Hello Friends,
I’ve missed blogging to all of you
regularly this month. But as I said earlier this month, due to the
restrictions and the danger of the government I had to keep my blogs
few and discreet. Not as much for my own protection, but the
protection of our contact and his work.
So while we’re on the subject, I
figured I would fill you all in on the situation in L-a-o-s and what
kind of persecution our brothers and sisters are facing. If you ask
anyone what the governments stance is on Christianity. You will
always hear that they approve of it, which is partially true. They
used to not approve of it at all. There was heavy persecution on
house churches, fining anyone found to be involved in one and
imprisoning or executing any leaders. In the eyes of the government
officials, anything that you rely on for hope and joy, provision and
protection other then the government is a sign of weakness and
treachery. But as history has proven time and time again,
persecution is the smelly manure that makes the church grow and
spread faster then anything. Eventually the government figured that
out, so recently they tried a new tactic similar to China when they
started the three-self church. Now in the capitol you can go to a
legalized, government approved, church. These churches preach the
Bible, but any outreach or ministry projects must be approved by the
government first. It seems, in the capitol at least, the government
has given up trying to destroy church and is now trying to just tame
it. Well the government will soon discover that like their futile
attempts at destruction, taming God’s church is equally impossible.
Because house groups and the underground church are still alive and
thriving, even in the capitol.
On a more personal note, this was a
month of physical blessing and soul poverty. First, the physical
blessing. We had the enormous opportunity to work at a halfway house
for men that were recovering from drug and alcohol abuse. We would
go to the house every weekday morning to worship and pray with the
guys and have a time of teaching and sharing with them. Ever since
our first day there, I was always impressed with how they created an
atmosphere that was inviting to the Spirit of God to come with power
and healing. Our contact never relied on his psychological knowledge
or fancy counseling to try and bring healing and freedom to these
men. He simply loved them and allowed God to do what he does best in
His time. And because of that, it truly is a house of healing, as
anyone who knows of the house will tell you. Another part of our
ministry was going to several of the house group meetings during the
week, to bring them encouragement. Often times we would share what
God has been doing in our lives or we would just share some scripture
that God had put on our hearts. About halfway through the month our
contact left with his family to go back to the states for a few
months. He was so kind as to allow us to stay at their nice house
with beds, hot water, internet and a kitchen…for free! This was a
huge blessing that we didn’t expect.
I was going to include the trials I
endured in this blog. But it got so long that I decided to make it
its own blog called “Demons and Truth”.
But continue to pray for the halfway
house and that God would continue to rest there and be a healing
presence for those men. Also pray for the team as we head to Africa
June 1st. We don’t know our ministry yet, all we know is
that we’re going to be in Mozambique. Also pray for me, because by
the time you read this I will be the new team leader for Team Manna.
Please pray that God will equip me with the love, wisdom and humility
to lead this team in a godly manner. Unfortunately since I can’t
post any pictures of our ministry contact or the guys we worked with
you won’t be getting many pictures this month. But I’ll try to get
some pictures of the team in Laos uploaded soon.
