By Gina Goh 01/07/2021 Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) – When Pastor A Dao walked through the doors of his home after spending four years behind bars, he found the house abandoned and in disrepair. It looked like someone had left in a hurry. Everything was covered in a layer of dust. After running around the perimeter of the house looking for the familiar faces of his wife and children, he was out of breath. The years spent in prison had damaged his health. He searched for his life savings. Those, too, were gone. Four years earlier, A Dao had just left a conference on the freedom of religion and beliefs in Southeast Asia. As a Protestant pastor of the Montagnard Evangelical Church of Christ (MECC) and an advocate for religious freedom throughout Vietnam, it was common for him to attend such conferences. But this time, things would not go as planned. After the conference, he was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison for “helping individuals to escape abroad illegally,” a charge he firmly denied.