by Carla Williams
He was 80 years old when he first heard about Jesus.
Having spent his life as a Buddhist, Hauldzan had lived an existence of uncertainty. He was always looking, wondering for meaning to life. Even prayer was intangible to him. He’d go to the temple because someone in his family needed something, he’d pay the necessary compensation for his request, and a priest would pray in a language that he didn’t understand, and without knowing what was even actually said, he’d leave the temple hoping that what the priest had said would somehow affect the situation.
Imagine his joy, then, at discovering Christ. He could pray whenever he wanted, in his own language, without the need for anyone else to be present. He could hear God speaking to him in his heart language. He had certainty to his faith.
When he joyfully accepted Christ, several of the young men had to carry him down into the banks of the river so he could be baptized, because of his stiff and tired legs. He was an 8o-year-old man who was eagerly beginning a brand new life.
Within a week or two of his baptism, he was invited to attend a seminar where a local believer taught the stories of the Bible using pictures. The teacher began at Genesis and taught straight through the Bible to Revelation, and the frail new believer sat in rapt attention for hours. He was hearing the stories of the Bible for the first time, in his own language, and he was completely enthralled. He was given his own Bible, which he immediately began reading.
Just a few weeks later, while in the capital city, the missionaries received information that Hauldzan had died. A violent snowstorm prevented them from returning to his remote, countryside home, so a funeral was held without them. When they were finally able to make it a week later, they began comforting the family with Scripture and hope.
Hauldzan’s wife insisted that they needed to see Hauldzan’s Bible. In the inside cover, in his gentle handwriting, he’d written, “This book is a very good book. Everybody ought to read this book.” They looked at those words for a moment, missing their friend, when his wife interrupted their thoughts.
“In the time that he had this book, he read it all the way through. All the way through.” He’d only owned the Bible a few weeks.
And in that moment, they realized something amazing. He was now in Heaven with the very guys he had so recently learned and read about. He could be walking the golden streets and notice Abraham or David or Daniel and say, “Hey! I know you! I just read about you last week!”
And in the midst of their sadness, the local church found joy in realizing how Hauldzan’s few weeks as a Christian had fully prepared him for an eternity with Christ.
