Laos: Evangelist Murdered Execution-Style, “Despite Increased Persecution, the Church is Rapidly Growing”

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – An evangelical pastor in Laos who had been told to cease his “Christian activities” was murdered execution-style at his home last week, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.

A tribal Khmu leader and provincial head of the Lao Evangelical Church (LEC), 40-year-old Pastor Thongkham Philavanh, was murdered outside his home in Vanghay village, Xai District, Oudomxay Province, on Monday, July 22, MSN reports. Warned by village officials to cease his evangelistic outreach, Pastor Thongham had actively shared the gospel, showed the Jesus Film, and hosted training sessions for pastors.

On the day of his murder, the pastor had been feeding chickens behind his home, when two masked men arrived on motorcycles and spoke briefly to him, MSN reports. One of the masked men then fired seven shots into the evangelist’s head and body using a gun that had been fitted with a silencer. The killers escaped. Pastor Thongkham died upon arrival at the local hospital; he is survived by his wife and two teenage children.

The killing of Pastor Thongham follows the torture and murder of Pastor Seetoud of Don Keo village in central Laos’ Khammouane Province in October 2022, MSN reports.

“Despite a national law guaranteeing freedom of religion, persecution in Laos has been steadily increasing in the country,” MSN noted in its report. “Christians continue to be imprisoned in Laos, most of them held for a short period and then released. Local officials have been driving Protestant Christians from their villages, tearing down and burning their homes and rice silos, leaving families with no place to go. Even though the government has been informed about these incidents, it has allowed this to continue without any charges filed.

Nevertheless, MSN added: “Despite the increased persecution, the church in Laos is rapidly growing every year, with hundreds of Khmu coming to the Lord. Daily live Christian broadcasts on the Khmu Facebook page continue to attract thousands; in one three-day period, 10,000 people were watching.”

An oppressive communist government rules Buddhist-majority Laos; the southeast Asian nation ranks 21 on the US Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

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