Laos

Share God's love with the kindhearted, family-oriented people of Laos, by helping others in practical ways like Mary* and her staff who are building and running a preschool in an impoverished area with many drug-related issues. Such active engagement has a positive impact on the wider community.

Share love through making furniture and teaching others how to learn relevant transferable skills that give them a trade and an income.

Share love by teaching skills

Laos qualifies as a "least developed country” by United Nation standards but aims to graduate from the list by 2024. Recent economic reforms have fostered growth in the private business sector and have opened the doors to outside influences. Opportunities for business abound.

The country is ethnically diverse with a complex mix of 138 people groups all of whom have distinct cultures and often their own language. Buddhism is woven deeply into the culture, strongly influenced by the animist beliefs of the many minority people groups. This can be challenging for those who follow Jesus (some 110,000 currently), even though the government allows them to practice their faith.

Share love by working together with nationals to set up and run economically viable businesses. Like Jesus follower Jose*, who moved to Laos to “train the guys to learn how to make quality furniture, so that they might learn how to run a business and start their own.” By teaching carpentry, local young men gain a trade they can take with them wherever they go, that will support their families economically for the long-term. Jesus followers from overseas bring other skills, too, such as how to run a restaurant, or support essential construction work in poor areas.

Jesus followers in Laos

Although Laos is a nation of villages and some large cities, international workers can live alongside national Jesus followers. You will give both friendship, practical help and share your job-enriching skills to a diverse ethnic range of nationals. Through your practical role modelling, you may inspire local people to consider another way of looking at life that shows the God of the Universe cares for them.

Whether you come for a long, or short time, or whether you pray, or invest in lives through financial support, there are many ways for you to share God’s love with the people in Laos.

* Name changed