[Today's Prayer] Laotian believers lost their homes due to persecution and continued to worship and evangelize despite wandering for half a year
According to the Voice of the Martyrs Korea (VOM Korea), the houses of ten Christian families in a village in southern Laos were destroyed one by one by villagers over the course of eight months last year.
Representative Hyun Sook Foley said, “The building that these Christian families used for church meetings was also destroyed, and the pulpit was burned along with the Bibles that these families received from Voice of the Martyrs.” “They left the village and stayed there for more than six months. “I had to wander, but I didn’t give up my faith,” he said.
Representative Foley said that all ten of those families had been Christians for less than five years, and that they were the only Christians in the village. “The small village they lived in was inaccessible to cars and foreign missionaries, but ordinary Laotians were able to travel to and from the village,” she said. Through such ordinary Laotian Christians, the village people came to know Jesus Christ. “In 1994, there were 400 Christians in Laos, but in 2020, there were over 250,000, and currently, the number is expected to exceed 400,000.”
This rapid increase in the Christian population has led to difficulties for Laos Christians, especially those who believe alone in remote villages, like the ten families mentioned above.
Representative Hyunsuk Foley said, “Most of the tribesmen in the village believe that spirits reside in certain objects and worship those spirits. They also worship ancestors such as father or mother who have passed away. They claim that if a family in a village becomes a Christian, the local spirits become angry and other residents experience problems such as getting sick, and they believe that to solve the problem, the Christian family must renounce their faith or leave the village.”
Representative Hyun Sook Foley said that because these ten families did not deny their faith after becoming Christians, the villagers destroyed the church building and their houses one by one, she said.
According to CEO Hyunsook Foley, these ten Christian families left the village last year and continue to look for a place to settle in places such as fields and jungles. She said, “Even as they wander around aimlessly, they are still worshiping God and spreading the gospel to the people they meet. “Now the number of people who worship together has grown to more than 100 from across the region, and through them, many more people continue to believe in Jesus,” she said.
(Omitted)
She said that while such persecution of Christians in Laos is frequent, their common response to their persecutors is forgiveness. “They are not angry with their persecutors,” she said. Because, as Jesus said on the cross, the persecutors do not know what they are doing. Persecuted Christians believe that those who persecute them are sinners who do not know Jesus and do not have the light of the gospel in their hearts. So these families are not at all angry with their persecutors and are still praying for them,” she said.
She also said, “Even when Laotian believers suffer, they do not give up their faith. “They believe that God allowed these things to strengthen their faith so that they could endure future trials and encourage those who are persecuted like them,” she said.
(Omitted)
Source: Christianity Today
He comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ overflowed in us, so our comfort overflows through Christ (2 Corinthians 1:4-5)
God, we hear the news of the Laos church that is rising up and carrying out its mission through faith alone despite suffering and persecution.
We hope that by enduring the hardships that the Lord has left for us, the weary hearts of those who live without a place to lay their heads will be comforted abundantly through Christ.
We believe that the Lord will be able to comfort those who are in another tribulation through the Laos church, which takes another step forward thanks to the comfort that the Lord gives even in the midst of tribulation.
Also, please help the Laos church, which testifies to the gospel wherever it goes and whoever it meets, advance beyond Laos and among all nations.
Thus, through the Laos church, may those in trouble among the nations receive the comfort of Christ to the full, and may many disciples of the Lord arise among all nations who follow the path of the cross of the Lamb Jesus!
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