Laos

On Feb. 13, 2023, village authorities gathered a group of 21 Christians from a minority tribal group in Laos, detaining them at the district meeting hall. The head of the village called them traitors for believing in a religion that does not belong to their ancestors and demanded they renounce their faith in Christ.

When Kham, a Khmu believer in Laos, planned a thanksgiving celebration for the new year, community elders confronted him and gave him an ultimatum: They forbade him from worshiping the Christian God and demanded that he cancel the celebration.

Four Christian families in one village in the Luang Prabang area of Laos have experienced increasing persecution since placing their faith in Christ in 2021. Village leaders have mocked them, threatened to lock them into their homes, and cut them off from community resources and government aid if they do not renounce Christ.

When Ya put her trust in Christ in 2019, her husband and his parents abused and rejected her, believing she would bring down the anger of the spirits. After Ya’s husband divorced her. sending her and their three children away, she turned to her parents for help.

When Kam was told in January 2023 by a police officer to stop following Christ and evangelizing, he boldly responded that he would not stop believing in Christ, no matter what happened, and that nothing could stop the work of God.

In 2019, 80 people in 13 Christian families lived in Jai’s village in Laos. As one of the village leaders, Jai knew that these Christians were facing persecution from village authorities and the police. But Jai’s parents were believers and urged him to consider Christianity.

On April 4, 2022, Lerm and his wife, Dow, accepted Christ and started to attend church. A few months later, Dow’s father, who was the head of a nearby village in their province in northern Laos, found out and demanded that they renounce Christ.

Fone is a trader with two children in a northern province of Laos. After she accepted Christ in March 2014, her husband began to abuse her physically, verbally and emotionally. He forces her to visit Buddhist temples with him and has often threatened to kick her out of their home.

Two Laotian men, Linh and Keon, heard the gospel from Christians in their respective villages. Though afraid of the police and knowing that conversion could cause much trouble for them, they attended a worship service and prayed with the pastor to accept Christ as Lord.

When 18-year-old Rung and her brother left their village to find work, they were employed by a Christian family whose example won Rung and her brother to the Lord. After they returned to the village, their mother became ill, which was blamed on their Christian faith.