Taking the Gospel to Every Tribe, Tongue, and Nation in Laos!

By God’s Grace, We’ll Go

During the Finishing the Task conference in 2017, the list of Unengaged Unreached People Groups (UUPGs) was distributed and those attending were challenged to commit to engaging and reaching the remaining groups.

Team Expansion had a history working in Laos, so our president Doug Lucas stepped out in faith, believing that God would use us to engage the then-58 identified UUPGs in Laos. This became known as the Final58.

Laos is deeply rooted in animistic and tribal religions, and its people are often hostile to the Gospel. Reaching the Final58 would be spiritually, physically, and emotionally very difficult for those who undertook the task.

Recalculating, and Again

First, we needed to confirm the list, so we partnered with believers who could visit remote areas while surveying water needs. When all the data was gathered and analyzed, it showed that there were actually 151 UUPGs in Laos.

Another agency volunteered to take the Gospel to a few of these groups. Team Expansion and our in-country partner committed to reach the rest.

Some of these UUPGs lived in areas that could not be reached by roads. In some cases, the village was a two-day walk from the nearest trail. And even that trail itself was a hinderance, requiring great difficulty for someone on a motorbike to navigate. These people were the very definition of remote.

We partnered with missionaries in the country to recruit and train national missionaries to take the Gospel to these villages. We deployed the first round of graduates in 2018. Since then, we established a second training ground in another region of the country and sent out more than 100 national missionaries in pairs to find and engage unreached people.

When COVID hit and travel was restricted, the strategy changed. Pairs of missionaries were embedded in villages. Some worked as day laborers. Some had a business, like retail sales or growing and selling produce. Because of these plans, they could remain in the village even when travel was restricted. They were able to develop deeper relationships and the Kingdom continued to grow.

The Cost

These missionaries faced hardship.
They rode motorcycles for days up into the mountains on nearly impassible roads.
They walked for miles to reach remote villages.
Some slept in the jungle because they were rejected by a village and had no place to stay.
Some were robbed along the way.
Some were arrested.
Some were beaten and driven from the village.
One missionary is imprisoned in an unknown location.
But they persevered.

No Longer Unengaged!

Not all of the villages embraced the Gospel. Some are still very resistant. Repeatedly, the national missionaries went to the village, shared the Gospel with dozens of people, and still saw no interest. Sometimes they met men and women who were drawn to the Good News, but fear of persecution overcame their longing for Truth. In one village, a man chose to follow Christ, but the others in his community tore down his house and drove him from the village.

But the teams also experienced victory for the Kingdom. There are currently churches meeting regularly in 31 of those groups! Many others have seekers regularly gathering to explore the Bible together. In many areas, one or two lone men or women have surrendered their lives to Christ and are eager to follow Him, even if they do so all alone.

As of early 2023, workers have engaged all 151 identified groups in Laos with the Gospel! There’s still a great need for discipleship, training, and prayer. In many ways, the work in Laos is just beginning, but every single group in Laos now has heard the Gospel at least once. This is a huge victory. This is a moment to pause, celebrate, and consider the grace of the Lord. And then we’ll get back to work.