Focus on Asian Ministries: An Interview with Bunthean Nhothsiri

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Focus on Asian Ministries: An Interview with Bunthean Nhothsiri - Part 2

Interviewed by Phillip Hampton
September 25, 2000

Recently, Ninetyandnine.com’s Phillip Hampton sat down for an interview with Bro. Bunthean Nhothsiri in Nashville. Bro. Bunthean is the Asian Evangelism Ministry Coordinator for the United Pentecostal Church International and is the pastor of the Asian United Pentecostal Church in Nashville, TN.

This interview was conducted a week before the 8th annual Asian Evangelism Ministry Conference held in Nashville, TN. Bro. Bunthean, 38, has been heavily involved in Asian evangelism both in America and overseas. He came to Nashville from Stockton, California, where he served as the youth pastor for the Asian United Pentecostal Church there.

In Nashville he, along with his wife, Lamphang, and brand new baby boy, Jeremiah, is leading a growing congregation reaching out to the city's significant Asian population. His life story is a fascinating look at how God's will is accomplished through the most unlikely circumstances and how God's grace knows no cultural or racial bounds.

Last week Bro. Bunthean discussed growing up in Cambodia under terrorist regimes.

90&9: So, that is how you got to America. When did you come in contact with the Apostolic message? How did that come about?
BN: There was a man who came from a small Apostolic church. He saw us on the front cover of the newspaper. He read about us that we had just arrived, and he came to visit. He knocked on our door, and my older brother answered the door. I didn't understand English. I learned some English, but I was taught by Asian people to speak English so when I got to the United States I couldn't understand a word. So that man knocked on the door and he said, "Would you like to come to church, tomorrow". And my brother said, "Yes." I didn't understand what they were talking about¾I was standing beside him when he answered the door.

90&9: How long had you been in America at the time?
BN: A week. So that Saturday morning he came to our door and asked if we wanted to go to church, and my brother said yes. So I asked my brother what is “Church". He said, "I don't know." We just wanted to go somewhere.

90&9: So did your parents have a problem with this?
BN: Everybody in the family went to church that Sunday morning. They brought a big, long bus. We were the first stop.

90&9: How old were you at this time?
BN: I was about 17.

90&9: So what was your impression of that first service?
BN: Well, I went there to the church. It was a small congregation. Most of the people there were related to the pastor.

90&9: About how many people were there?
BN: About 20. First, I saw that they were singing and clapping their hands and I got a little excited. This is good. I like music so I kind of liked it. But, then when they started to pray, everybody prayed and then they spoke in tongues. And I saw two men who were sitting with the pastor and when they were praying, they all spoke in tongues, but they didn't sound alike and didn't end at the same time. Now, I was Buddhist when I was in Thailand¾I was a monk. And we would have to memorize a prayer. We had to do the same prayer, speak the same words, but we didn't understand what the words were, but we had to memorize the same thing, for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner.

90&9: Was it in another language?
BN: It's the Indian language because Buddhism is from India. So when I heard what they praying in the church, I thought they were like the monks, you know, memorizing a prayer. But when they were talking in tongues, they didn't sound alike and didn't end at the same time. But they would say 'amen' at different times. I thought it was like the Buddhist religion. But the difference was they were shouting and clapping their hands. They had a choir -- almost the whole church was in the choir. They were singing about Jesus coming soon.

90&9: Had you ever heard about Jesus before.
BN: I heard in the refugee camp. My friends went to church but I didn't like it. I was still their friend but when they told me about God, I didn't want to hear because my religion was Buddhist. I refused to forsake my religion. I refused to accept any other religion. While I was there in the refugee camp, I heard they were having a Bible study on the street. When I was walking from the school and would see them teaching a Bible study, I would go a different way. I didn't want to hear. Then, somebody brought us a Bible. I didn't know what it was. I was smoking at the time -- I started smoking when I was 16. I smoked tobacco. So, I didn't have any papers -- I would use the paper to roll the tobacco to smoke.

90&9: You used the paper from the Bible?
BN: Right. I used the Bible paper - it was soft, thin. I didn't notice what it was. But when I started to read the Bible, I thought about what I did.

Then, I saw a flyer that they sent out that had pictures. I didn't read the words, but it had pictures. There was a man carrying a big rock on his back called sin, walking toward hell. And there was a man walking to Heaven with a Bible in his hand. And I got so convicted at that time.

90&9: Just by the pictures?
BN: Just the pictures. I thought it could be me carrying the big rock, walking toward hell. I will never, ever forget. I still remember what it looked like. It touched my heart. And I thought a little bit about it¾becoming a Christian. But I didn't think much about it, because my religion was Buddhism. My parents and grandparents and my whole village were Buddhists. I didn't want to become a Christian, but I thought about it. Many people went to church to hear the gospel, and they started to talk about it. So that's why it was not too strange for me to go to church, because I had thought about God. So, when I went to that small [Apostolic] church [in Michigan], the pastor was preaching. I didn't understand much. I understood the words, "God," "Jesus," and "heaven." But he got with it. He preached to the small congregation and sometimes he would take off his coat and throw it. He would walk back and forth and sometimes I would look to my side and there was a lady who sat beside me who would jump up and start to raise her hands, pray in tongues, and run the aisles -- you know, they were small aisles, so she would just run back and forth.

