Continent: Asia
Capital: Vientiane
Population: 7,873,000
% Urban: 39.6%
Population Under 15 yrs: 32%
Official Language: Lao
Languages: 88
Literacy Rate: 73%
Life Expectancy: 68.1 yrs
% Christian: 3.4%
% Evangelical: 2.6%
Largest Religion: Buddhism
% Largest Religion: 57.3%
People Groups: 184
Least Reached People Groups: 142
% Unevangelized: 53%
Pray for Laos
Laos did have a period of great growth in the church throughout the land in the 1970s. However, due to changes and extreme persecution many of the leaders of the churches fled the nation by the late 1970s. This leaves a lack of trained leadership that churches are still struggling with to this day.
The majority of Laos has never had the opportunity to hear the gospel message. Nearly 5,000 Buddhist temples spread across the land, while only about 250 churches are in the nation. People hear about Buddhism and the tribal religions more often than about Jesus.
One of the challenges in spreading the gospel is that missionaries are not allowed into the nation at all. Missionaries that do get in must come in as a worker for some other reason, often for a business or teaching English.
The great diversity of races and languages also creates a challenge for spreading the gospel message. Among the Tai tribes, there are 15 different dialects and very seldom do they work together among themselves. This also creates the problem with translation of the Bible into a language the people can read and understand.
Various media ministries, such as radio, literature and cassette tapes have been proven successful in getting the message out, though still limited by language barriers.
Points to pray:
Training of new leaders in the church
Protection and strength during persecution
Translation of the Bible in the languages of the people
Open hearts to respond to the gospel message
Open doors for more missionaries
Information and stats received from Operation World
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