Buddhist Family and Tuberculosis Diagnosis
David Yonggi Cho was born into a Buddhist family in Pusan, South Korea in 1936. As a teenager during the Korean War, malnutrition and unsanitary conditions ravaged his body. By age 17, he had an enlarged heart and tuberculosis had invaded his lungs.
The doctors sent him home to die.
His father prayed to Buddha, but Cho had no confidence in those prayers—he had never seen them answered. Death seemed certain.
Jesus Appears to Dying Buddhist
Then a Christian girl visited him. She shared the gospel and left him a Bible. Cho began reading, desperate for hope.
One night, as Cho was praying, Jesus Christ appeared to him. The vision overwhelmed him with love unlike anything he had ever experienced. Love bubbled up through his mouth, and he began speaking in another language he did not know.
The dying Buddhist became a follower of Jesus.
Tuberculosis Healing Miracle Documented
Though weakness remained in his body, doctors soon noted something inexplicable: his lungs no longer showed signs of tuberculosis. His heart had returned to normal size. The healing was medically documented.
Cho had dreamed of becoming a medical doctor. Now he sensed God calling him to a different kind of healing ministry. He enrolled in Bible school and began working as an interpreter for American evangelists.
Building the World's Largest Church
In 1958, with his future mother-in-law Jashil Choi, Cho put up a tent in a war-torn, poverty-stricken area outside Seoul. Five people attended the first service.
The message of hope and healing that had transformed Cho's own life resonated with a nation emerging from devastating war. Reports of faith healings attracted the suffering. The congregation grew. They moved to larger buildings. In 1973, they built a sanctuary on Yoido Island.
By Cho's retirement in 2008, the Yoido Full Gospel Church had nearly one million members and 700 pastors—the largest church congregation in world history.
The sickly young man whom doctors sent home to die had written over 100 books and left an indelible mark on global Christianity. It all began when Jesus visited a dying Buddhist boy and offered him life.