90&9: So it was a typical knock-down, drag-out, Apostolic service?
BN: Right. And then, three months later, our sponsor who was Catholic, had a Catholic priest who was his friend. He asked the priest from the Catholic church to come and visit our family. He asked us to go the Catholic church. We said that we already had church to go to. So our sponsor said "Well, we'll call them and let them know that you are going here." So, our family went to that (Catholic) church. The first thing I noticed was that they would kneel on their knees by their pew before they sat down and they would use their finger and point to their forehead and chest and they would say, "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" and then sit down. Then, about 30 minutes later, they had communion. They had a small thin bread for us to eat and a small cup. I didn't know what it was.

I missed the Apostolic church. We went to the Catholic church at 8 (a.m.) and it ended by 9 (a.m.). And after we got out, it was not too far from the Apostolic church, so my family went home and I started to walk to the Apostolic church. The whole church looked at me because I came by myself. They wondered what happened to my family and they were kind of worried. I looked at their faces and I knew they were worried about us. I sat on the second pew from the back because church had already started. I was sitting there and they asked me what happened. I said that we went to the Catholic church. I never went back again [to the Catholic church] after that morning. I started going to the Apostolic church.

I was still smoking. Then, one time, my younger sister ran away with a guy. We had only our family there; we had no relatives. Our relatives lived far away, and we needed help. We called a brother from the church whose name was Ted. So we called him to see what we could do. And we called the newsman to help. We found out that she was in Oregon.

I asked the pastor to help us. He said, "We want to help you, but we want to tell you one thing, that we believe in God." He told our family, "we want to know if you will pay back." was the second thing he said. And then he said, "We want to pray for you. This happened to your sister because your family does not believe in God." Then, he said, “We don't smoke, don't drink, we believe in God with all of our hearts, and we believe that God will protect us from things like this." So he kind of told us what he believed. He didn't preach at us; he didn't tell us we had to do that, but he told us what he believed. “We believe that we need to clean ourselves.”

I thought about it. My brother and I were the only ones who could speak some English, so we understood a lot of what he said. He said, "We will let you know if we can help you." He was going to buy a plane ticket for my sister to come back. I got convicted about what he told me¾you know, that we don't drink, we don't smoke.

Then I went back to church that Sunday morning. There was a man who stood up and testified. He said, "I thank God that He delivered me from drinking." He testified about a lot of things that God had done for him. A lot of people testified that morning. The next person stood up and said, "I thank God that He delivered me from smoking. I had been smoking for 10 years and He just took away the smoke and I'm free." They were shouting. They didn't tell me not to smoke. They didn't tell me that I had to stop. They didn't tell me that I had to stop drinking or this and that. But they taught me to repent.

I didn't understand what the word "repent" was. Because I didn't understand much of the old English King James Version of the Bible. They told me to memorize the Lord's Prayer. I was wondering what the words "thou art" meant. So I looked it up in the dictionary, the word "art". It didn't make sense to me. I prayed that God would give me a Bible so I could understand what it meant. They told me to memorize Acts 2:38. So I memorized Acts 2:38, but I didn't understand what it was. I looked "repent" up in the dictionary and it said "Sorry". I didn't understand why you have to say sorry. You know, say "Sorry" and be baptized. It didn't make sense to me. So, I prayed for the Bible.

We had a man who taught us Search for Truth at home. Three months later he brought a Bible and he handed it to me, and he asked me if it was my language. I opened it up and it was in my language (Cambodian).

I just ran to my room and started to look up the scripture, Acts 2:38. I started to read it and it explained clearly the word "repent." So I started to understand the scripture. I went back to the Lord's Prayer. I read a lot of scriptures that I did not understand from what I learned in Sunday school.

90&9: So how long after that were you converted?
BN: I was taught in Sunday school by the pastor's wife for almost a year. She asked me if I wanted to be baptized. I didn't understand much about it, but I thought about it. And I said, "Yeah, I want to be baptized." But I didn't think about leaving my religion. So she took me to her husband, the pastor, and he put his arm around me and said, "Do you understand the word 'baptize'? Do you understand what you are going to do?" I said, "No." So he explained to me what it was. He said you need to repent, to turn away from your sin. You have to forsake your religion. You have to forsake what you had believed before. You have to forsake what is against the Bible, which is sin. So I want you to think about it and come back to me the next Sunday. So he talked with me and prayed with me, and I went home. He gave me a week to think about it. He didn't baptize me right away.

