Myanmar refugees bring missions home to San Antonio church

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SAN ANTONIO—Ministry to the Chin people of Myanmar has brought a new insight into missions for Northeast Baptist Church.

First Baptist Church had ministered not only to the Chin people, but also Karen and Karenni — also from the country formerly known as Burma. When more of those people began to move to the other side of San Antonio, the church invited congregation at Northeast to be involved.

Northeast Baptist Church held a fellowship following a joint service with congregations from Northeast Baptist Church, Korean and Hispanic congregations and the Chin community.

"We had no idea this was coming, but we just embraced it," said Skip Holman, minister of discipleship at Northeast Baptist Church.

Northeast started with the fundamentals—filling stomachs. The congregation collected 222 bags of brown rice, a staple of the Chin diet.

"That was our introduction to the community," Pastor Chad Chaddick said. "Since then, through relationships, we've tried to discover needs they have and meet them, and just be an encouragement to them."

Most of the people coming to San Antonio from Myanmar are victims of religious persecution, said Wilbert Long, former pastor and current missions chairman at Northeast.

"These people are here primarily because Christians are being put in concentration camps and killed over there because they are Christians," he said.

He said one 14-year-old girl has described seeing family members killed because of their faith. "We've got a lot of people whose view of the world has been changed because of this," Long said.

Last year's Vacation Bible School's mission offering went to buy school clothes and shoes for Chin children, but even the shopping experience was a ministry endeavor.


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"We had some of our ladies who took some of their ladies and their kids shopping, which was quite an experience for everybody," Chaddick explained. Some of their folks had never been to a place like Walmart, which we take for granted, but it's pretty overwhelming to be in a store that size with that kind of variety."

The congregation at Northeast Baptist Church in San Antonio provides yarn and other materials Chin women fashion into caps and blankets. Church members then sell the goods to provide money for the women's families.

One of the Chin women took the hand of her San Antonio friend and did not let go until she was safely back outside," he recounted.

The congregation also has donated and delivered at least 50 truckloads of furniture, Long added. In addition, they have donated toys, clothing, and even computers and printers for families with children who needed them for school.

When Chaddick asked one mother if she had ever used a computer before, she excited said, "Yes, twice."

"We take for granted, those of us who use them so often, what you do to make them work. To think like a person who had only used it twice was quite a challenge. Power on and power off, finding the program you want to use, being sure to save—all the basics we take for granted."

While the overwhelming majority of the Chin families that Northeast ministers to are Christian, there are a few Buddhist families, "but we treat them just like the rest of them," Long said.

The Buddhist children are some of the most faithful to Sunday school, mission organization meetings and children's choir, he added. That ministry has led him and others to believe that those Buddhist families are nearing making a decision to convert to Christianity.

Some from the congregation also have provided knitting materials to several women who make hats and blankets for babies. Those items have been sold to bring much needed cash into those households.

One of the newest ministries for Northeast has been Helping Others Practice English, an effort to help adults learn the skills they need to move forward. While an early session featured the Americans singing hymns and praying in English and then experiencing the Chin doing the same, the focus is on gaining the skills that will enable them to fill out job applications, go to the grocery store and visit a doctor's office, said Marilyn Holman, a schoolteacher who leads the HOPE program.

Ling Saw Timothy, or Pastor Timothy, as he is known by both the Americans and the Burmese, is the spiritual shepherd for the people who live near First Baptist and those living near Northeast.

He preaches on Sunday morning in a space provided by First Baptist, but he also leads Bible studies in apartments on Sunday afternoons, Wednesday evenings and Saturdays.

A student at Baptist University of the Americas, he said the Chin are the poorest of the people groups in Myanmar, but that has made them ripe for the gospel first brought to Burma by Adoniram Judson, the Baptist missionary who served in Burma almost 40 year in the early part of the 19th century.

"When I accept Jesus Christ as Savior, that doesn't depend on money or education," Timothy pointed out. "It brings joy and happiness, and that is something they can't take from us.

"They have that countenance of being happy when they come here," he continued. "They don't have anything, but they don't know it. They bring the joy of Christ."

Timothy said he ultimately wants to go to Rangoon and be a place where Christian pastors can come for training. Since the Chin are poor, they can't afford a formal education, and he wants to give them that.

"When I close my eyes, I can see a lot of people who are still going to hell. I really want them to become believers in Jesus Christ. That's why I am learning," Timothy said.

The ministry to the Chin has helped the congregation at Northeast have a better grasp of what missions is and the difference it can make, Chaddick said.

"It all feeds into what we are trying to do as a church, and with each individual as it regards making them disciples of Jesus Christ. We've narrowed things down to what we call The Journey—You believe, you belong and you become.

"Believing, we celebrate through worship; belonging we celebrate in small groups, but it doesn't stop there. There is the engagement aspect of it in life.

"This missions endeavor draws folks outside themselves and outside these walls to care for others who really are unable to give back to us," Chaddick said.

"Ministering to the Chin is not going to grow our church in terms of either numbers or financially. But it is kingdom business, and for our folks to understand that leads them into a deeper appreciation for what kingdom business is and how they can be a part of it."

Louree Upton, a member of First Baptist Church who works tirelessly to help Chin families get the medical and governmental assistance they need, said working with the Burmese is the best of mission opportunities.

"It's foreign missions, it's home missions and it's state missions all wrapped up in one," she said.


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