across the room, my first thought was that he looked intimidating. He was the kind of person you might cross the street to avoid—big, tall and with an expression that seemed to say, “Don’t bother me.” But something made me walk over anyway.

The moment we started talking, he opened up completely. His story hit me like a freight train.

A problematic child from an early age, Mr. M grew up receiving daily spankings from his mother. His spiritual journey began in fourth grade when his great-grandmother died. The finality of death consumed his young mind. If we live only to die, what is the point of living at all?
Thai parents often compel their boys to become Buddhist novices. But Mr. M did not need to be asked. He volunteered to become a novice during summer break in middle school. Unlike his peers, who mechanically recited prayers without understanding their meaning, Mr. M dove deep. He taught himself Pali to understand what they were actually chanting. What he discovered shocked him. Most of what the monks recited bore no resemblance to Buddha’s actual teachings.

Even more significant was his discovery in the Buddhist scriptures that Buddha claimed he was not a savior. He was merely preparing the way for the true Savior who would come later. Mr. M wanted to know who this true Savior was. So, he began to explore different religions, including Christianity, though only superficially at first.

As an adult, poor choices in friendships led to false accusations and a two-year prison sentence for crimes he did not commit. Desperate, he traveled across Thailand seeking various religious figures to help him avoid prison, but to no avail.

Before entering prison, someone handed him a pocket New Testament. With abundant time on his hands, he read it three times, cover to cover, and then prayed his first real prayer as a challenge. “God, if you are real, please get me out of this mess early.”

God answered in amazing ways. During his incarceration, which coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, he found himself inexplicably protected and respected by other inmates. More remarkably, he received three separate pardons, an unprecedented occurrence in Thailand. Even model prisoners typically receive pardon consideration only once per year. Within twelve months, he walked free.

Yet even then, he did not fully grasp who Jesus was. Life outside brought divorce and a relationship with a Muslim woman as he explored Islam, hoping to find God there. The deeper he delved into Islamic teachings, however, the more spiritually depleted he felt. That relationship eventually ended, too.

Desperate to overcome personal struggles with lust, he took extreme measures. He confined himself for seven months, refusing to leave his home. He worked as a barber, but only when clients came to him.

Somehow, through all this searching and struggle, God was working.

Everything he had been through was so heavy, so overwhelming. At the time I met him, I was unsure if I was ready to follow up with him after his baptism. Sometimes God’s work in people’s lives is almost too much to process.

I met Mr. M again this past July at another evangelistic series. He had taken the week off from his work as a barber and paid his own way to volunteer at our meetings.

Somehow, through all his searching and struggle over the years, God had been working, and Mr. M’s transformation was undeniable. Even his spiritual growth in the year since I had previously met him was remarkable. Here was a man whose hunger for truth had driven him through Buddhism, wrongful imprisonment, Islam and self-imposed isolation, yet God had met him exactly where he was and led him to Christ. Praise God for the transformative power of the gospel.

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