I was born in Hindu family, in the year 1967, in a small village of Bhutan. My parents were illiterate so they did not keep the record of my birth. Born in poverty I have tasted the life of poverty, lack, nakedness, hunger, rejection etc. When I was in my mother's womb, my dad left home to join Royal Bhutan Army (RBA) and hardly earned anything, so my mother was fully responsible for taking care of my two elder brothers and me. My mother had no means to support us financially, so we went without food and clothing a lot. God had wonderful plan for my life, but the Devil wanted to take away my life so many times. I fell down in fire for two times but I survived. I still have burn marks. I fell from trees and nearly smash my head on the rock. I was drowned in the river, and it swept me away. God in His mercy saved my life from such dangers.

From my childhood, I always asked these questions, "What will happen to me when I die? Where do people go after they die?" Because of the fear of death sometimes I could not sleep at night, especially when someone died in the village. I thought that I would give anything to avoid death. I was willing to do anything to avoid it in my life. In search of truth and life I did all kinds of religious works and spent lot of time praying and chanting Buddhist prayer. But none of those things could satisfy my spirit. Sometimes I even thought of going deep into the forest and spend my whole life meditating like Buddha did. I tried to follow my religion strictly, but I never had assurance of salvation, nor peace and joy. During that time, up to my knowledge, there were no Christians and Churches in Bhutan. I never heard about Jesus, never heard the word Bible, or Church. One day in another part of the country I heard that if I become a Christian I would go to heaven. That was what I had been searching for in my life. At the age of 14, I accepted Jesus as my Lord and personal Saviour, which has changed the course of my life. As soon as I accepted Jesus in my life, I started witnessing about Jesus to my friends, relatives and neighbors.

How did my ministry began?
The joy and the peace that I got from Jesus was so new to me and I couldn't hold it within me, so I started telling and sharing to others about Jesus. During that time Christians were so few in Bhutan that we could not met anyone with whom to fellowship. In 1982, I was searching Christians for fellowship, but did not meet anyone. In 1983, I met one Christian couple with whom I started having fellowships. I was hungry and thirsty to learn more about God.

How the Kenchoala Bible Training Center started?
Somehow I wanted to present the truth that has set me free to everyone whom I met. It was burning in my heart. But I never knew that there would be pastors, preachers and Bible Schools. But when I learned that I too could be preacher it started burning in my heart. I wanted to come into full time ministry, but I had to look after my wife and children. So I thought of serving God by giving some portion of my income to ministry. But Holy Spirit was witnessing in my heart in different way. Finally in the winter of 1993 I resigned from my job and came out into fulltime ministry. I didn't know how to raise funds and supports. All I knew was to preach. I had to go through lot of difficulties due to lack of wisdom.

In 1994, one beautiful morning, something inside my heart started witnessing me that I need to start a Bible School to prepare laborers of God. Then I decided to act on it but I was not having knowledge about the ministry. In human position it was totally impossible for a person like me to start such a great work. I wanted to forget those thoughts, but it was burning in my heart, so I started praying about it. After much prayer I started sharing about the vision with my prayer partners. We regularly started praying about the Bible School. As a result of our prayer, God helped us to start Kenchoala Bible Training Center on 5th January 1996. Now we have already graduated hundreds of students and they are in different areas of their ministry.

Silas Thapa