Laos

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.

Since accepting Christ, Ton, age 17, and Tan, 15, have been harassed for their decision by their mother and older siblings. Their mother and the rest of the family are aggressively pressuring the girls to travel to Vientiane to prostitute themselves and send the money back to the family.

LAOS – Woman Banned From Village for Following Christ
After Som shared the gospel with her mother and led her to put her trust in Jesus Christ, some of their relatives grew angry with them. They urged Som and her mother to stop believing in Jesus because “Christianity is a foreign religion.”

After her husband died, BounMee felt cursed. Although she was an animist who believed in ancestral spirits, BounMee turned to Christians she knew as a way to break the curse. After meeting a local pastor, she put her trust in Christ.

Since her one of her daughters died, Gate has lived with her 15-year-old granddaughter, Noi. Another of Gate’s daughters with her husband have supported them with food and necessities. On May 15, 2021, an evangelist visited Gate and Noi at home, and both put their trust in Christ. When Gate’s daughter and son-in-law learned of their conversions, they scolded Gate and told her to renounce her faith.

On February 13, a Christian named Nin died, leaving behind two daughters, Neung and Nom, and a son, Ram. Since 2009, the three teenagers also lost their mother, a sister and their grandmother, all of whom were believers. After Nin’s death, his older brother and sister-in-law blamed the deaths on the family’s belief in God.