15 July 2009
Church’s social work meets community needs
The central region of Myanmar is predominantly Buddhists. Christians find difficulty penetrating this area with their message. The Seventh-day Adventist Church, however, is at work here through the ministry of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) where social alleviation was the felt need.
At the July 15-19 assessment tour of the board of trustees of ADRA Myanmar, Pastor Muller Kyaw, chairman and also president of the Adventist Church in Myanmar (MYUM), and his party visited the project sites in the dry zone area of Pakokku district, 200 miles from the capital city of Yangon. This district is located near the ancient city of Nyaung-U, which is famous for pagodas built by the Bagan dynasty as recorded in the history of ancient Burma. There, the party met with community leaders and asked them how the projects have been helping them.
Voicing out his community’s recognition, a leader said that they have “high respect for the workers of ADRA who bring to us relief and development projects that respond to our needs.”
“This is the most difficult area to reach with the gospel but we are glad that ADRA foreruns the implementation of the church’s mission of sharing God’s love to the community,” said Maung Maung Myo Chan, an ADRA board member and communication director for MYUM. “’As ye have done it unto the least of my brethren, ye have done it unto Me’,” is very much reflective of our church’s social amelioration programs,” added Myo Chan.
On July 18, Pastor Caleb Paw, MYUM ministerial secretary and a member of the board, encouraged the ADRA workers to keep the agency’s commitment to becoming a vehicle for introducing God’s love on top of its mission to provide the needs of the community.
“ADRA Myanmar has been greatly blessed with the opportunity to work here where non-Christians can see how their brother Christians become no respecter of religious beliefs as long as they can provide the people’s needs,” concluded Teddy Din, ADRA country director.
