A Journey of a Khmu Pastor
A Conversation with Rev. Aliya Tammavong
By Jenise Lee
LAOS PARTNERSHIP
A ministry of the United Bible Societies
Acharn (Pastor) Aliya is sixty nine year old and a Khmu pastor at Viengkham Church in Vientiane even though he originates from Xieng Khouang. The Khmu are the largest ethnic minority group in Laos with an estimated population of 450,000. The first Khmu Christians can be traced back to 1800s and were the first ethnic minority people group to respond to the Gospel. Aliya is a believer because of his father-in-law. More than receiving the Good News, Aliya has been molded into the person he is today because of the Bible. This is his story.
'My father-in-law met a missionary in town. The missionary shared that Gospel with him and asked him to become Christian. My father-in-law replied that he could not make such an important decision for himself so he invited the missionary back to their village.' At the village, the missionary was introduced to the chief.
Like many ethnic minorities, faith for the Khmu is not a private and individual affair but a decision that should be made collectively as a community. What happened next was described matter-of-factly. 'The whole town came together and agreed to become Christians'. Overnight, 120 families accepted Jesus as the Lord and Saviour. It was 1959 and Aliya was only 18 years old.
© United Bible Societies 2010
Initially, when they had no Bibles, they would listen to the missionary and pastor. Since no Khmu scripture was available then, the village of Long San read and sang in Lao. Many in the village were illiterate but because of the Lao scripture, many learn to read including Aliya.
Aliya received his first Bible in 1960. Learning to read the Bible changed his life. As he grasped the immensity of his new faith, his old life style changed. He stopped getting drunk and gave up smoking. For others in the village, many gave up drinking and stopped praying to other gods. A few months later, through a dream, Aliya received his calling to serve which came true two months later when he was asked to go to seminary to train as a pastor. He was one of the 170 Khmu and Hmong who were trained by the German missionaries.
But life has not always been a well-paved road for Aliya. Even as he shares about the 'revelation of Lao PDR', the three years living in the forest hiding from the communists, watching his son die from starvation, his smile is never lost from the face of this gentle saint. 'I read my Bible in the forest and asked God, "Why is this happening to my family?" God led him to read the book of Job and Aliya found great comfort. 'It is not for us to be angry with God.'
The Bible has indeed been his firm foothold. 'Every night, every day, every hour, I look to the Bible'. Sometimes he says when he reads but cannot understand, he will pray for understanding. 'If you decide to follow Jesus, you will never be disappointed.' Such is his belief that as a pastor, he practices corporate reading in his church.
For the young son that passed on during those dark years, Aliya has been given another son. Kingphet, in his mid twenties, is currently serving as a pastor in a Lao Evangelical Church. The Khmu are still waiting for a Bible to call their own. Every year, Lao Partnership continues to supply the Church in Laos Bibles, New Testaments and portions.