Source: Mission Network News, March 9, 2016
Officially, the government [of Laos] permits the practice of four religions, including Christianity. In reality, churches are watched carefully by the government. Patrick Klein with Vision Beyond Borders explains, “In Laos, kind of like in China, they have the government-run church, and then they also have the underground church movement.”
Because the underground church is growing quickly, Klein observes, “It seems like there’s a jealousy in the government church. They want to control the growth, control the people that supposedly come to Christ. They really want to make them puppets of the government.”
“Some villages they go into, they go in to evangelize, and the government church is already discouraging people from even listening to the evangelist. They want to control the growth of the church in Laos, and it’s really disheartening because it is coming from other ‘family’ members.”
Klein is asking us to join together and pray for unity in the body of Christ in Laos. “People can be praying for us that we can continue to get Scriptures in and keep helping the Church, but also that the underground church will really mature—become stronger and stronger so that they will not abandon their faith.”
» Read full story. See also God’s Master Plan: A Bible Smuggling Testimony (Vision Beyond Borders), and watch the Prayercast Video for Laos.