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Many Ministries
With almost 700 members signed up and 500 visitors a month, "we expect membership to be increasing in the next five years," Dr. Pau says. "When [people] come here, they are surprised. Gradually more will come."
Soon, Dr. Dal hopes, some won't even have to come to Yangon. ACP now is raising funds from foreign donors to establish a new CMC branch in Kalaymyo, a town in the Chin Hills region of northwest Myanmar.
"Literature has no borderland -- it can reach all over the world," Dr. Dal says. "It is difficult to suppress."
One mission, many ministries
For a ministry with 23 staff members, The Asia Compassion Project (see Main Story) has a stack of projects as thick as the jungle itself.
In four years, the ministry has grown from serving seven orphanages to
almost 170 across Myanmar. ACP cares for 11 orphans at Managing
Director S.V. Kamcindal's Yangon-area farm. Staff members provide or
help provide mobile medical clinics, education, school supplies and
hygiene training. They also train young people in computers, driving,
electrical work and sewing -- skills they can take into the workplace
after they leave their orphanages.
Recently ACP began offering dental clinics, an "Understanding The Child" training seminar and a summer camp for 100 orphans at the farm. ACP actually farms there, too, raising rice for its orphanages and growing watermelons as a cash crop.
Soon, Kamcindal (a.k.a. Dr. Dal) would like to build a retreat center for Yangon-area ministers at the farm. "They are so busy in the city, and they seldom take rest," Dr. Dal says. "Even God took a one-day rest after working for six days. We need funds and a lot of prayer to help build small houses so that they can come and rest and meditate."
The power of media
The jewel of ACP's outreach to the Yangon community at large is the Christian Media Center, which opened in 2003. The CMC has almost 5,300 English-language and almost 2,000 Burmese books in its library. It also lends Christian music CDs and Jesus Film DVDs and offers members reference tools in print and on computer. The CMC mainly serves students from Christian seminaries around the city, but anyone is welcome.
Dr. Dal believes in literature's power to change lives. After all, Myanmar's Christians owe their spiritual heritage largely to America's first missionary, Adoniram Judson, and his Burmese translation of the Bible in 1834.
However, Christians comprise no more than 10 percent of the population and are concentrated among the northern Karen and Chin tribes. The majority ethnic Burmese (or Bamar) people are nearly all Theravada Buddhists (link here). By opening the CMC to the public and translating English-language Christian books into Burmese, Dr. Dal aims to change that.
"We want to evangelize the Burmese Buddhist people, and I think literature may be one of the most effective mediums for that," Dr. Dal says. "That's why we started the CMC."
For a ministry with 23 staff members, The Asia Compassion Project (see Main Story) has a stack of projects as thick as the jungle itself.
 |
| Dr. Mang Cin Pau (right) and Rev. Thuam Khne Pau look over some English-language books at the The
Asia Compassion Project's Christian Media Center (CMC). Mang Cin Pau,
the CMC's research officer, oversees a team that translates works by Christian authors such as Warren W. Wiersbe. Click for more photos |
Recently ACP began offering dental clinics, an "Understanding The Child" training seminar and a summer camp for 100 orphans at the farm. ACP actually farms there, too, raising rice for its orphanages and growing watermelons as a cash crop.
Soon, Kamcindal (a.k.a. Dr. Dal) would like to build a retreat center for Yangon-area ministers at the farm. "They are so busy in the city, and they seldom take rest," Dr. Dal says. "Even God took a one-day rest after working for six days. We need funds and a lot of prayer to help build small houses so that they can come and rest and meditate."
The power of media
The jewel of ACP's outreach to the Yangon community at large is the Christian Media Center, which opened in 2003. The CMC has almost 5,300 English-language and almost 2,000 Burmese books in its library. It also lends Christian music CDs and Jesus Film DVDs and offers members reference tools in print and on computer. The CMC mainly serves students from Christian seminaries around the city, but anyone is welcome.
Dr. Dal believes in literature's power to change lives. After all, Myanmar's Christians owe their spiritual heritage largely to America's first missionary, Adoniram Judson, and his Burmese translation of the Bible in 1834.
However, Christians comprise no more than 10 percent of the population and are concentrated among the northern Karen and Chin tribes. The majority ethnic Burmese (or Bamar) people are nearly all Theravada Buddhists (link here). By opening the CMC to the public and translating English-language Christian books into Burmese, Dr. Dal aims to change that.
"We want to evangelize the Burmese Buddhist people, and I think literature may be one of the most effective mediums for that," Dr. Dal says. "That's why we started the CMC."
Research Officer Dr. Mang Cin Pau leads a team of two translators and
three editors who translate books by Christian authors, such as Warren
Wiersbe, into Burmese. The CMC also translates English-language
children's books in Burmese to give away to orphanages and sell in the
local markets.
With almost 700 members signed up and 500 visitors a month, "we expect membership to be increasing in the next five years," Dr. Pau says. "When [people] come here, they are surprised. Gradually more will come."
Soon, Dr. Dal hopes, some won't even have to come to Yangon. ACP now is raising funds from foreign donors to establish a new CMC branch in Kalaymyo, a town in the Chin Hills region of northwest Myanmar.
"Literature has no borderland -- it can reach all over the world," Dr. Dal says. "It is difficult to suppress."