13 September 2009

Hundreds of baptisms—‘a big paycheque’!

The Country of Golden Pagodas–Myanmar–has again took to heart the role of maximizing satellite evangelism throughout the country, September 13-October 3. At the culmination of the Happy Family Forever series conducted by Pastor Alberto C Gulfan, Jr, president of the Adventist Church in southern Asia-Pacific region (SSD), and broadcast worldwide through the facilities of Hope Channel International from the southern Philippines, 88 people accepted the Lord through baptism.

Initial reports coming from Maung Maung Myo Chan, communication director and satellite evangelism coordinator for the church in Myanmar (MYUM), indicated that the baptisms were from the mission fields and educational institutions throughout the country and those baptized had the privileged to listen to the nightly messages through the 15 downlink sites.

The Series were translated into Burmese language by Brother John Gavins, global mission coordinator for MYUM, who went to the Philippines, along with other translators from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and from the three regions of the Philippines, for the 20 nightly events.

“The nightly meetings at the 15 sites had an average attendance of 4000 church and non-church members” said Myo Chan.

Paying visit to all downlink sites located in southeast, central and southwest Myanmar, Pastor Muller Kyaw, MYUM president, and his party were very happy to see the excitement on the face of every attendee as they listened to Pastor Gulfan in Burmese language.

Attending the baptism rites were Pastor Caleb, Paw, MYUM ministerial secretary; Nang Do Dal, treasurer, and Gavin Johns. “We have been longing to see God’s word preached in our language through the satellite broadcasts and we are glad we had it. How we wish, though, that we shall have our own Burmese preacher regularly broadcasting hope at Hope Channel,” said church members and media leaders.

In Bangladesh, several downlink sites also accessed the HFF series. Initial reports from Milton Das, communication director and satellite coordinator for the Church in Bangladesh (BAUM) indicated they had 11 baptized on October 3. Subsequent baptisms will be reported here at our website.

Kandus Thorp, vice-president for International programming of the Hope Channel, upon learning of the hundreds of baptisms within the SSD territory sent in an email message saying, “This is a big paycheque!” Indeed, the time, money and effort put forth in this satellite evangelistic project were overwhelmed by the hundreds of baptisms done region-wide. [AND]