Five faithful years of prayer: A story of faith, restoration, and persecution

In the forests of Laos sits a church, but if you saw it, you wouldn’t even know it’s a church – just a tiny space that’s part of a small hut, with a plastic tarp for a roof and no plumbing or electricity. It’s on government-owned land and could be shut down at any moment for being unregistered. Yet each week, a small congregation gathers, worshipping underground and under pressure.

Among them is Kanya, whose five faithful years of prayer would become a powerful testimony of God’s faithfulness.

Near the church, Kanya and her husband Phonesay* live in another hut, squeezing their family of six into a small structure with no basic infrastructure – one of several huts on this land, each belonging to a Christian family like theirs.

Things weren’t always this way.

A miracle that changed their lives

Kanya and Phonesay used to live in a village deeply connected to an animist belief system, where nearly everything is believed to possess a spirit, and appeasing those spirits is essential. It was so tied to their identity that believing anything else felt like turning your back on heritage and community.

They never had much reason to doubt their belief system until Kanya fell ill with severe dental issues. Nothing helped, and they couldn’t afford the animal needed for a spirit offering. That’s when someone told Kanya: “If you believe in God, He can help you.” Phonesay encouraged her to try, promising he’d follow her if she were healed.

“The Lord revealed something to me that made me want to follow Him,” Kanya explains. “So I decided to believe. In that moment, I put my faith in God, regained my strength, and was healed.”

The cost of following Jesus

Phonesay thought there might be time to keep his promise. “I thought, ‘If there is no persecution, I will believe later,’” he says. But persecution came quickly, and Kanya refused to recant even when Phonesay’s family expelled her from their home.

The villagers gave Phonesay an ultimatum. “They told me, ‘Believe like your wife or leave her … if you don’t divorce, you must leave with her,’” he remembers. Phonesay chose not to fight for their marriage, and Kanya was forced to leave the village while pregnant with their third child.

“All night long, from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m., they kept me in the house then forced me to leave the village,” she remembers. “So, I fled and stayed with my relatives … I was willing to sacrifice my husband and children for my faith.”

Five years of prayer and waiting

Away from her family, Kanya kept growing in her faith, walking a long way to attend a small church of about 20 believers. She prayed constantly for her and Phonesay’s reunion and regularly shared the Gospel with him by phone. “Every time we’d have a call, she’d share the Gospel with me,” he remembers.

Still, he hesitated, turning instead to drugs and alcohol. For five years this was the status quo – and during that time, Phonesay remarried. “Many people looked down on me and said, ‘You believed in God, but you gained nothing,’” Kanya says. “I said nothing. I just smiled. I believed we would reconcile because God is great.”

A marriage restored by God’s grace

Even then, God was at work in Phonesay. Despite his new marriage, he felt empty. “I didn’t find meaning with that life,” he says. “I wanted a new life.” Slowly his heart softened, and he gave his life to Christ, at which his new wife, horrified, divorced him.

By God’s grace, that divorce opened the door to the reconciliation Kanya had prayed for. Five years after persecution drove them apart, Kanya and Phonesay remarried, finally united in their pursuit of Jesus.

Persecuted once again

Kanya returned to the village, and the couple planned a worship service to celebrate and publicly declare their faith. However, not everyone welcomed it. Villagers arrived with hammers, shouting that they would tear their house down. Phonesay ran to the police, but they ignored him.

Kanya sat nearby and watched their home be destroyed, choosing to pray and sing instead of retaliate. “They acted that way because they don’t know the Lord,” she says. “The Lord commands us not to repay evil with evil, but to overcome evil with good.” Soon after, the couple was expelled from the village entirely. “Being expelled felt like I killed someone,” Phonesay says.

Building a new home of faith

The couple was given an abandoned home, and over time other expelled families joined them from surrounding villages – eventually eight in total. They asked to be relocated to a rural area and were granted a barren stretch of land. Open Doors partners helped provide construction supplies, food, and support to clear it.

There, for the first time, these believers could worship freely together. “Living in the forest with other believers made me happy because we shared the same faith,” Phonesay says. “The Lord gave us time to worship Him. We worshipped Him every day.” Open Doors partners also brought Bible training, persecution preparedness training, and a livelihood project to help the families rebuild.

Life in the forest isn’t easy, and this community knows it could all disappear – any complaint from a neighbouring village could bring trouble. Their church remains unregistered and illegal, one of many underground congregations across Laos vulnerable to local officials who often side against them.

Still, Kanya and Phonesay serve faithfully. “If we face trouble or problems, we must lean on God,” Kanya says. “Sometimes it is His plan, or He wants to teach us … We must be patient. God will not abandon us.” This is God’s work, strengthening His people under pressure most of us can’t imagine, showing that even forced underground, His Church will never be stamped out.

Please join us in praying for these believers:

• “Please pray that the Lord will provide a better house so we can sleep comfortably,” Phonesay asks.
• Pray for Phonesay’s family to understand each other and serve the Lord together.
• Kanya is dealing with sickness – pray for her healing and that God would grant her desire to serve Him more.
• Pray for Kanya and Phonesay’s children, who can’t attend school, that they’ll grow in knowledge and in the Lord.
• “Pray that whatever happens, I will stand firm and never deny Him,” Kanya asks.

Stand with believers like Kanya and Phonesay

Around the world, believers just like this couple are worshipping God despite real danger – risking their homes, their families, and their safety simply to gather in His name. Your support helps provide practical relief, Bible training, and livelihood support to persecuted Christians rebuilding their lives, just as it did for this small community in the forests of Laos.