Jesus Christ, true God, has the power to overcome the devil

In 1950, a few men in a small village deep in the jungle of Laos were traveling to Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. The Holy Spirit led these men to meet an American missionary who was distributing brochures on the street. He handed a few brochures to the men. They had never heard anything about Christianity or the name of Jesus Christ. They willingly took the brochures home. One of the men in the group was my great uncle. He was the only man in the group who could read Lao. The brochure contained only a very short message: “Jesus Christ has the power to overcome the devil, and he is the true God.” The men quickly returned to the village and brought the good news to the whole community. Within a few days, it spread to the nearby villages, and the Holy Spirit converted a few hundred people to believe in Jesus Christ.

Many of the new converts were shamans, including my great uncle. They began destroying their idols and the altars set up for the worship of ancestors. They destroyed anything related to evil spirits. In addition, a miracle occurred at night when all the new converts were asleep. There were white stamps about the size of a baby’s palm that were affixed to every single home of the new believers—on the doors and walls, and on some furniture. Both the believers and unbelievers were very surprised to see the white stamps. The unbelievers passed the word around the community that the believers had abandoned the worship of their ancestors, “Their ancestors have cursed them, and they all will die.” They were waiting for the believers to be destroyed because they had turned to worship a western god called Jesus Christ. They waited and waited, but nothing happened to the new converts. The God they believed in through the brochure is the true God. He overcame all the fears in the villages. The believers praised the Lord! And they began to spread the good news even further to more villages and cities nearby.

Six months later, the Holy Spirit had multiplied hundreds of believers into thousands. Even with thousands of believers, none of them had ever seen a Bible, gone to Bible School, or realized that there were missionaries in the big cities. The elders quickly decided to return to Vientiane to find the missionary who had given them the brochure. Praise the Lord, they found him and brought him to the village. My grandfather told me that the missionary walked for three days. After three days, he could not walk anymore from exhaustion. His feet were swollen, and he had a high fever. So, the elders had to make a palanquin to carry him across many mountains and valleys to the villages, which took them almost 20 days. When he arrived, the whole village, both Christian and non-Christian people, were excited to see him. “The villagers treated the missionary like an angel,” Lor’s grandfather said. Was it because he had white skin, golden hair, blue eyes, and was tall? Not at all! But because they knew someone was coming with the word of God. He was bringing them the Christ, the Savior of the world!

The Lor family was among the first few families in the Hmong community in Laos to believe in Jesus Christ. Since then, my family has been serving the Lord and his church. I am a fourth generation Lor to do this. My son, Samuel, who now serves at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, Minn., is the fifth generation. Sadly, in 1975, the Lor family had to flee Laos due to political conflict. They relocated to Thailand, where my grandfather and father served a church with more than 3,000 members. In 1994, most of the Lor family members immigrated to the United States of America. Here we continue to serve the Hmong and American churches in the United States.

I have always been surrounded by the word of God through the missionaries and my family, especially my grandfather and father. But I initially had no desire to become a pastor. I was interested in medicine and science. Unexpectedly in 2003, one of my distant relatives, Rev. Daviv Neng Lor (retired now due to illness), brought WELS teachings to me. The distinction between law and gospel changed my views of the word of God forever! And it changed me so much that I love the word of God even more, and now I have a burning desire to share it with others.

After graduating from the WELS Pastoral Studies Institute, I established my ministry in Kansas City, Kan., with five families. Within a few years, the Lord blessed the ministry, and it grew to 120 members. My congregation, Grace Hmong Lutheran Church, decided to purchase a church building with local funds and assistance from the Church Extension Fund. At this point I thought that Kansas City would be my home and ministry until I retired. But in 2011, I unexpectedly got a call from one of the pastors in Vietnam who was interested in one of my sermons—“Saved by Grace alone, Through faith in Christ.” This Vietnamese pastor and his members were very tired of the legalistic church they were in; therefore, he wanted to know more about the grace of God and the distinction between law and gospel.

I was moved by the Holy Spirit. I took time to pray, then consulted with a few WELS pastors in the Kansas City area, especially Philip Zarling, Joel Schroeder, and Rev. Jim Plitzuweit (now retired). They were also excited to learn that people in Vietnam were eagerly awaiting WELS teachings.

I took my first trip in 2011. A few church leaders met me in my hotel room. I asked them, “Are you sure when you die, you go to heaven?” None of them said yes. I asked them why they believed this. They said, “Because we aren’t sure that we are good enough to enter heaven.” My heart was broken. They were pastors who led congregations with a few thousand members but weren’t sure themselves that they would go to heaven. “So, what about their members?” I asked myself. A voice echoed in my mind: These people won’t go to heaven unless they know the true God—Jesus Christ has the power to overcome the devil, and he is the true God. And as Paul said, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them” (Romans 10:14)? Their answer motivated me to return to Vietnam. My second visit led to more than 100 church leaders attending training. This led to the opening of the door for WELS’ ministry in Vietnam.

Praise the Lord that, starting with a handful of believers deep in the jungles of Laos, he has brought light not only to Southeast Asia, but also to many people in North America, Europe, Africa, Australia, and many more places. A small brochure with a few words—”Jesus Christ has the power to overcome the devil, and he is the true God”—was so powerful and sufficient in changing the hearts of more than 350,000 sinners to believe that Christ is their Savior. More than 150,000 of these are in Vietnam. And most of the Hmong church leaders worldwide come from this handful of believers. It will not stop there; the word of God will continue to shine its light to harvest more people for his kingdom. Neither death nor the devil nor any power under the sun can stop it from growing! “So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). This is what the Lord promises.

Recently, I was called to serve as president of the Hmong Evangelical Lutheran Church (HELC), helping support and encourage its growing ministry throughout Southeast Asia. After prayerful consideration, I accepted the call. My responsibilities will include:

• strengthening the leadership team in Southeast Asia
• helping the church continue to develop and function independently
• building and strengthening relationships with WELS

In addition to the current training programs for church leaders in Southeast Asia, I am implementing two more programs: No Child Left Behind in the Word of God and How Can Women Serve in the Ministry? These two groups have been underserved in the HELC’s ministry, but from my perspective, they are the core of the ministry for the church’s growth. It is important for them to be free not only from the bondage of the devil, but also from the men’s power in their family and the community. I would like to invite you to join me in prayer so that more children and women can be part of Christ’s kingdom. Let us join in praising the Lord for his love and mercy toward all sinners. Let us join in praising the Lord for a greater harvest of these children and women into the kingdom of God. Lord, do not let any obstacles, neither the devil nor the world’s power, hinder the outreach to these children and women. In Christ’s name, amen.

I also ask you to pray for me and my family, for the safety of the leadership team, and for my new role as the president of the HELC. Ask the Lord to protect all from the hands of the devil and the power of the world, so that we can bring Christ to the lost souls wherever they go, for the sake of the kingdom of Christ.

Lastly, I, along with my leadership team would like to thank the leaders of the WELS for their support of HELC’s training in Southeast Asia. We would also like to thank all members of WELS for their continued prayers.  May the Lord continue to bless the work of WELS throughout the world and to strengthen the ties between HELC and WELS. And the glory be to God alone, now and forever. Amen.

Written by Rev. Bounkeo Lor, President of the Hmong Evangelical Lutheran Church