The Making of a Leader

As David Tamang watched his daughter’s simple coffin being lowered into the Bhutanese soil and comforted his wife, he remembered the day Sarita had been born fifteen years before. Her miraculous birth had changed he and his wife’s lives forever, for it was on that day, June 9th, 1978, that they had accepted Jesus as their Savior.

David let his thoughts go back. He had stood hopelessly beside the bed of his unconscious wife Dena in the hospital in Bhutan. Dena was one and half months from the delivery date of her first child, and had begun labor pains prematurely. The complications that followed threatened her life, and the primitive hospital in Phuntoshiling - which ironically means “place of wealth”- had nothing to offer the young Bhutanese couple for treatment. Alone late that night, David felt total despair at the thought of losing his wife.

He wandered out into the hallway, miserable, unable to think clearly. It was at that moment that he was approached by a gentle looking older man. This man introduced himself as a Christian pastor, and asked David what was wrong. In the past David would not have even spoken to a Christian, but tonight he poured out his story to his sympathetic listener, desperate for any possibility of an answer to their situation. After David explained everything, the pastor, whose name was Kokola, kindly reassured him.

“Don’t worry. This is nothing to our God. Jesus can heal your wife. Would you like for me to pray for her?”

David’s thoughts raced. A strong Buddhist from a long line of Buddhist priests, he had already prayed desperately to all of his Buddhist gods and goddesses, as well as some Hindu gods he had begun worshipping in college. He had pleaded, “Please, please heal my wife!” Nothing had happened, and David’s faith had died. Now hearing this pastor, David felt new hope rise up inside of him. He made a decision. “Yes, if God can heal my wife, please pray for her.”

“I will,” the old pastor replied, “but first you must agree to two things. You must confess you sins to God, and tell Him that if Jesus heals your wife, you will follow Him. And you must allow me to lay hands on your wife to pray for her.”

David didn’t hesitate. “I’m ready,” he said, and the two men rose to go into Dena’s room. It was not was not without risk for Kokola to make this offer, for Bhutan is a closed country, and Christianity is prohibited there. Dena was also in a restricted maternity ward. But as the men approached Dena’s room, the nurse who was attending her suddenly left for no apparent reason, allowing the men to enter freely. Dena lay on the bed unconscious and faintly blue. Kokola laid his hand on Dena’s forehead and prayed. He also asked David to pray, and David did, promising to follow Jesus if he healed his wife. Kokola continued to pray for Dena for about fifteen minutes. Then he left, patting David gently on shoulder as he did saying, “Be encouraged, cheer up, your wife will be healed- our God is a living God!”

David turned back to his wife’s bed, where she still lay, looking almost dead. He looked again. Was that color coming into her face? Suddenly, before his eyes, Dena regained consciousness. Just as suddenly, she began to have strong labor pains. David excitedly called a nurse, who hurried into the room. She was shocked to see Dena looking totally normal. She was soon even more surprised, for within ten minutes Dena delivered a baby girl! After all the joy and commotion had calmed, David told Dena what had happened, and how she came to be alive and holding a beautiful baby. Then the couple bowed their heads together and thanked the living God who had healed Dena and given them the life of their daughter as well. They accepted Jesus into their lives, and promised to follow Him. They named their daughter “Sarita” which means, “a brook flowing down the hill causing a sweet melody that brings life.”

David had experienced persecution for his faith- he eventually lost his government job of sixteen and a half years because he was a Christian. But that had been used of God, for it started David and Dena working full time for the Lord in their country of Bhutan. They began working with The Sowers Ministry in 1992, helping with literature distribution and evangelism. They had to be very careful, but God blessed them, and they led fifty different people to Christ one by one in three years.

They had two more children, another daughter and then a son. All of their children accepted Jesus at a young age, and developed their own strong faith in God. But then Sarita had contracted tuberculous, and after a long sickness, the daughter who brought spring and new life into their lives, went home to be with the Lord on November 16, 1993.

David remember Sarita’s last words before she left to be with her Savior. “Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord.” He became aware again of the present- a cold gray day, standing in a field with his family, watching his daughter’s burial. Sarita’s birth had been the beginning. And because her birth had brought them to Jesus, now the whole family could have the assurance that this separation of her death was only temporary. All that he and Dena might accomplish in their lifetime for the Lord, Sarita would someday get to share. David smiled softly. Death was swallowed up in victory.


Note: David and Dena Tamang now live in Pokhara, Nepal, and are directing the TSM Mission Training Center (MTC) there. David is also pastoring the Victory Church, Pokhara in conjunction with the training center. There in Nepal, they continue to fulfill the commitment they made to the Lord Jesus the day their daughter Sarita was born.