A testimony has been recorded. At 17 years old, David Yonggi Cho was facing what he described as a death sentence. Born and raised in a Buddhist family during a time when there was no church in his town, Cho said he was trained from childhood to kneel, chant and pray to Buddha alongside his father, who was a devoted Buddhist. His life changed when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis during the Korean War. According to his testimony, doctors told him he would live for only three to six months. His family had no money for treatment and no practical means of taking him to a hospital, leaving him bedridden at home. He described spending his days lying on his back, watching the ceiling, while experiencing high fever and vomiting blood. He prayed repeatedly to Buddha, reminding Buddha that he had been a faithful Buddhist for ten years and asking for healing. But, according to his account, nothing happened. Eventually, he said he prayed a different prayer: “If there were God in the universe, would you come instead of Buddha?” Within less than a week, according to his testimony, a Christian high school girl began visiting his home on her way home from school. She told him about Jesus. He initially resisted her message, but she continued returning and expressing concern for him. Eventually, he was persuaded by her persistence and love. She left a Bible with him. Cho said he had never attended church and had never heard a Christian sermon. He began reading the Bible himself, starting with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. What he encountered was different from the Buddhist religious tradition he had known. He described discovering Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and reading accounts of Jesus forgiving sins, casting out demons, healing the sick, feeding the hungry and raising the dead. For a young man facing death from tuberculosis, he said he needed a God who was practical, not merely philosophical. One day, he knelt alone to pray. At 17, he said he was too young to die, and attempted to make a bargain with God: if God would touch and heal him, he would become God's servant and go wherever God sent him to preach. According to his testimony, he was suddenly overwhelmed by what he described as peace and joy. He stood up and began shouting that something had happened. He jumped around in excitement despite not knowing Christian songs or even knowing the word “hallelujah.” Looking back, he understood that moment as his encounter with Jesus Christ and his salvation. Cho later said that the tuberculosis never returned and that he believed Christ had completely healed him. The young Buddhist who had never entered a church became, according to his account, a Christian minister whose life and ministry would be shaped by the encounter he described at seventeen. At the centre of this testimony is a Bible left behind by a teenage girl who simply stopped to tell a dying young man about Jesus. One encounter. One Bible. One testimony. One life redirected. “This shall be written for the generation to come…” Psalm 102:18 A record is being built. Source: Publicly available recorded testimony of David Yonggi Cho. This excerpt is shared for documentation and preservation purposes. No ownership is claimed over original third-party footage. - @globaltestimonyarchive