12 March 2023
CROSS, A SIGN OF RESTORATION FOR THE BROKEN COMMUNITIES The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners (Isaiah 61:1)
Brokenness and woundedness are conditions commonly seen in certain communities and manifest in many forms. Physical brokenness occurs in war-torn zones and areas ravished by violence, while emotional and psychological brokenness occurs in areas under intense persecution. In Laos’ indigenous tribal Christian communities, Christians are weighed down by history. Being colonised by the French for 60 years and then becoming a puppet state of the Japanese, Laos was a battlefront during the Vietnam war and became the most bombarded country in history. Today, millions of unexploded American ordnances still pose a risk to inhabitants of rural areas. In addition to a difficult history, the indigenous tribal Christian communities in Laos find themselves struggling with a massive identity crisis and face quadruple persecution by the communist state, by the ethnic majority, by tribal non-Christians and finally by other tribal Christians themselves (communism-induced self-censorship). Representing the lowest stratum of Lao society, basic rights are non-existent, and dignity, education and freedom are luxuries only enjoyed by a privileged few. In the face of all these, the indigenous communities find not just salvation but also hope and strong deliverance in the power of the cross. When the word of God was translated contextually into their indigenous languages, the radical love of God gave an identity to identity-less people as they saw themselves in the narratives of the bible. Previously living in bondage to physical rulers and spiritual powers, they experienced liberation. Some physically tormented by spirits were completely healed the moment they believed. In the relative absence of external support, the word of God became like yeast in a pack of dough, with the Holy Spirit slowly transforming the community. The power of the cross also drove out fear, as the people’s confidence shifted from something previously unknown to something known. However, the process of transformation is an ongoing and painful one. In a community where the mark of a great leader is the amount of persecution and time spent in prison
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sundays with cwm 2023