Christians refuse to deny Christ in Laos

Laos (MNN) — Twelve Laotian Christian believers have been imprisoned simply for refusing to give up their faith in Jesus Christ. According to World Help , three believers were forced to appear before police authorities in the Phin district of Laos and were arrested. Nine others have been imprisoned in just the past four or five weeks.

In each case, the police gave these Christian leaders and church members the opportunity to deny their faith in order to avoid prison.

Can you imagine the pressure these men faced at the hands of their Laotian police accusers? But, not one of them recanted.

The authorities at Phin District Prison were so upset at the believers for refusing to give up their faith in Jesus that the police forced many of them into around-the-clock hard labor with only a single meal per day. Others have had their hands and feet bound in wooden stocks. This is the way the worst criminals are treated in Laotian prisons. Family members who were allowed to visit their relatives in prison reported these abuses to our ministry partner. For security reasons, I cannot share the name of our partner who sent me this report.

World Help’s mission to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth is not simply a matter of making good plans and providing adequate resources – important as these actions are. Incidents like these remind us that every day brothers and sisters around the world are placing their lives at risk for the sake of the Gospel.