Anti-Christian oppression was flaring up when the apostle Peter wrote a startling line. A person who has suffered physically for his faith “is done with sin,” Peter said. “As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires” (1 Peter 4:1-2).
Here in
Maybe that’s why I was so shocked when e-mail messages late in January flashed the news to Christian leaders worldwide that American missionary Ken Fox along with four of his helpers and thirty-nine Laotian Christians had been jailed by police who raided a Laotian home where the group was studying the Bible and praying.
Jails in
Quick inquiries by American officials secured the release of
the five non-Laotians involved. But the thirty-nine Lao nationals stayed behind
bars. A month later the crushing news reached
One Lao man in his twenties, father of an eight-month-old daughter—a fellow with a gentle spirit and a love for Scripture—was being held in a small isolation cell. He faced the stiffest sentence of all. Even the grandmothers who hosted the Bible study faced extended prison time.
On February 24, an official press release by the Lao
government accused the worshipers of “creating social turmoil” and gathering
“to slander the Lao leaders.” The release said ironically that the accused had
violated a Lao law banning “all acts of religious discrimination.” Citing that
law, the Lao government justified discriminating against peaceful Christians.
For praying these believers face sentences harsher than
If Peter was right, our Laotian brothers and sisters trapped in this ordeal will be sanctified in a way most of us have never known. Please lift them up in prayer.