History of Shan Churches in Burma 1861-2001 - Khamkoo

Analysis 220
converts won from heathenism.” It was reported in 1963, “Settlement evangelism is strongly advocated
for the Shan. The Shan are complacent and slow to change. They have a religion of their own,
Buddhism mixed with Phe (spirit) worship. And unless they are sick, diseased or possessed with evil
spirits, conversion is not easy.” 75
What is settlement evangelism? When someone believed in Christ and became Christian he
faced a lot of discrimination and hardship either from immediate family members or villagers. When
people were tormented or possessed by the evil spirit, they used to come to the Christian pastor and
asked for help. They knew that evil spirit feared Christian. After they were released from the evil spirit
they could not return to their own village because the villagers did not accept them. They were
discriminated against because they had been possessed by unclean evil spirit and they were considered
unclean. They had to be resettled somewhere. Sometimes a village for new believers had to be
developed. That’s why we can see the village called “Christian village” in Shan States.
It was reported in 1865, “Many strangers came in on Saturday. We opened the meeting
Saturday evening. After a few remarks, explaining the objective of the meeting and the reading of the
word with brief exposition, we spent the evening in special prayer for the descent of the Holy Spirit. No
time was lost but prayer after prayer followed in quiche succession interspersed with singing until a
late hour. 76
It was reported from Bhamo mission field in 1991 by Mr. Spring, “The people are Shan-Chinese and
have given the most hearty reception and willing ear to the gospel from the beginning. We sat some
days from dawn till nearly midnight telling the wonderful story of Jesus, stopping only long to eat our
meals. They did not want us to leave them and when we do they literally hung to our clothes begging us
to remain.” 77 How hungry were the souls! They listened until late hour. The time had no limit. As long
as the people were there and listening, the meeting continued even till the late hour.
Present
Evangelism seems to be very successful in the beginning of Shan mission. The first Shan
convert was baptized within a year after arrival of Rev. