The Story of an Underground Church in Laos, also under pressure

When these believers lost their home, they didn’t know what the future held. But God is faithful.

Kanya*’s church is underground and illegal.

You wouldn’t even know it’s a church. It’s just a tiny section of a small hut. The roof is a plastic tarp. There is no plumbing or electricity.

The home where the church meets is on land owned by the government—the same government that could shut down the church at any moment for being an unregistered church. The small congregation gathers each week, worshiping underground … and under pressure.

Kanya and her husband, Phonesay*, live in another nearby hut, squeezing their family of six into a small structure with no basic infrastructure. Their hut is just one of several on this small piece of land; each belongs to a Christian family like Kanya’s.

But Kanya and her husband know it could be worse. They know what could happen if the surrounding community and authorities decide to shut down or even demolish their church. They know because …

… it has happened before. And when you watch Kanya’s story, you’ll be amazed at their courageous faith—and by God’s faithfulness:

Watch these believers who live their faith underground … and under pressure:

As her home was destroyed by local villagers, even her neighbors, Kanya sat at a nearby house and watched. All she could think to do was pray—and sing. “I sang a song called ‘Thank the Lord. Thank, Jesus,’” she says, reciting some of the lyrics:

“Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah.

He gives His love, His love.

Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah.

His mercy is the greatest, greatest.”

Eventually, the couple was given an abandoned home while the authorities tried to figure out what to do with them. Months passed, and persecution expanded to surrounding villages as well. Multiple families were expelled from their own communities and sent to live in the abandoned house with Kanya and Phonesay.

The families—now eight of them in total, including Kanya’s and Phonesay’s—asked their persecutors and the local authorities if they could go to a rural area to find a more permanent place to live. Their request was granted. “[The authorities] said, ‘You have farms—you Jesus people must move there,’” Kanya says.

The area they went to was barely livable—undeveloped land, made up of simple subsistence farms in the middle of the dense forests of Laos. Open Doors partners heard what had happened and were able to help with some basic construction supplies and food and helped clear the land for new huts. Even so, life for the Christian families was not going to be easy.

But God was faithful. The new collection of huts in the woods was to be a place where, for the first time, these persecuted Christians could worship freely with one another. “Living in the forest with other believers made me happy because we shared the same faith,” Phonesay says. “The Lord gave us time to worship Him. We worshiped Him every day.”

This is the current status quo for Phonesay, Kanya and the other believers in this part of Laos. They are all people forced from their homes for their faith … all finding solace in the mountainous forests of Laos. Their lives are not easy, and they hope for more. But at least right now, they have a church and each other.

Yet they know at any moment it could all disappear. “There is another problem—the villagers made a boundary around the land and do not allow us to expand the area,” Kanya says. “This land belongs to the government, but I am not afraid; I just lean on the Lord.”

They also know that any complaints from any community could result in renewed persecution. They’ve already been warned about sharing their faith outside of the boundaries set around their small clump of huts. Kanya and Phonesay are still deeply marked by their experience of watching their home destroyed because they hosted a worship service. They know this could easily happen again.

This is true for many underground churches in Laos. They are officially illegal because they are unregistered—there are only three groups permitted to register churches in the country, and every other group of believers is forced to worship in a legal gray area, operating only as long as the authorities don’t care to enforce the law. Additionally, in rural areas, local officials wield even more power and often respond to cultural or ethnic disputes by shutting down these unregistered churches or refusing to prosecute violent reprisals against Christian communities.

That’s why we must step into the lives of persecuted believers and walk with them. When we stand with Christians like Kanya and Phonesay through our prayers, presence and support, God can use us to strengthen churches to persevere in their faith under increasing pressure.

The bold faith of Kanya and Phonesay shows the resilience of faith even in this pressure cooker. “If we face trouble or problems, we must lean on God,” Kanya says. “Sometimes, it is His plan—or He wants to teach us. It is a way to train us to grow stronger. Through trials, we understand God more. We must be patient. God will not abandon us. If we want to serve Him, He knows our hearts.”

This is God’s work: strengthening His people to serve Him, even in the midst of pressure most of us can’t imagine. He’s growing His people—people like Kanya and Phonesay in Laos—and showing that, even forced underground, His Church will never be stamped out.

*Representative names used for security reasons.