Adult Sunday Bible Study: 11:30-12:00 AM
Sunday Worship (Burmese and English): 12:00-2:00PM Burma, one of a beautiful tropical countries of South-East Asia, rich in natural resources, shares borders with China in the North, Thailand and Laos in the East, and India and Bangadesh in the West. Burma enjoys a long coastal shore of the Bay of Bengal in the South. The nation of about the size of the state of Texas has a population of about 50 Millions. The inhabitants include the Burmese majority and a dozen or so ethnic groups. The prominent religion is Buddhism, and less visible are Christianity, Islam and a few others. Adorinam & Ann Judson of Massachusetts (U.S.A.) were the first missionary couple who successfully planted the seed of Gospel in Burma in the 1810s’. Their divine commission and horrifying experiences, while in Burma, were extraordinary. Books have been published in memory and honor of this wonderful husband and wife team. The hardship they’d been through was unbearable to an average soul. They were the people who sowed the seed in tears. With the help of the revival in the Churches since the late 70s, the statistics of Christian population in Burma appears to be changing quite nicely. Today, there are a number of churches and organizations that are active in evangelizing the nation. Gospel Baptist Church, for instance, has since its conception in the early eighties been playing an important role in shaping and transforming the demographic profile of Christianity in Burma. Because of the movement through church establishment and activities through mass witnessing (also known as crusading) in various parts of the country, the GBC of Burma may well be one of the most visible organizations that is reaching out to the majority of the population and actively spreading the gospel news through out the nation. In the mid 70s when born again message was reintroduced, it started to pe*****te in the Christian communities in Burma. Campus Crusade for Christ was active in spreading the message in the metropolitan area of Yangon (then Rangoon) while the Assembly of God Church was working hard in other parts of the country such as Chin State. On May 15, 1983, a pastor and some ministers from six other local churches, founded Gospel Baptist Church. The founding ministers of Gospel Baptist Church are Peter Van Hnuai Sum, Gideon Lal Biak Thang, Joshua Hrang Kip Zul, David Mang Sum, Van Eng Mawi, Joseph Sang Tin Sam, Lal Ro Thang, Michael Firang Sam, MosesThawng Cung, Andrew Sa Tin Uk, Sen Vum. The Rangoon Gospel Baptist Church was established on May 20, 1984 on 44th Street. Today, the GBC of Rangoon Association has established more than 60 churches since the inception of the GBC in Rangoon. The association also has trained and produced many laymen to become pastors and evangelists. Because of the movement by means of crusades and training, God has been allowing Gospel Baptist Church of Burma to take part in saving many lost souls. Churches have been established wherever it is needed. This church also becomes the stronghold for the GBC’s future activities in the area. Thus, the Gospel Baptist Church has grown into more than 100 congregations within a decade. In Burma, the task of penetrating the populations that have traditionally been embracing a different prominent religion is too overwhelming. So far, out of the fourteen entities, the following states and divisions are known to have the Gospel Baptist Church establishment: Kachin, Chin, Sakaing, Rangoon, Irrawady, Mandalay, Shan, Magwe in Burma. The original two associations, Falam and Rangoon, were combined and formed eventually in 1998 under the Gospel Baptist Church of Myanmar Convention (GBCMC). The convention office is located in Yangon (formally Rangoon). The GBCMC was formed to consolidate the working relationship between the two associations thus by enabling to further the spreading of the gospel together under the convention umbrella. The GBC so far also has been expanded to other countries, such as, Ai Zawl, India, Austria and the United States of America and thus GBC has started to fulfill its stated mission of “Gospel for the World.”
Today there are eleven GBC churches in the United States, and is growing. Glory to God!
