Thursday, April 15, 2010

Praises and Prayer Request: Former Witchdoctor and Family accepted Christ

Today, a Hmong Laotian came to the hospital here in Chiang Khong. The sick person is a witch doctor from a village close to the Laos/China border. The sick person has been demon possessed and the demons are making him sick. His children did the prescribed ceremonies and sacrificed many pigs and cows like the demons requested. But the witchdoctor didn’t get any better. The demons wanted even more sacrifices. The man almost died. He and members of his family decided to become Christians. Today I took Kia and the girls at the girls’ house to visit him and his family at the hospital here in Chiang Khong. They told me and the girls that they have no recourse left except to accept Jesus as their Savior! We prayed with them and they prayed to receive Christ! Five people, including the (former) witchdoctor accepted the Lord! Praise God! I would like to ask you to pray for the former witchdoctor, that God would heal him while he’s at the hospital. Pray also that they would stand firm and steadfast in their faith. The son of the sick man used to be a teacher in Laos and now he works for the Laotian government. When he decided to accept Christ, he will have to leave his work, all of it, because the government officials in the district where he lives don’t like Christians. Please pray for all of them.

Thank you and God bless you.

Pastor Somboon

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Visit to Luang Prabang Province, Laos - March 24-27, 2010



These are photos of the brothers and sisters we visited in Laos March 24-27. We went to Luang Prabang Province. Travel was difficult because the village we went to was deep in the forest. The trail was very steep and the village was the last village on that road. It was actually the highest peak in Luang Prabang. But when we got there, we felt very คุ้ม because the Christians there love God and we really felt the presence of God there.

The village we went to was Khai’s village. Khai is a former Bible student at the Bible Training Center here in Chiang Khong. When he returned to his village after studying Bible, his grandparents were not believers. His grandfather was a witchdoctor in the village. Upon his return to the village, Khai stayed at his grandfather’s house, and slept close to a spirit altar. Every night Khai prayed that his grandfather would accept the Lord, but it looked like that was impossible because his grandfather was not interested in the gospel at all. After that, the spirit altar that was set up right in the middle of the house would fall over on the floor almost every night for no reason. Then Khai’s grandfather got very sick. He felt like someone or something was pinching his heart, making it very difficult to breathe. He was sick like this for many days. Khai’s grandfather then decided to accept Christ. At the exact moment that he prayed to receive Christ, he was healed instantly. Khai and his parents then burned the spirit altar and all spirit paraphernalia and the entire family has been well since then.
There are many demons in this village. Every day a demon spirit appears in the village and someone gets sick. After Khai and his family moved back to the village after Khai had finished studying Bible with us, Khai and his family prayed and battled with the demon spirits. Many non-believers in the village are recognizing that since they returned, the demon spirits don’t bother them nearly as much as they used to.

Khai is now married and his wife just gave birth about 2 months ago. And, there are many people in surrounding villages who want to accept Christ. Khai and his father are receiving phone calls from people who want to accept the Lord, but due to travel difficulties are unable to come see them.
Please pray for me as well. I really want to help the Hmong in Laos. The villages are far, really far. Children from 4th grade up need to leave their house at 5 AM in order to get to school on time. In some villages, some children are walking up to 4 kilometers without shoes. Some of the children are also afraid to walk through the forest. Please pray for Khai and his family’s ministry there. Don’t pray for things to be better, more comfortable because when we are comfortable, we tend to not be on fire for God. But pray that God will protect and take care of those in Laos who belong to Him.

God bless you.

Somboon