So, I came back the next Sunday and I told him that I was ready. I read the Bible and I prayed. So the next Sunday morning, I was ready. I went back to him and said "I'm ready to be baptized." So he baptized me in Jesus' name that morning.

90&9: When did you receive the Holy Ghost?
BN: We lived in Michigan for a year and a half. I went to church a year and a half. That was the next thing I didn't understand¾why you have to receive the Holy Ghost. I heard people talking about the Holy Ghost and I wanted to receive it, but no one could explain it to me clearly because of my language. I couldn't understand much English. I know they did their best to explain to me, but some words I didn't understand.

So I sought the Holy Ghost. I prayed beside a boy, he was an 11-year-old boy who was praying and seeking God. He was crying and quoting the scriptures while he was praying. I was praying beside him and I thought to myself, "This boy is a lot better than I am, so I've got to have the Holy Ghost."

I was taught that the Holy Ghost would help me. I didn't know what it was, but it would help me. So I sought for the Holy Ghost a long time and did not receive it.

Then, my family decided to move to California.

The last night I went to church [in Michigan] was Bible study night, Tuesday night. The pastor's son, who was about my age, got up and said, "We need to pray with Bunthean before he leaves. Tonight he is going to get the Holy Ghost." So everybody got excited and said, "Yeah, we're going to pray for him before he leaves." So I went down to the front after the service. Everybody was praying for me, and the pastor's wife was beside me, praying with me. Suddenly, I thought I was with God alone. You know, I didn't think about those people who were praying. I was thinking that God was sitting on the throne and I was alone, by myself, talking to Him, on my knees. I thought about God, just me and Him. And, suddenly my language started to change. And the pastor's wife heard what I was speaking. After I had stopped speaking, she said, "What did you say? Did you understand what you were saying?" I said, "No." She said, "That's the sign of the Holy Ghost. You've got the Holy Ghost." And I jumped up and started to shout. So that night I received the Holy Ghost, the last night I was in Michigan.

90&9: Moving on to the present, I want to ask you about the position you hold with the United Pentecostal Church.
BN: I am the Asian Evangelism Ministry Coordinator. We started 15 years ago at a local district conference. The Home Missions (Division) adopted it eight years ago.

90&9: You are now happily married and have a beautiful baby boy, Jeremiah. How did that come about? You go from Michigan to California and now you are married to a girl from Nashville. How in the world did that happen?
BN: Well, Bro. Rickenbaker [outreach director at First UPC, Nashville] went to the Landmark Conference [in Stockton, CA].

90&9: What position did you hold in Stockton?
BN: I was the youth pastor in the Asian church. Bro. Rickenbaker talked to Bro. Chester Mitchell and said he wanted me to go to Tennessee to preach a revival for the Asian church [in Nashville]. He gave me the phone number, so I called the church. I want to be honest with you that I did not know that the state of Tennessee existed. When Bro. Mitchell said, "Tennessee," I said, "Where in the world is Tennessee?" I was invited to come here to preach a revival. When I came here the first night, this is the room where I met my wife.

90&9: Right here in this room?
BN: Right here. We had a fellowship night with dinner.

90&9: What was her background?
BN: She was from Laos. She lived with her aunt and she had parents in Laos, but she came with her aunt and they adopted her when they were in Laos and brought her here to the United States. Their background was Buddhist. I think she was about eight when she came here. She came to this church [First UPC Nashville] because Tim Crossno knocked on her door and invited her to come through bus ministry.

90&9: So that's how she came here to this church. Then, you come in to hold a revival here, and you meet her, Sis. Lamphang.
BN: Right. Well, ten years before that I saw a vision of her face when I was in Bible college. I saw her in a vision. I had no idea who it was at the time.

90&9: So when you walked in and saw her, you immediately knew that was the face that you had seen.
BN: Yes. I remembered the vision that I saw, exactly. But, I didn't think she liked me at all.

90&9: So how long after that were you married?
BN: A year later, we got married.

90&9: Wow. Let me end by talking about the Asian Ministry conference that is coming up and about your vision for the conference and for this ministry going forward. First, let me ask how many (UPC) Asian churches are there in North America?
BN: We have around 20 right now. Most of the congregations are in California. There are some in North Carolina, Texas, Colorado, and Tennessee.

90&9: Are there some areas that are really needing workers right now?
BN: Oh yeah. We have a lot of places that have no pastor. That's one of the main reasons that we have this ministry in the UPC. We want to have Asian ministers licensed with the United Pentecostal Church so we can have pastors for the churches. We are working hard on that. The conference is not just for the Asians alone. This is Asian Evangelism ministry. We want the UPC to focus on recruiting leaders. It doesn't matter who. Americans can be Asian leaders. They will then teach the Asian people to be leaders and to be responsible for reaching their own people.

90&9: The person who won you to the Lord and the person who won your wife to the Lord were Americans?
BN: They were Americans, right. And they taught us to believe in God and to serve God.

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