The past two Sundays several Buddhist monks were attending one of our local churches as part of an educational program related to the study of world religions. After the service, there were times of dialogue. About five or six of the members of the church were fairly new Christians who had left Buddhism. One of the monks asked them why they had become Christians.

The following is a summary of the answer one professional man gave. His mother lived in a house next door to the house where he and his Christian wife lived. His mother began to have some problems so the man went to the local 'spirit' doctor. The spirit doctor told him to bring some dirt from his mother's yard (or house?) The man did so. Feeling the dirt, the doctor was able to describe the inside of the house and make some recommendations to the man. This same procedure was followed several more times.

Once, just to test the spirit doctor, he took some dirt from the yard (or house) belonging to him and his Christian wife. The 'spirit' doctor felt the dirt and said that he did not understand what the problem was. He was not able to see into the house and the house was, in any case, already under great protection.

This caused the man to reflect on a peculiar feature of the life of his village that he had really never thought about before. Non-Christians all have 'spirit' houses outside their homes where every day they give offerings to the spirits of the land for their safety. However, the Christians do not do this and yet they are able to live normal lives.

Eventually the man gave his life to Christ and joined the church. I am sure there were other factors at work in his conversion, but isn't it wonderful that God could use the 'insight' of a spirit doctor to affirm that the house in which his Christian wife lived needed no extra help. It was already protected more than any protection the spirit doctor could give it.