Laos

In spring 2024, Lod, a Khmu villager, placed his faith in Jesus Christ at the age of 90. On June 20, he passed away. Typically, every villager would make a small donation of money and rice to the grieving family. However, because Lod was a Christian, the head of the village refused to collect donations to assist Lod’s family and did not allow any villagers to attend Lod’s funeral. Only the 10 Christians families in the community supported Lod’s family.

When Somanid came to faith in Christ in 2000 at age 17, he immediately faced persecution. He decided to move to a new province, where he built a home, started a family in his new village and became part of a fellowship of more than 100 Christians. Recently, village leaders demanded that all families, including Christians, must donate money for the traditional spirit ceremonies, but the Christians all refused. On May 15, 2024, the leaders announced over loudspeakers that all Christians were required to leave the village, on the grounds that they were disobedient to village authorities.

In early 2024, 50 persecuted Khmu Christians from several villages participated in a gathering at a church where they could share their struggles and stories with other persecuted Christians; support and pray for one another; and receive encouragement from God’s Word. Front-line workers chose the location used because Christians at the host church have faced intense persecution in recent years, including the destruction of crops and forced payments for spirit sacrifices in the village.

On the evening of July 23, 2024, Pastor Thongkham Philavanh, 40, died after an attack at his home in northwestern Laos. Two masked men approached him in his yard and spoke to him before shooting him several times. Thongkham’s wife rushed him to the hospital, but he died on arrival. Thongkham was a tribal Khmu leader and provincial head of the Lao Evangelical Church. He actively shared the gospel and trained other pastors throughout the province while leading a growing church. According to friends, Thongkham was closely monitored by authorities and had been warned to stop his Christian activities.

Two families in one Bru tribal village in Laos became Christians in February 2023. One of the families was driven out after enduring the threats and pressure of the community, which included the destruction of crops and livestock. The other family, Xing, Nang and their three children, were then alone, facing the same daily persecution as the family who had been driven out.

Mrs. Thai, a Christian widow in a Khmu tribal village in Laos, was persecuted by her own family and kicked out of her house because of her faith. She lived alone, and none of her family cared for her. She passed away on December 27, 2023. Her family did not want to take responsibility for her funeral. Members of the local body of Christ came to bury her, but the village headman would not permit them to bring it into the village cemetery, concerned that it would displease the ancestor spirits.

When Dong became a believer in Jesus Christ, his adult sons became angry that he followed what they saw as a foreign religion. They moved out of his house and took all his farmland and supplies for themselves, leaving him no way to grow food or earn income. Dong appealed to the village chief, who said he would only intervene with the sons if Dong agreed to give up his Christian faith.

Kaew placed her trust in Christ through the prayers of her parents, who became Christians after her marriage. Her husband and his parents, as well as their village, opposed her decision to follow Christ and tried repeatedly to make her recant. On December 30, 2023, Kaew’s husband and other villagers berated and beat her until she passed out. When she regained consciousness, she was given one more chance to recant, but she insisted on following Christ. In anger, her husband threw her out of the house.

Late in 2023, police in Laos arrested three Christians from the Akha people group for building a church and held them without giving any information to family or friends for several months. On January 26, 2024, authorities demolished the building these brothers in Christ had constructed.

KhamKeo placed his trust in Christ after he was healed from gallbladder disease. Eventually, the change in his life caused his wife and children to place their trust in Christ as well. The family began to experience opposition from neighbors and coworkers who noticed that they did not participate in the worship of local spirits. KhamKeo bought land some distance from the village and built a hut there, but the villagers were still unhappy with his family, so they moved again.