Laos 5/28 ? 5/31/07

We flew from Phnom Penh to Vientiane, Laos via Vietnam Airlines on Sunday afternoon after taking care of some travel housekeeping (like these blogs, souvenir shopping, etc.). It was a pretty easy trip on a Fokker 70.

Monday morning began our time with more church planters at a location that must remain unnamed. The reason is, in Laos, many pastors are in prison (or have been imprisoned recently) for exercising their Christianity and sharing it with others. Others have been persecuted in other ways. In order to protect those I met, I will not reveal their names, their home villages or provinces, or some of the details of their ministries or their difficulties. And because of that, there won’t be pictures or video in this post.

After a drive of some distance we arrived at our meeting location, on a short dirt road off a fairly busy thoroughfare, at about 8:30 in the morning. When we arrived we found 20 pastors and other leaders ? mostly from house churches ? in a roughly 10-foot by 20-foot conference room. Three pushed-together tables took up most of the space, and the men surrounded them ? two-deep in some spots. Two windows and two doors provided ventilation, and two oscillating fans on the ceiling cast an occasional breeze.

The setting was much more intimate and secluded than those we visited in Cambodia and Vietnam. But that didn’t prevent us from joining to clap on a couple of hymns (the locals singing in Lao), with no inhibitions or quieting of voices. Then the leadership training, which we’d already conducted in the other two countries, began with our Laos trip leader interpreting. Enthusiasm and discussion was no less dynamic than what we experienced in Cambodia and Vietnam.

There are some similarities between Laos and Vietnam, which are both officially Communist. You can worship, teach the Gospel, conduct Christian education, and sing loudly, as long as you do so in your own church building that has been approved by the government. But house churches are illegal, and our conference was not authorized by the government.

In Laos, authorities ? usually at the provincial, district or village level ? often crack down, harass or arrest Christians who evangelize in public or worship in homes. A lot of other citizens are afraid of the Christians because they fear their family members will be converted, or because they don’t understand this “Western” religion, so they report them to the authorities.

After observing believers in Vietnam and Laos, it appears that the governments want to allow just enough Christianity to show countries in the West that they have religious freedom. It’s safe for the Communists to allow worship in the public church buildings, because they can contain and somewhat control the Christianity there. But when it gets into the homes and out in the streets, they don’t have that capability. Anecdotally, the Christianity is spreading faster through the home churches than in more traditional churches. You can bet if it was spreading rapidly through the church buildings, than the government would put a stop to it.

Some testimonies from pastors I spoke to:

“Brother No. 1” leads a church in his home, where approximately 50 people attend regularly. They meet for Sunday worship, and have prayer and leadership training meetings on Mondays and Tuesdays. He has helped plant 18 similar churches in about two years. Clearly he is too effective for the government’s liking.

The village government has locked the doors to his home, with worshipers inside, on a few occasions. They have threatened to burn his home. They also told church members not to meet in his house. “They don’t want people to come to Jesus Christ,” he told me through an interpreter.

Earlier in this decade the authorities threw him in jail, on two separate occasions. He said he was beaten with a large piece of wood the second time, which put him in the hospital. Afterward they set him free with a warning: if he continued with his house church, he would be returned to jail. He was later jailed a third time. “In their eyes, they think I am an enemy.” He says in the past year, though, the governing authorities have eased off a bit. Still, he must be somewhat secretive in his personal ministering to his church family and others who request his help.

“Brother No. 2” is an elder in a house church where about 56 people attend. He has been in the church for about four years, and the group had grown to approximately 20 families before the government threw him and a few other leaders in jail a few years ago. After their imprisonment only four families stayed together, as the others were too frightened to continue. The church has grown back to about 12 families now.

But Brother No. 2, who has many children (more than three), had not been a Christian very long when he was taken away, and neither had his wife. He said she ? and other family members ? begged him to deny Christ so he would be released. He said he never considered doing that.

“The Bible says another human can destroy only the physical body, but not life,” he told me. “God is the one who gives life, and if somebody kills me, it’s no problem, because God gave me eternal life.”He said while he was in jail all he could do was pray, sing, and read God’s word. How did he get a Bible and keep it hidden from his guards? His wife smuggled one to him, hidden in a sticky rice basket with some other food. He said he would read at night when the guards “were out playing with their girlfriends.” (This explanation caused our female interpreter to break up in embarrassed laughter).

If you’ve read the Book of Acts and the apostle Paul’s letters, you know that God was at work even in prison, and still is. “When I was in prison,” said Brother No. 2, “five others became Christians.”

“Brother No. 3” has undergone more recent duress. Government representatives visit his village regularly, and some fellow residents are watching the activities of the Christians there and report anything suspicious to the authorities. He said the officials have visited his church member families individually and warned them about their worship practices and evangelizing, and told them Christianity “was from foreigners” and not the religion of the Lao government. He left the village undetected, he said, in order to attend our training sessions.

“If they knew I was answering your questions,” he told me, “they will kill me.”

He said four families left his church because of fear, but approximately 60 individuals remain. He has been told several times to dissolve his house church, and even lost his job because of his Christianity.

“Brother No. 4” leads a somewhat larger church, and has planted a few other churches. His own church grew rapidly since he began as pastor, during the 1990s.

He says there have been many occasions when people that are ailing or suffering emotionally, but who are not necessarily Christians, call for him to come to minister to them in their villages. When he does in villages that are not his own, he often gets questioned by local authorities. He has been threatened many times with imprisonment and further harassment.

In response Brother No. 4 says he called together the church leaders in his area to pray. Their desire, as with all of the men I interviewed, is that they are allowed to live quiet and peaceable lives serving the Lord. They say they do not agitate against the government, nor do they desire to get involved in politics at all. But because fellow citizens and government officials see them as a threat, they end up having to answer to the government anyway, which sort of forces them to engage in politics through pacification.

These are just some of the stories. Many Christians are in prison right now in Laos. Many pastors’ wives are left with their children at home, with no support. They all need your prayers.

Some regional Christian leaders are active in trying to engage various government authorities, at all levels, to foster understanding between the two. Some Lao officials believe Christianity is a CIA front (really!) and that America is out to take down their government. But Christian leaders explain that it is not a Western religion, but a world religion. They just want to be left alone to legally and peaceably practice it. There have been successes in some villages and districts, but there is a long way to go.