Laos Update
Praise the Lord for He has been blessing Laos even though the country is facing a lot of persecutions. Right now the number of believers in Udomxai province is almost 4,000 with more than 45 churches and almost 100 house churches. In Borikhamxai province, from 3 churches in 2005, now over 48 churches and 6,000 believers. We can see that besides persecution, the Lord has been blessing Laos. This is because of the prayers of the people around the world. Even now persecution is still going on: in one Northeast province, 7 families, over 40 people, were relocated and the local authorities limit them in the rice field for one week. Three churches in Borikhamxai were relocated. They have no place to stay. When they go to another village, the village people will say, “we give you permission to stay here only two or three days because you don’t have legal paper.”
Usually in Laos when we moved to another village we need a paper from the government where our family was.
In spite of all these difficulties, we see how the Lord is blessing His work. A few months ago, three families’ house got burned. When one villager got saved, he opened his house for Bible Study and worship the Lord. The local authorities came and saw, they asked him to stop, but he still continued. One day, when he and his family were out in the rice field, their house was burned down. We shared this to other churches and asked to help this family. Then we also give them help. Something to use in the family like clothes. And we also send this news to Ethnos Asia and we also got some help from them.
In spite of all these difficulties, we see how the Lord is blessing His work. A few months ago, three families’ house got burned. When one villager got saved, he opened his house for Bible Study and worship the Lord. The local authorities came and saw, they asked him to stop, but he still continued. One day, when he and his family were out in the rice field, their house was burned down. We shared this to other churches and asked to help this family. Then we also give them help. Something to use in the family like clothes. And we also send this news to Ethnos Asia and we also got some help from them.
We also continue to do evangelism and discipleship. Most of the time we do it one on one. Because it’s very hard. We try to teach our disciples how to evangelize, how to make disciples basically. Then we use creative tools to evangelize, they become our tools for the Kingdom, like music. When we play music using our instrument, people got interested in that, and they come. “Play more, play more!” “We cannot play another song, only Jesus song.” “Never mind, you can play Jesus song. Just play.” And we continued to play. Then they would ask, “What is the meaning of the song you played?” “Oh, this is talking about Jesus, He loves the world, the sinners. And he who receives Jesus will get salvation.” One day police come, “why are you sharing the gospel? This is illegal!” “No, I don’t preach the Gospel. But those people want me to sing for them.” And the people would say, “Yes we asked him to sing. Come! Do more!” So we tried to use any kind of tools. When we’re doing, working in the field, planting season or harvest season. We also ask them to come and join with the work. And when we’re working together we’re sharing. When we work together, we’re also talking about God.
We praise the Lord for the Leadership Development that the Lord also opened for us. We have some missionaries come and our brothers and sisters who join. Most of the church planting we do, we do through a cell group. Most of the new churches established through a cell group. Praise the Lord for that.
