News / Thoughts

Laos: Miraculous healing

“Many people in Laos have become believers because they were healed or because they have seen other people get healed. I barely need to go out and evangelise because people come to me for healing or to hear more about Jesus,” says Beun*, a believer in Laos with an incredible healing ministry – he’s the man pictured below with the notebook, although we can’t show his face for security reasons.

Not everyone in his community has been happy about Beun’s work sharing the gospel, but your support has enabled Open Doors local partners to provide him with practical aid and encouragement.

Beun’s story

Beun became a Christian after he met Christians who cared for his dying brother. “When I heard that Jesus is the King of Kings, and when I heard that Jesus is love, I immediately decided to follow Him, even though this was the first time I had ever heard about Jesus,” Beun says.

Later, when his wife became ill, he took her to meet those same Christians, who prayed for her healing. She was healed, and also decided to become a Christian.

Healings and miracles

Been then began to pray for healing for others. One person came to him with kidney stones. Beun says, “He told me that he didn’t know what to do. He asked me if Jesus could help him. I said: ‘Jesus can help you, but I can’t.'”

Beun says, “I prayed for him. During the night, at midnight, he had severe pain in his kidney. It got even worse, and he had never experienced so much pain before in his life. In a vision or a dream, he saw a man with long hair and white clothes come to him and pour water on him. The water came into his mouth, and the more water he got into his mouth the better he felt.”

On another occasion, Beun prayed for a man with a brain tumour. He had suffered with pain in his head for eight years, and had visited several hospitals and doctors, but everyone told him the same thing: they couldn’t help him. He had advanced cancer, and not much time left to live.

“I do not want to die, can you help me?” he asked Beun. Beun told him that there is just one person that could help him, and that he needed to accept Christ. They prayed together, and then Beun told him to go home. One week later, all the pain in the man’s head was gone and he was healed. To this day he is a follower of Jesus, and the pain has never returned.

Targeted and imprisoned

However, Beun has also experienced persecution because of his ministry. The government of Laos sees Christianity as a Western religion, and Christians are seen as enemies of the state. Local authorities wanted to capture Beun, so they posted photographs of him in the region and asked people to contact the police if they saw him.

Last year, Beun was sentenced to five months in prison. The prison cell was very small and 22 people, including Beun, shared a room of just four square meters. Beun says. “But even when I was arrested, I felt that it was a part of God’s plan.”

His neighbours have also been unhappy about Beun sharing his faith with others. Beun’s animals were attacked. “Someone poisoned my chickens. They all died. A week later someone shot my buffalo.”

Thanks to the support of Open Doors, he has been able to build a new home further from the village, with a separate building for growing mushrooms, so that they are out of the reach of the villagers who killed his animals. “I want to say thanks to all our brothers and sisters in Christ who have listened to my story. God bless you… I am so happy that Jesus is using me for his sake. If God wants me to die because of his will, I am prepared to lay down my life for Jesus.”

Along with several other pastors and leaders in the area, Beun and other Christians travel to distribute Bibles, teach and hold worship meetings in other villages.

His new house is also going to be used to train others. “We are going to teach young pastors to grow mushrooms, while at the same time they receive training in the Word of God. Then they can become self-sufficient while sharing Christ with others,” he says.

About Laos

Laos is number 24 on the Open Doors 2017 World Watch List, the annual ranking of the countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution. Through local partners and churches, Open Doors strengthens persecuted believers in Laos through provision of Christian materials, leadership training, discipleship programmes, coming alongside the Laotian believers when they suffer physical attacks and expulsion from their families and communities, through advocacy, relief and practical aid.

*Name changed for security reasons

Pray now…

• That God would continue to work through Beun to bring healing and the good news of the gospel to many
• For protection and provision for Beun and other believers in Laos.