Author: Jong Ho Lee

By Jong Ho Lee – Kanya and Phonesay’s house was dismantled by their Laotian neighbors for becoming Christian. “Those who don’t belong to us must leave now,” the villagers shouted. “We’ll tear the house down now!” Along with seven other families, they were expelled from the village for “disrupting harmony” and abandoning traditional beliefs. They now live in the forest. The Laotian Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but enforcement adheres to local customs more than national law. “The officers asked if I would renounce my faith,” Kanya said per translation. “I answered firmly that I would not.” If a church…

By Jong Ho Lee — Edwin Hubble’s 1929 discovery of the expanding universe shook up Albert and the entire scientific world because it undermined their cherished notion that the universe had no beginning. If it had a beginning, there might be a Creator. “Philosophically, the notion of a beginning of the present order is repugnant to me,” scientist Arthur Eddington said. “I should like to find a genuine loophole.” Ultimately, the ground-breaking star-gazing Hubble did with the then-new telescope on the mountain crest overlooking Los Angeles caused so many physicists and astronomers to capitulate. The galaxy, Hubble observed, was not…

By Jong Ho Lee — Five times Banaz Mahmod went to the UK police. Five times the cops didn’t believe her. Then her father, uncle and cousins brutally killed her. To save the family’s honor. “They let these people come into the house and take her and her life, stuff her into a suitcase, and to take her away in a hired car miles away, to be buried in an abandoned home like she was trash that just got taken out, says Banaz’s sister, Bekhal, who testified in court against her own family. Welcome to Islam. The West, which views…

By Jongho Lee — Every Thursday evening, about 20 people gather for a devotional – not in a traditional church, but in Minecraft. This is how Florian Homberger, 43, is a Reformed pastor in Müllheim, in the Swiss canton of Thurgau, evangelizes. Surrounded by blocks, virtual buildings and digital landscapes, Florian interacts with other players all around the world – and he introduces them to Jesus. At his online “church service,” about half of the participants had no previous connection to the church. “The traditional church is unfamiliar territory for many people,” Florian Homberger says. “But Minecraft is their living…

By Jong Ho Lee – In 1970, Joseph Kong walked through the jungle day and night for three days after communist forces took control of Kratie Province in Cambodia. “During that time, I was so afraid of dying. I felt death,” Joseph said. “That night I cried out to God. I promised, ‘If You save me, I will worship and serve God.’” At the time, Cambodia was in the middle of a civil war, and many people lost their lives under the Khmer Rouge regime. Joseph grew up in a Catholic family and attended church, but as he grew older,…

By Jong Ho Lee – Stanley Praimnath was on the 81st floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center, right where United Airline Flight 175 hit on Sept. 11, 2001. Most people from the impact zone died. Stanley survived. “Every piece of furniture was mangled,” Praimnath says. “The only desk that stood firm was the desk I was hiding under, and my Bible was on top of that desk.” Osama bin Laden’s terror strikes against the Twin Towers and the Pentagon unleashed a wave of terror attacks we are still experiencing today. Success breeds imitation. It’s a good…