Freedom Behind Walls

“We will certainly never forget this evening,” assures Mario, the mission leader. “While we were talking about hope and eternal life on the Thai side, we heard bombs falling across the border in the jungle of Myanmar.” The meeting with 80 Burmese youths from the Karen tribe was very moving: "These kids are allowed to attend simple asylum schools in Thailand, but their families still live in Myanmar. That evening, many young people asked for prayer. Fifteen accepted Jesus into their lives, and over 50 were very grateful to receive a bilingual Bible in Karen and English from us."

The storm must be silenced

In Thailand and Cambodia, the Swiss team also visited huge prisons.

“Just as we were about to start our event in the courtyard of a Cambodian women's prison, a menacing storm rolled in,” Mario recalls. “We prayed and resisted the immense clouds. And lo and behold – the storm immediately subsided!”

After presenting a biblical message and hearing some of the participants' life stories, several women accepted Jesus' gift of forgiveness. "We were amazed at how open the guards and women were to the faith!

It was only later that we learned from the prison administration that women who had become Christians at an earlier stage very soon stood out because of their improved lifestyle. As a result, they were often pardoned and released early," reports Mario. For years, local pastors from the ACP network have been supporting relatives in this area and helping those released from prison to reintegrate into everyday life.

Freedom behind walls

In a Cambodian prison on the border with Vietnam, more than half of the 3,500 inmates already follow Jesus and form a huge congregation. In another prison, our team gave a guitar to the worship leader, who still has five years to serve. Many of the inmates, mostly former Buddhist criminals, experience a freedom within the prison walls that only God can give.

Unbreakable Laotian

One of the most interesting encounters our team had was with Brother Sri*. He belongs to the Laotian Bru people and founded several village churches in Laos. For this reason, he was arrested by the police. But neither the miserable hygienic conditions nor the abominable prison food could break his spirit. Sri tells us about a Swiss missionary couple who came to Laos 100 years ago and dedicated their lives to providing the Bru with medicine against the epidemics that were rampant at the time. “I too want to give my life for the mission of Jesus,” he says.

Sri now lives with his family in Thailand and serves his compatriots in the greater Bangkok area. The Laotian migrant workers cultivate huge rice fields here, which are crisscrossed by numbered canals. Each canal is assigned to a group of workers, and each group has a different day off each week. As a result, Brother Sri's so-called canal church holds services not only on Sundays, but every day of the week.

The gospel for young and old

The Swiss team served at three Buddhist state schools with fun games and a crash course in English. 1,700 students also heard the gospel, and many joined in the closing prayer. “At one of the schools, three teachers beamed at us with joy. They revealed themselves to be Christians and were delighted that we had come,” Mario recounts. A large-scale evangelism event in a remote location where there had never been a church before brought the outreach to a powerful conclusion: a canopy for 400 people was erected on the main street. The event began with dancing, theater, and singing and ended with numerous people giving their lives to Christ.