wfn.org | Myanmar: Church Growth Despite Obstacles

[APD_Info_Schweiz@compuserve.com]

August 20, 2000
Adventist Press Service (APD)
Christian B. Schaeffler, Editor-in-chief
CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland
Fax +41-61-261 61 18
APD@stanet.ch
http://www.stanet.ch/APD

Increased Hardship, Continued Growth for Adventist 
Church in Myanmar

Yangon, Myanmar.       The Seventh-day Adventist 
Church in Myanmar (Burma) continues to grow despite 
obstacles including rules about holding public 
meetings and publishing new materials, according to 
a veteran pastor.

"It's getting harder and harder for Christians," 
said Pastor Nelson Hla Pe, an Adventist pastor in 
Myanmar. "It's getting more difficult to conduct 
city and village [evangelistic] efforts." 

The Myanmar government requires prior approval for 
public meetings including the names and 
identification numbers of all participants, a 
tedious process, said Hla Pe. The government usually 
prohibits outdoor meetings of more than five people, 
including religious meetings, according to the U.S. 
Department of State. "We can visit door-to-door as 
friends," Hla Pe explained. "But we cannot move so 
freely as 10 to 15 years ago when it was more 
flexible." Myanmar has been criticized for its open 
discrimination against minority religious groups. 
The majority of its citizens practice Buddhism; only 
four percent are Christians. 

Hla Pe explains that he can, with caution, visit 
individuals and offer information about Adventism 
instead of trying to arrange large gatherings. Even 
though the friendships formed during these informal 
visits often lead to an interest in religion, they 
take a significant amount of time, he added.

Adventists have also experienced difficulty in 
obtaining permission to print publications with 
indigenous-language translations of Bible texts. 
They now face a problem that may not have an 
immediate solution since much of their outreach 
relies on their publications.

"We are very careful," Hla Pe said about his 
outreach methods. "Some people are not interested. 
We should be wise enough to not go so abruptly to 
them." Hla Pe speaks from 29 years of experience. He 
currently divides his time between two Adventist 
organizations, the Voice of Prophecy Bible 
Correspondence School and Adventist World Radio. 

These challenges have not hindered Hla Pe's efforts, 
and he estimates that the church in Myanmar grew by 
about 1500 members last year.

The Adventist Church has operated in this 
Southeastern Asia country, located between 
Bangladesh and Thailand, since 1919. There are 
currently 50,000 Adventist Christians, including 
22,000 baptized adult members,  worshipping in 200 
churches and companies. (244/2000)