After a local Buddhist monk attended a day of evangelism training, he asked if he could return the next day.

Mission Network News (MNN) reports that a day of discipleship training where national leaders were being equipped to share the Gospel resulted in an unanticipated attendee.

When a Buddhist monk arrived at the meeting, he was invited in by one of the leaders, stayed the day, and asked if he could bring two friends along for the next day of training.

The three monks arrived as promised the following day, and stayed for several more. The conclusion they reached, explained Global Disciples' Tim, was remarkable.

"As they were hearing in the discipleship classes about who Jesus is, and what He does, and intimacy with Jesus, and what it means to be a Christian, then they finally explained to Elijah [the leader]... 'well, somebody has to be wrong here. Either Buddha is god or Jesus is God.’"

The man who had led the monks in training for many days was then asked by the monks if he would be willing to test and see who God truly was. It was arranged they would go into a forest to pray and fast, and if God could bring them lunch and make it rain, the three monks agreed they would accept Christ as their own personal Lord and saviour.

While in the forest, they prayed. At 12:30 p.m. exactly, the men heard shouting, and found a man who was lost. After speaking for a few minutes, the man shared his lunch with the group.

As Tim stated, "God gave them their first miracle."

However, the clear day did not seem as though it would yield rain, and the group departed with the monks unconvinced. At 5:00 p.m., the rain clouds gathered and it rained so hard that evening services were cancelled.

The next day, the three monks were baptized by Elijah in secret after declaring Christ as Lord. The three then left their priestly robes symbolically in the forest where they had met Elijah.

Tim shared, "it’s stories like these that we hear that we just praise God for the amazing things that God is doing around the world." Today the former monks are ministering amongst drug addicts within their country.

The work of missionaries, though, remains difficult. Many other encounters with Buddhist monks have ended in churches burned and the banning of people from villages.

What is needed, Tim says, is continued prayer and constant faithfulness that the Lord will have the final say on everything that happens.

"If we just would pray that the church would rise up to the occasion, be filled with the Holy Spirit, and make a difference in our world."