Source: Christian Aid, July 29, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since COVID-19 closed the border between Thailand and Laos, one of the things a local ministry leader misses most is face-to-face contact at border seminars with people such as 100-year-old \u201cUncle Pekelo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still in good health, Uncle Pekelo has attended several of the ministry\u2019s training seminars, where he has encouraged others with his testimony of the Lord\u2019s faithfulness in the face of persecution, the leader said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe has endured so much in his walk with the Lord, to the point that he was imprisoned eight times for his faith,\u201d he said. \u201cEach time, he refused to renounce his trust in God, and to this day he continues to stand firm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the church where Uncle Pekelo pastors a congregation of 50 families, local authorities once ordered the demolition of their worship building, the leader said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe and other believers hurried to put their Bibles in plastic bags to bury them in the jungle, to be hidden from being seized and burned… During his subsequent time in prison, he would secretly write letters to Christians in his village, encouraging them to stay firm in their faith. Does this not sound like the Apostle Paul?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read the full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also from East Asia, read about the crews of 130 fishing boats forced to remove crosses and other Christian symbols<\/a> (Back to Jerusalem).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: Christian Aid, July 29, 2021 Since COVID-19 closed the border between Thailand and Laos, one of the things a local ministry leader misses most is face-to-face contact at border seminars with people such as 100-year-old \u201cUncle Pekelo.\u201d Still in good health, Uncle Pekelo has attended several of the ministry\u2019s training seminars, where he has … Continue reading LAOS: 100-Year-Old Pastor Encourages Others to Stand Firm in Their Faith<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10354"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10377,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10354\/revisions\/10377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}