Metta Voraphorn answered the door with dread in her heart, already sure of what the men were going to say. Grief and pity filled their eyes as they looked at her and said the two words she feared most, “He’s dead.”
Her husband, Aroun Voraphorn, had been missing for two days when these same friends first came to visit. They were supposed to join him for a Christmas service in another part of Borikhamxai Province in Laos. Metta told them she assumed her husband had been called on short notice to preach at another church, but it had been awhile since she’d talked with him. She shared her concerns about his whereabouts due to some recent unusual events.
Three unidentified men came to their house the day before Voraphorn’s disappearance. Metta didn’t know the men or why they were there, but assumed they wanted to know about the church or Jesus. Voraphorn left home the next day to preach a Christmas service about ninety kilometers south. The three men arrived at the end of the service and entered the church. Voraphorn introduced the men to the pastor of the church and told him that two of them were his relatives. They all ate together, and then he and the men thanked the pastor and left. Metta talked with Voraphorn later that afternoon. He told her he would be late for their youngest daughter’s birthday party because he was going to buy a cake on his way home. That was the last time she spoke with him. Voraphorn never returned.
After hearing Metta’s story, Voraphorn’s friends left the house and started toward their preaching engagement. On the way, they stopped by the church where Voraphorn had preached a few days before and asked the pastor if he had heard from or seen him. The pastor hadn’t. The men thanked him and made their way down the jungle road. About twenty meters into the jungle, the friends saw some policemen in a huddle. As they moved closer, the men covered their mouths and clutched their stomachs as they saw the body. It was Aroun Voraphorn.
The men turned away so they could compose themselves, then approached the body. It was bloody and mutilated, but the friends would recognize that peaceful face anywhere. Voraphorn’s hands were tied tightly behind him and he had been stabbed numerous times. The rock lying next to his body had been used to smash his head, and his throat had been cut.
The two friends asked permission to take Voraphorn’s body back to their church in Vientiane. Aroun Voraphorn preached the Gospel fearlessly, always aware of the danger surrounding him. At his funeral service the day after the body was discovered, Metta encouraged the Christians in Laos to do the same—to preach the good news without fear.
When Laos became a Communist republic in 1975, the government severely restricted Christian activity. Pastors, evangelists, and anyone associated with the Christian church were often harassed and beaten by police and local officials. Christians have been tortured and imprisoned for refusing to sign documents renouncing their faith. Ten years before his death, Voraphorn had been imprisoned for his faith.
Aroun Voraphorn knew there would be consequences for his faith on both sides of eternity. Yet he chose to follow Christ no matter what the consequences would be here on earth. At his funeral, held on Christmas Eve, Metta pleaded with Christians in Laos to continue preaching the Gospel fearlessly, just as her husband had done.
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