12/21/2021 Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) – It’s pitch black in a sweltering truck. As it travels, you catch the smells of spices, hear the sounds of traffic, sirens, and people laughing. You grab your hands as they shake from fear, and the sound of your heart drowns everything out as you near the border of Laos and Thailand. If they find you, the police will arrest you and dispose of the precious cargo you know thousands of Lao Christians desperately need.
Underground missionaries are forced to smuggle Bibles into countries like Laos because it is illegal to own a Bible. It is the only way to bridge the gap between the hundreds of thousands of Christians and their limited access to the Gospel.
Twenty-five years ago, it was rumored that 300,000 Hmong Christians lived throughout Southeast Asia with less than a thousand New Testaments to be found among their communities. Today, over 1 million Hmong Christians live in Southeast Asia. Unfortunately, the number of Bibles did not rise with the number of Christians.
A pastor who works with over 1,000 Hmong churches contacted International Christian Concern (ICC) about the desperate need for Bibles for rural churches. Pastor John told ICC he sent a missionary into Laos to plant churches and evangelize. A few years later, the missionary successfully planted four churches and had 1,200 congregants combined.
The demand for Bibles far exceeded John’s capacity to provide.
Discover how ICC worked with rural churches to deliver Bibles to Lao Christians in The Gospel Unchained: Part 2, on Thursday.
For interviews, please contact Olivia Miller, Communications Coordinator: press@persecution.org
