Throughout the World Race, my team and I have been spiritually building up and encouraging the Church body. However, this past month, we got the opportunity to pour into the Church in a much more physical sense.
Most people were told that the house we were building was intended to house an impoverished family of five. What most people weren’t told was that the house would also be added to an extensive network of underground, unregistered churches.
Every day spent tying and bending rebar, mixing and pressing bricks, shovelling rocks/sand and concrete was a day spent physically laying the foundation of His Church in Laos. What a blessing to get to be a part of His work!
What does it mean to be a believer in Laos, a closed country?
It means that the words “missionary”, “pastor”, “evangelism”, and “Jesus” are only said in the privacy of your home with trusted friends.
It might mean getting imprisoned because you were caught participating in worship, owning Bibles, or praying for someone.
It may mean bailing your friends out of prison after they have been arrested (usually costing $500-$2,000 USD).
For one man, it meant spending three months in a jam-packed prison cell with his legs in a single position. When he finally got out, he was unable to walk.
The wife of our host is currently seeking refuge in the US due to a warrant out for her arrest. For her, persecution has meant being separated from her husband and three year old son for an undefined amount of time.
The house where we stayed doubled as a temporary safe house for those experiencing persecution. Heavily persecuted believers are taken in and then placed with trusted people in more Christian-friendly regions. One of the men who helped us at the construction site had been bailed out of jail two weeks prior. He was sleeping in the living room one night and gone the next. For him and countless others, choosing faith in Jesus has meant give up everything.
What did it mean to be a missionary in Laos?
It meant taking specific routes home from work in order to avoid being seen by the wrong people.
It meant being shown where the American Embassy building was, should we need to find refuge there at any point.
It meant having police officers stop by the house more than once (while we were out at work) to ask if our host was housing Americans.
While it is way less comfortable to be a Christian in Laos, their Church body is one of the most generous and unified communities I have every encountered.
Praise God for taking what man intended for harm and bringing beauty out of it!
Please join me in continuing to pray that persecution in Laos come to an end, that more and more people in Laos come to know the Lord, and that their community be protected and spurred on!
