Twenty-six years ago, a missionary walked into Ta Lao’s village and shared the gospel for the first time.
Ta Lao was a third-generation witch doctor. In their culture, every village has only one designated witch doctor, and the role passed from father to son. His father had raised him to become one, and now Ta Lao was raising his own son, Ajarn Mai, to become the fourth generation.
His wife heard the gospel first. Worn down by years of sacrifices and rituals, she was the first in their family to follow Jesus.
Ta Lao wanted to believe too, but fear held him back. He had lived alongside the spirits his whole life, and he didn't know what they would do if he turned away.
But the missionary kept coming back.
One night, he brought Ta Lao to a tree where a spirit house stood and challenged him to face his greatest fear. If God was truly greater than the spirits, then even if they tore down the spirit house, the spirits would not be able to harm him.
They prayed. They drove out the spirit. Then they knocked the spirit house to the ground.
Ta Lao waited in fear for something to happen.
Nothing did.
That silence became his testimony.
It showed him that the God he had heard about wasn't just real. He was greater than everything Ta Lao had spent his life fearing.
That was the turning point.
Ta Lao chose to follow Jesus.
And with that choice came a freedom that would reshape his family for generations.
He was expected to pass the witch doctor tradition on to Ajarn Mai. But he didn't.
Because he was the only witch doctor in the village, there was no one left to take his place. The line that had run unbroken for three generations stopped with him.
But Ta Lao didn't stop at his own freedom. He started telling others about it.
The transformation began at home.
Before he followed Jesus, his family was poor, and his children were caught in cycles of alcohol and destructive living. But as they watched their father change, they chose to follow Jesus too. Slowly, their household began to look different.
Ajarn Mai felt that change most personally.
He had lived through many of the same destructive patterns as his siblings. During a difficult season, he came home — to a father who was no longer ruled by fear, and to a community of believers who welcomed him without judgment and helped him rebuild.
He saw the transformation in his father. He saw it in his village.
And eventually, he chose to follow Jesus himself.
Ajarn Mai went on to serve at a local church, not as a pastor, but as a faithful minister to his community.
Ta Lao also continued serving God. He went to Huay Hia village to share the gospel with people who carried the same fears he once had. Along the way, he taught them how to make brooms and baskets to support their livelihoods.
He knew what it meant to live afraid. And he wanted others to know what it meant to be free.
The gospel spread slowly and imperfectly.
The village went through seasons of persecution and division, and the story is still being written.
Today, roughly 100 people in that village gather for worship every Sunday.
Not everyone has come to faith. But the hostility that once met the gospel has given way to something softer.
Ta Lao recently died at 81.
The line of witch doctors that had passed through three generations of his family ended with him.
But in its place, he left something else behind:
Faith.
A faith carried forward through his children, his grandchildren, and everyone his life touched.
One man found freedom.
His family saw it.
His village heard about it.
And a line that had continued for generations was broken — so that a new story could begin.