(Photo courtesy of Vision Beyond Borders)
Burma (ANS/CAM) ― There are about 50,000 refugees in the United States from Burma’s “Chin” tribes. Christian Aid Mission is helping one pastor inspire refugees for missions to their native country.
The waves of liberty in Burma that began back in April, 2011 are
spreading around the world. With the visit of President Obama to Burma
immediately following his re-election last November, the pent-up hopes
from decades of oppression burst out in many areas besides the booming
economy, free press, and flourishing political parties.
A new era of optimism and hope is being created for Burma’s many
Christian minorities and unreached tribal groups, causing a revival of
Christian missions in Burma. Burma--also known as Myanmar--is home to 56
million souls.
Last week, Lang Khan Khai participated in the first “Myanmar Launch Lab”
at the Christian Aid Conference Center to organize new engagements with
the Zomi--one of the many Burma refugee groups here in the USA that are
organizing new missions and sending money home to Christian missions in
Southeast Asia.
Christian Aid Mission has established a special fund for Pastor Lang’s
mission, Gift Code 715GNI, to receive gifts for his new efforts to
organize the next generation of missions to the "Chin" peoples of Burma.
Click here to support him.
Pastor Lang, head of Gospel Network Integrated Ministries of Kalamyo,
has already visited over 20 congregations of “Chin” tribal communities
who were accepted into the USA after genocidal attacks from the military
junta in the federation of states which used to be known as Burma under
the British colonizers.
He plans to visit 100 more churches this year and next, working with
Christian Aid and volunteers from Overseas Students Mission to raise up
new missionaries and support for the growing work in Burma.
The 50,000 “Chin refugees” in the USA come from the Asho, Falam, Haka,
Matu, Mindat and Zomi tribes. Lang has ministered among about 10,000 of
the Zomi tribe, teaching marriage and family seminars, and preaching the
Gospel in revival meetings.
“Our people are having problems raising their children here in America,”
he jokes. But his ministry is not just to the problems of raising
second-generation Christians in an alien culture.
As he travels, he is challenging young people who are getting modern
educations in the USA to forsake their new lifestyles and careers in the
States to come back to Burma as teachers and missionaries in the
schools, orphanages, and churches he is planting in Chin State, Sagaing
Division.
He is also collecting missionary support from the Zomi community
churches that are thriving among the Zomi’s rebuilding their families in
the USA and have no desire to go back to the lives of desperate poverty
and persecution they remember from the old days in Burma.
The Zomis-- like other “Chin” clans--fled Burma for refugee camps in
neighboring Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, and Thailand. From there, they
have been resettled by sympathetic governments all over the world
including Australia, Canada, and the United States.
The next Zomi Launch Lab sponsored by Overseas Students Mission and
Christian Aid will probably be held in conjunction with the Ethnic
American Network annual convention April 18-20 in Chicago, IL.
Christian Aid Mission is celebrating 60 years of service this year. It
helps support over 800 native mission societies that minister to 3000
tribes, tongues, and nations. At present, Christian Aid helps to deploy
over 80,000 indigenous missionaries.
Despite recent violence in some areas (particularly among the Kachin and
Rohingya), most of the eight major language groups and 135 sub-groups
in Burma are living in peace and giddy optimism about the future.
The GDP income per person in Burma is still only $446, one of the lowest
in the world and only 1% of the average person in the USA. However,
there is a rush of new investment and consumerism in the country.
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