Ben Wilder has spent two decades in Myanmar, finding ways to share Jesus in a place that is predominantly Buddhist. His book, Jesus in the Buddha Belt, releases on April 22. It tells the story of four people from Myanmar who encounter Jesus—and the tumultuous journeys that follow.
In my interview with Ben, he gave some insights into his life in Myanmar, and what led him to such a fascinating place.
How did you make the decision to go into missions?
Great question. That could be a book in itself 😃. The short of it is that God flipped my life upside down in college. I grew up in the church, but had a very self-centered view of Christianity that revolved around yours truly: Obey God and get blessings; disobey and get disciplined. That was the gist of it. My best friends growing up were actually the pastor’s sons. We were the biggest troublemakers in the church. In college, I sat under some Atheist professors and wrestled with God about it. I asked God to answer some very specific questions, and he emphatically did. After that, God flipped things upside down by showing me through the Bible that his plan is MUCH BIGGER than just me—it includes me, but reaches much much further. God’s plan is to bring hope and healing to the whole world—every tribe, language, and nation—40% of which are still considered unreached by the Gospel. WOW! That blew me away, and still does.
What led you to Myanmar? Did you do missions in other places before that?
I had an experience where I sensed God telling me to go and tell people about him who had never heard. But there are lots of places like that. He led me to Myanmar specifically through a series of events and relationships (isn’t this how he often works with us?). I took a few short-term trips to Myanmar to help a new missionary family, and they later invited me to join their team. I did missions in several other places before that, including other parts of the US, Mexico, and Kenya. “Jambo!” to any Swahili speakers out there.
What’s the most striking thing about doing evangelism in a Buddhist country?
Another great question! Reflecting on my experience, I think I was shocked by three concentric rings, each getting closer to the heart of my Buddhist friends. The outer ring was language. I had to learn a new language before doing anything else, and in the beginning it was so shocking how differently Myanmar people communicated—not just with different sounds, but with different ways of viewing and describing the world. As I grew in my understanding of the Burmese language, I encountered another ring—culture. Words weren’t enough to get to the heart of people. They just gave me more ways to offend them until I understood their ways better. Haha! I have by no means mastered these first two rings, but I have gotten familiar enough with both of them to get to the third and final ring between the gospel and people’s hearts—spiritual power. I didn’t really think about this beforehand, but this one probably fits really well with your blog theme.
Inside the rings of language and culture, people’s hearts are bound by invisible forces. After seeing this in people’s lives, I saw it more clearly in the Bible. For example: “…the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ…” (2 Cor 4:4), and “…our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens” (Eph 6:12).
Behind language and culture—which I do believe we have to communicate the gospel through—demons are the real power holding people captive, keeping them from Christ. Where I grew up, demons seemed like something from Bible times that didn’t interact with our lives today—so this has been a shocking discovery. Buddhist people (like anyone else who doesn’t follow Jesus) are bound by spiritual powers—and those powers must be overcome for them to experience new life in Jesus.
Tell us about the spiritual atmosphere in Myanmar. Aside from the obvious difference in religion, how does it differ from the West?
Across Southeast Asia, most people seem to be more in tune with the spiritual world than people in the West. I know there are exceptions to this, but I think many Westerners in my sphere (except for missionaries) tend to approach angels, demons, ghosts, etc. with skepticism. In the past I remember a friend telling me he saw a ghost. I was skeptical too. Myanmar people and others across Southeast Asia, on the other hand, approach things like this with inherent belief. They see spiritual powers (most often evil ones) interact with their lives on a daily basis and they practice rituals to placate them, avoid offending them, or to gain their assistance in times of need. For those who don’t know Christ, this is driven by fear. When these spiritually attuned people come to know Christ, however, they often immediately experience a deep relationship with him that I find less often in the more skeptical West. I’m not throwing stones here; I include myself. I am still trying to learn how to be more spiritual.
Can you tell us an interesting story from everyday life there?
My first Christmas in Myanmar was super interesting. I took a 24-hour bus ride with local friends to their hometown. Our overnight bus departed on December 24th, and—I kid you not—I didn’t realize it was Christmas until late afternoon on the 25th. The people I was traveling with were Buddhist, and I did not see a single evidence of Christmas anywhere along the way. No Christmas trees, no Christmas lights, no Christmas carols—not even Santa Claus! 20 years later, the commercial side of Christmas has reached further into rural Myanmar, but back then Christmas looked like every other day.
As our group took a break for the afternoon on Christmas, I reflected on my friends’ lack of interest in Jesus (I had been telling them about him along the way), and it hit me: “These people are so uninterested in Jesus.” I paused for thought. “And today is Jesus’s birthday!” The next day I took the stage at a concert and sang a song about Jesus to all the Buddhist people in my friends’ village. That ended up being a super cool way to celebrate the birth of Christ, but I will never forget that first Christmas in Myanmar when I forgot it was Christmas. It made me think about what made Christmas special and what it really meant.
Tell us about the writing side of things. When did you start to write?
I loved writing from elementary school on and was encouraged by my teachers and parents along the way. A creative writing class in high school fanned the flame, and I always thought, “Someday, I’d like to write a book.” But I mostly just wrote journal entries and emails to prayer supporters, until COVID struck and I found myself locked out of Myanmar. That’s when I started writing Jesus in the Buddha Belt: Untold True Stories of a Mighty God and Messy Mission. It’s funny how God works. I’m thinking about Paul Bunyan writing one of the bestselling Christian classics of all time because he was locked in jail for preaching the gospel. I’m not comparing Jesus in the Buddha Belt to Pilgrim’s Progress, but they both started because the authors were locked down 😃.
How would you say your experiences in Myanmar have changed or developed you as a person?
Profoundly! Myanmar (the epicenter of the Buddha Belt) has so many contrasts from where I grew up (the Bible Belt). Learning about Buddhism—not just from books, but from seeing how it plays out in people’s lives and society as a whole—has sharpened my understanding of Jesus and made me love him more. Seeing materially poor Myanmar people experience God in powerful ways has enlarged my view of God and challenged me to know Jesus more deeply. It has made me more spiritually minded, more appreciative of elders, and more convinced that while we all differ in many ways—we are all very similar at a basic level, and there’s a hole inside all of us that can only be properly filled by Jesus.
The positive ways God has changed my life through my experience in Myanmar is one of the reasons I wrote Jesus in the Buddha Belt. I am so thankful for these experiences and want to share them with others. Most people can’t move to the other side of the world, but I think they will enjoy meeting real people from there and hearing the good, bad, and ugly of their lives and the powerful ways they experience Jesus in the scary face of all kinds of hostility. I would love to introduce you to four of these amazing people through the book. In fact, I wrote their stories in first person so that it feels like you are sitting across the table from them.
How can people connect with you and get the book?
I would love that! The best way to connect with me is through jesusinthebuddhabelt.com. You can email me from there, check out the blog, and get get prayer resources and book updates.
The book will be released by William Carey Publishing on April 22. It will be available at missionbooks.org and, of course, Amazon. I would love to give you a free sample right now at jesusinthebuddhabelt.com/freechapter, before it’s available anywhere else. You can also pre-order the book at a 25% discount if you order before April 22. Here’s the link for that: https://missionbooks.org/products/jesus-in-the-buddha-belt.
Thanks so much for interviewing me. Tons of grace and peace to all of your readers and many many blessings on all that you are doing.