Adventist Myanmar News 2022
Division-wide Secretariat Retreat and Convention
On the July 25th to 27th of 2019 the Southern Asia Pacific Division of the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church has had been conducted a Division-wide Secretariat Retreat and Convention in hotel CINTARA GRAND AT CENTRAL WORLD, Bangkok, Thailand.
The Executive Secretary of Myanmar Union Mission (MYUM) Pr. Kelly P. Lyan and the Secretary to Executive Secretary Susie Sein, the Executive Secretary of Ayeyarwady Mission Pr. Thang Lam Mung and the Secretary to Secretary Thant Yee Mon, The Executive Secretary of Central Myanmar Mission Pr. Hla Kun and the secretary Secretary Tin Thandar Tun, the Executive Secretary of Southeast Myanmar Mission Pr. Shwe Thet Oo and the Secretary to Secretary Nu Yin Aye, the Executive Secretary of Upper Myanmar Mission Pr. Rozama and the Secretary to Secertary Sainuntluangi, and the Executive Secretary of Yangon Mission Pr. Khin Maung Yin and Secretary to Secretary Eh Paw Wah were attending the Division-wide Retreat and Convention, and were enjoyed the heaven bond fellowship with the World Church leaders, Division leaders, and fellow Union/Mission leaders within the Division, and nourished with spiritual blessings and new insight in secretariat role.
To the praise of God’s grace, the Myanmar Union Mission was granted the Division Cooperative Union Performance Achievement Award in Second Place. Praise God for His kind guidance in His ministry.
Home Coming!
Since 2004 Upper Myanmar Mission split into two because of the so called Conference Movement. About 3000 church members went out From the church and stand as Myanmar Union Conference not recognized By SSD. In 2011 about 100 church members from Anlangh came back to the main church and eleven leaders from Union and Mission accepted them to the mother church. From then many conference members came back to our main church time by time.
From 2015 Tahan B church want to come back into the main church. On 31st March 2016 phone rang from Mr. Thang Lian Khup the leader of Tahan B Conference church invite MYUM leaders to come and accept them to the Remnant church. It is about 2:00 pm afternoon and The Union leaders arrange as fast as possible. All air tickets are gone and MYUM secretary,MYUM Treasurer and SS leader went there by Union truck at 5:00pm. It is 21 hours long and hard journey.The Union President cannot accompany with the group because he went to Homalin,UMM for crusade and church dedication.From UMM the President and the Secretary accompany with us in the welcoming programs.
On 2nd April we started the welcoming and accepting programs. Pr. Pau Suan Mung Tahan B Pastor and Mr. Thang Lian Khup first elder of the church submitted 180 church members and Sabbath School members into MYUM with 175 feet by 157 feet church compound with a church building, Middle school building 114 by 22 feet by measured, a quarter for church pastor and two stores store. 180 church members are unaudited because many were migrated to abroad. There is 26 families and about 85 Sabbath school members there. Pastor Kelly P. Lyan MYUM executive secretary and Pastor Kap Lian Thang UMM President warmly and joyfully accepted them as the sisterhood of the World church of Adventists. Praise the Lord for hearing our 12 years Marathon prayer.
Reported by,
Pastor Kelly P. Lyan
Executive Secretary, MYUM
Saw Samuel Elected President of Southern Asia-Pacific Division
He says he will seek God’s wisdom to value each day as a precious gift to be used wisely.
March 22, 2016 | Silver Spring, Maryland United States | Andrew McChesney, news editor, Adventist Review |
Saw Samuel, who was elected president of the Southern Asia-Pacific Division on Tuesday, said he would seek new ways to reach the many Buddhists and Muslims in his region even as he sought wisdom from God to value each day as a precious gift to be used wisely.
The General Conference’s Executive Committee, the top governing body of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, elected Saw on March 22 to replace Leonardo R. Asoy, who succumbed to a rare bone marrow disease in January.
Samuel, who previously served as executive secretary of the Southern Asia-Pacific Division, said he had a particular burden to share the gospel with unreached people in his division, which encompasses 14 countries with a population of 1 billion but only 1.3 million church members.
“My main burden is to engage and involve our young people and professional and non-professional lay members in reaching out to the unreached Chinese, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and secular urban people,” Samuel said. “I do have a great concern also for dropped, missing, and backsliding members.”
Samuel’s remarks indicate that he intends to pursue the course of Asoy, who was elected president at the General Conference Session in San Antonio, Texas, last July. Asoy said at the time that he was especially eager to find ways to reach Buddhists and Muslims in his division.
Asoy passed away on Jan. 12 of complications from myelodysplastic syndrome, a rare disease in which the bone marrow is unable to produce adequate healthy blood cells. Asoy, 56, had been elected to replace the ailing Alberto C. Gulfan Jr., who served as president for 12 years and succumbed to cancer on Sept. 26 at the age of 64.
Samuel, the first Burmese to serve as an Adventist division president, said his vision for the Southern Asia-Pacific Division was to mobilize, unite, and use its God-given resources of young people, professionals, regular church members, and media and technology to spread the gospel.
His favorite Bible passage is the prayer of Moses in Psalm 90 and particularly verse 12, which reads, “So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
“Life is short and precious,” he said. “We need wisdom from God how to use our time, health, and strength, and our God-given resources.”
Leaders of the Southern Asia-Pacific Division — which stretches from Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the west to Indonesia and the Philippines in the east — nominated Saw as the next president at a March 18 meeting at the division’s headquarters in Silang, Philippines.
“We had multiple prayer sessions to ask for the leading of the Holy Spirit, and we felt His presence,” said Ted N.C. Wilson, president of the Adventist world church, who attended the meeting of about 40 members of the division’s Executive Committee during an Asian trip that also took him to Japan and Hong Kong. “The atmosphere was very respectful and Christ-like. … We were sobered by the recent death of two division presidents.”
On Sabbath, March 19, church leaders paid tribute to Gulfan and Asoy and their families, and presented their widows with flowers and a glass plaque with an inscription that Samuel read out loud. The short service at the church at the Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies underscored on the two leaders’ strong emphasis on evangelism through a local initiative called Integrated Evangelism Lifestyle, which is closely connected with the Adventist world church’s Total Member Involvement initiative.
During the Friday meeting to nominate a new president, committee members shared their perspectives and views in a respectful manner throughout the morning and afternoon, Wilson said.
“I was so proud of the comportment and attitude of the committee members,” he said. “They were truly wanting God’s will to be done.”
Samuel, who had served as acting division president since January, was first elected executive secretary of the division in 2010. Before that, he worked for two years as ministerial secretary of the Southeast Asia Union Mission in Singapore. The rest of his career as pastor and administrator were spent in Thailand, serving as executive secretary of the Thailand Adventist Mission (2002-08); director of Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) program at the Thailand Adventist Mission (2006-08); youth director at the Thailand Adventist Mission (2002-04); pastor of the Bangkok Adventist Hospital Church (2000-02); and chaplaincy coordinator for Seventh-day Adventist English Language Schools in Thailand (1998-99).
Samuel graduated with a Doctor in Ministry degree from the Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies in the Philippines this month. He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in religion from Spicer Memorial College (now Spicer Adventist University) in Pune, India, in 1995 and 1997, respectively.
He is married to Orathai Chureson, the Southern Asia-Pacific Division’s children’s and family ministries director. They have two children, Amanda, 12, and Sorawin, 10.
Samuel’s six years of experience as executive secretary of the Southern Asia-Pacific Division gave him the opportunity “to observe and learn many things that will help his future leadership under the Holy Spirit’s guidance,” Wilson said.
“He is very spiritual, respectful, humble, and mission-minded servant leader whom God will use mightily as the Southern Asia-Pacific Division team and all members in that great division keep their eyes upon Christ as the Leader of the church,” he said.
Wilson encouraged Samuel “to be strong in the Lord as he humbly moves forward with the work assigned to him.”
“He will need to lean on Christ daily and claim the promise of James 1:5 every day just as I try to do,” he said. The text reads: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (NKJV).
“It is only through God’s wisdom that we can humbly and effectively work,” Wilson said.
In addition, Wilson said, Samuel and his wife will need to make sure that their schedule includes appropriate family time.
“This is their first mission field as are our families for all of us,” Wilson said. “Pastor Samuel does not have to do everything, and no leader can. He will certainly need to delegate many responsibilities and maintain a strong vision and evangelistic outlook in his leadership. I know God will guide him in doing this.”