With a population of 190,000 people, for countless centuries

the Koho have inhabited villages nestled in the beautiful mountains

of south-central Vietnam, with the majority in Lam Dong Province.

More than 3,000 Koho people also live in the United States, where they

were granted access as refugees after the Vietnam War, as many Koho

had fought alongside the US military. Because they fought against the

Communists, at times the Koho and other tribes have been despised as

traitors and persecuted by the Vietnamese government since the end of the war in 1975.

The main livelihood for rural Koho families is hunting and fishing, while

many families cultivate rice and coffee and grow a wide variety of fruit,

including banana, watermelon, pineapple, and mulberry.

Koho society is matrilineal. This means that after marriage the groom

moves in with his wife's family, and children take the name of their

mother. Extended Koho families often live in large houses on stilts.

For countless generations the Koho people have been animists,

worshipping numerous deities. including the sun, moon, prominent

mountains, rivers, and large trees.

Memories of an Ancient God

Despite their separation from the one true God, He graciously did not forget the Koho people. As the Apostle Paul said long ago:

“In the past, he let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy” (Acts 14:16-17).

Despite not having a written language until recently, many legends similar to accounts in the book of Genesis have been retained by the Koho and passed down through songs and poems to each new generation. God “has not left himself without testimony” among the Koho.

Although over the millennia the details of the stories have changed, some of the Koho legends include an account of a worldwide flood, which says:

“All the creatures of the earth perished in the water except two humans—a man and woman—who, accompanied by a pair of every animal and bird, took refuge in a wooden chest. The flood lasted seven days and nights. Then the man and the woman heard a chicken clucking outside of the chest, so they knew they could come out.”

Remarkably, over many centuries the Koho have also orally passed down the story of Noah’s shame (see Genesis 9:20-25). The Koho story says:

“Some years after the flood, the grandfather drank rice wine and fell into a stupor. When the eldest son saw him asleep naked, he began to mock his father. A younger son reproached his brother and covered his father with a banana leaf.”

As you may know, from the late 1800s to 1954, Vietnam was part of a French colony called Indo-China. During that time many Catholic missionaries entered the land, and today millions of people in south Vietnam are Catholics, especially among the majority Kinh (Vietnamese) people.

Catholicism also impacted the Koho tribe, especially those living in the towns. In the remote villages, however, their ancient traditional beliefs were not replaced, but were combined with Catholicism to create a toxic syncretic religion “having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5).

Desperate for God’s Word

Evangelical missionaries only commenced work among the Koho in the 1940s, more than half a century after the Catholics. They soon found many fertile hearts eager for the Gospel, and thousands of Koho repented of their sins, denounced their spirit worship and idolatry, and embraced the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Koho believers were desperate for the Bible in their own language, as most of them struggle to understand Vietnamese. When the Koho New Testament was finally published in 1967, having God’s Word in their heart language made an immediate and powerful impact on Koho society.

By 1998, the Koho Evangelical churches had a combined 57,000 believers, which was almost half of the population at the time. In that year, now over a quarter of a century ago, Asia Harvest printed and delivered our first Koho Bibles, even though they are viewed as contraband by the Communist government in Vietnam.

The years have rolled on, and the Koho Church continues to walk with God. In 2009 the full Bible was translated, but over the years, due to the challenge of doing Christian work in Vietnam, the number of new Koho Bibles has dwindled, falling far behind the need. The Koho Bible is NOT available in Vietnam, and printing it is considered illegal. 

Late last year, Koho church leaders expressed their urgent need for Bibles, having been largely starved of God’s Word for the past two decades.

Our co-workers in Vietnam immediately went to work to meet the request of the Koho churches, and because of support we have received for our Asia Bible Fund, we recently printed and successfully delivered 20,000 full Koho Bibles!

While we cannot share too many details for security reasons, below is a photo of some of the Bibles before they made their way to the Koho villages, where thousands of Christians have given thanks to God for not forgetting them and for helping them access His Word again after such a long time.

To everyone who has prayed and given to the Asia Bible Fund, we thank you on behalf of our Koho brothers and sisters!

Thanks from a Koho Church Leader

“My name is Brother R. and I lead Bible study groups among the Koho churches in my area.

I was raised in a nominal Christian family, but I grew up without a real faith in Jesus. I was taken to church by my parents, but I hooked up with bad influences and went astray into this world.

One day when I was almost 20, my pastor told me how to be a real disciple of Jesus. I was touched, and at that moment I invited Jesus into my heart. He completely transformed my life, and my addiction to alcohol and tobacco instantly disappeared.

I then wanted to study God’s Word, but we didn’t have any Bibles in our Koho language. I could get a Bible in Vietnamese, but many things are hard to understand. So I prayed to have His Word in my language, and recently every family in our churches have received a free gift of a Koho Bible! We thank God for this amazing answer to prayer.

Now we use our Bibles in our study groups, and we are understanding the truth better. We also use the Bibles to share the Gospel with non-believers, and some of them have come to the Lord.

Thank you for providing His Word to us! It has changed our lives, and we are deeply thankful to you for providing these Bibles for free.”

Soon, we anticipate that requests for thousands more Koho Bibles will arrive.

When people give to the Asia Bible Fund it enables us to respond quickly to this and many other needs for Bibles throughout Asia. Over the years, we have printed or provided God’s Word in 159 different Asian languages.

We invite you to pray for the Koho people, and if you would like to give to the Asia Bible Fund, your help will be greatly appreciated. We know of no more worthy investment in God’s kingdom than providing His Word to hungry Christians who are unable to access it.