We sit in a restaurant that is owned by a Christian…it’s the only safe place for us to talk about God…
We can’t say God’s name in public
We can’t share the word of Christ
We can’t share the word of Christ
We must answer that we’re just tourists…
This is home.
We can’t read our Bibles in public
Any Christian books must be hidden
Any Christian books must be hidden
All tattoos must be covered to go to church…
This is home.
We can only worship in our rooms,
But we can’t be heard.
But we can’t be heard.
Our worship must not exceed a whisper…
This is home.
No one must know why we’re here
No one can know who we’re working with
No one can know who we’re working with
We must avoid any and all questions about our intents and purpose in Laos…
Yet this is home.
There is a false sense of peace and freedom
The people are not free, they are afraid
Freedom was handed over at the border…
Welcome home…
But this is only our home for 3 weeks, then it’s on to the next country…
The people we work with here really do call this home. This is their life. They have exchanged their freedom to spread God’s Kingdom. They live a life that requires secrecy and discernment. They must watch what they say and who they say it to, they risk being watched and their phones being tapped. They could go to prison if they were found out. The reality is that any of us could if they knew why we’re really here, but they don’t care about the foreigners as must as they do the locals.
*I wrote this the first week in Laos, as we went over all of the “rules” that needed to be followed. Luckily we were in environments throughout our time there that we didn’t always have to follow all of these things. We were able to worship loud and share our faith on a few occasions. We were able to encourage the people we were working with. It was an amazing opportunity to see God at work in the midst of the government trying to be in control of everything.
So while we exchanged some of our freedom for a few weeks, I thank God for the people that have moved to Laos and are staying until God tells them to go elsewhere.
~It’s crazy to see that people would rather worship this temple than the God that created these mountains.~
Pray for the people of Laos: That their faith would remain strong despite the persecution and the oppression. That they would find the Truth of Jesus and come to know Him. That they would stop worshipping idols and begin worshipping the one and only King. Pray for the leaders of the country. Pray for the missionaries there. God’s Kingdom is already in Laos…pray that it grows exponentially.
