‘I Know My Life is Safe in Jesus’ — Laos Pastor

Khoun first heard about Jesus through his mother-in-law. “When my mother-in-law told me about Jesus, I read and liked the teachings in the Bible,” he shares. “They talked about humility and love.”

However, there were more things than just the teachings from the Bible that attracted Khoun to Christianity. At one time, Khoun suffered from severe back pain, making it very difficult to work. He remembers how a man told him he could be healed if he prayed and believed in Jesus. After three days of praying, Khoun felt no pain.

“It was amazing, I could work properly,” he recalls. “I returned home and told my wife the good news.”

Khoun also prayed for his wife, who suffered from frequent fever onsets, and she was healed as well. Seeing these miracles, Khoun’s entire family gave their lives to Jesus.

Where the gospel advances, persecution follows

But their steps of faith and the lifestyle changes they made as a result would not go unnoticed. "The villagers wondered why I no longer drank alcohol with them,” he says. “When I told them it is because I believe in Jesus, they mocked me and hurled abuses at me.”

The insults did not stop Khoun from sharing what the Lord had done for him and his family, and as he continued to tell others about Jesus, he saw people trust Christ. “When I started sharing the gospel in my village, more than 30 people came to Jesus,” he remembers. “There were over 10 Christian households.”

Knowing his story, more people began to seek him for healing. A paralyzed relative asked him to come and pray for him. “I went to his house and told him, “I can pray for you, but I cannot heal you; only God can do that. You must believe Him if you need healing.’ He agreed and was miraculously healed.”
Yet as Scripture shows us, where the gospel is advancing, persecution follows. The people in Khoun’s village had seen increasing numbers of people trust Jesus and leave their tribal religion. And this miraculous healing of the paralytic was the catalyst they needed. They attempted to force the healed man to renounce his new faith. “When he refused,” Khoun says, “they pressured him to the point that he finally gave up.”

From there, the opposition grew quickly. Khoun was pastoring a church under immense pressure. “I started receiving threats from the villagers,” he says. “They wanted me to stop the worship services I was conducting at my house.”

‘Your God is very strong’

The villagers—the people he had grown up with and knew—continued to intimidate Khoun. Finally, they gave him an ultimatum: “If you do not leave Jesus, we will destroy your house, and you will have to leave the village,” they told him.

Pastor Khoun responded that he would never renounce his faith. "I told them that I had done nothing wrong. Jesus healed me when I was in sickness and pain; hence, I do not want to practice my old customs or beliefs anymore. However, they insisted that believing in Jesus was against their animist traditions and customs. They told me, ‘Your God is very strong, and our animism is weak.’

“I questioned them boldly—If you know this, why don’t you believe in Jesus? Gods that we worship require us to offer money, livestock and sometimes even our lives. Believing in Jesus means worshiping Him alone, and He requires us to offer Him our hearts only.

“But they didn’t listen.”

Instead, they continued to spew insults and issue threats.

The fateful day

Then on New Year’s Eve 2024, the day of reckoning arrived. Pastor Khoun had requested permission from village authorities to hold a thanksgiving service in his home. His request was quickly denied.

The next morning, he saw that the villagers had cut down his water pipes and were planning more harm. "One person from the village came to my house hurriedly that morning and warned me: ‘They are planning to kill you. You must flee; you can leave your wife and children here.’ I was terrified and ran to a nearby village.”

The villagers then tied ropes at the front and back of Khoun’s house to break it apart. No one was allowed in or out of the village. Village officers collaborated with the District and Cluster Police to demolish Pastor Khoun’s house.
Pastor Khoun grimly describes what followed: “Around noon, someone called and said, 'Your house has been completely destroyed.’”

The villagers didn’t stop with Khoun’s home. They also destroyed the house of another Christian family and set fire to another one. That afternoon, the villagers loaded up the three families’ possessions on a military truck and brought everything to a restrictive detention area (an informal holding site often designated by village authorities to detain people deemed “social evils,” including religious minorities). They pitched a makeshift tent to stand guard, ensuring the families couldn’t get to any of their possessions. The devastation was so great that one of the three families renounced their faith. The authorities and the villagers rebuilt their house to encourage them.

‘Life is a struggle’

Since that day, Pastor Khoun and his family have not been able to return to their village. They remain in the detention area and miss their home very much. They continue to feel the pressure of following Jesus in an area and country hostile to their faith.

“Life is a struggle; we have very little food and resources,” Khoun shares.
Through your prayers and support, Open Doors’ local partners are responding to these needs. They regularly reach out to Pastor Khoun and other Christians living in the area to bring practical aid, including food and grocery supplies.
Pastor Khoun also attended a recent persecution-preparedness seminar led by Open Doors. The experience, he says, has encouraged him to be even more concerned about the gospel. He excitedly tells us about the committed Christian leaders in rural areas that he met.

“Many Christian leaders in villages have not undergone formal training and have studied the Bible themselves,” he explains. “They read the Bible every day and are very dedicated to their ministry.”

Khoun shares how he learned that being a Christian is not an official crime in Laos, but that Christians are widely misunderstood. “Embracing Christian faith is not illegal in Laos, as the Lao law supports freedom of religion,” he says. “However, the village communities often oppose strongly when people choose Christianity over their age-old beliefs.

“The authorities know about the freedom of religion. However, owing to the pressure, they often team up with the villagers and persecute us. Nevertheless, there are also some people who are okay with Christians living with them, as long as we worship in a private place.

“People should know that the Bible teaches nothing wrong; it teaches us that by respecting our authorities and governments, we honour God.”

Pastor Khoun is one of the many Christian leaders in Laos who have been expelled from their land and villages because of their faith. The family land in Lao villages is passed down through generations, representing roots and identity. Land also serves as the means to feed their families. Yet, Christians like Khoun are being forced to leave all of it behind just because they choose to follow Christ.

‘My life is safe in Jesus’

Every day continues to be a challenge for Khoun and his family. However, even in this difficult and uncomfortable situation, he does not fail to acknowledge God’s goodness: “I am thankful to God that we have a place to stay,” he says, “and that we are able to worship with some believers in a nearby village.”

He continues to pray for better living conditions for his family and asks us to pray with him. “Please pray that my family can be released from this place,” he says. “We need land where we can build a house. Please pray that one day we can afford to build a house of our own.

“And please pray for my five children— two daughters and three sons. We were used to living together, but now all of them except one have moved away, as they have jobs in other villages.”
It is remarkable how, even under this kind of crushing pressure, Pastor Khoun is confident in Jesus. His story reminds us that following Christ might come with a price, but it also brings a security grounded in faith in Jesus that can never be taken away.

“The Bible teaches that nothing can harm me—not ghosts, black magic, poison or others who want to hurt me,” he says. “I stand strong in my faith, and I know that my life is safe in Jesus.

*Names changed for security reasons.