Medical Challenges Facing Tibetan Buddhists

For many Tibetans living in remote areas of the Skylands, as with other remote parts of the world, access to medical care can be difficult to come by. When care is needed, they have to make arduous and expensive journeys to the larger cities in the region.
Zhoma was exhausted when she, with her husband and her father, finally arrived at the hospital after a bumpy eight-hour journey. They’d brought just enough money for the surgery to deliver her baby. But during the surgery Zhoma unexpectedly needed a blood transfusion. Then the doctor informed the family that Zhoma’s baby boy was too small, and he needed to be promptly admitted into the ICU. They asked the doctor to let the baby die, because all their money had already been used up on Zhoma.
Happily, though, Zhoma and her baby were able to benefit from a fund set up by Christians in that city to help people unable to pay their hospital bills. Every year about 40 Tibetan patients are blessed by this fund. Local believers help with translation, steer them through the difficult medical systems, share the gospel with every patient and their families, and do follow-up trips to their homes and villages. Praise God for this fund and for the opportunities it gives.
Zhoma was able to leave the hospital and recover in a special guesthouse nearby. This house is a facility run by Christians in the city for such purposes as this. Local believers visited Zhoma and her family often as they waited two long weeks before they were able to pick up their little boy, Shepde (“Peace”). The relationship with this family continues, as believers visit their village and share more about Jesus Christ. Praise God for several Amdo Tibetan families who have already come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior through this initiative.

Will you pray for Tibetan Buddhist Peoples?

• Pray for more believers, Chinese and foreign, to take up opportunities to help Tibetan patients in the hospitals.
• Pray for open doors to share the gospel with patients and their families.
• Pray for committed and effective follow-up once the Tibetans have returned to their homeland, to disciple those who have come to faith and to continue sowing seeds among those who have not yet believed.

Do you want to be part of bringing God’s hope to the Skylands peoples? CLICK HERE to explore opportunities to GO.
To learn more about the Tibetan Buddhist peoples of the Skylands, visit omf.org/Skylands.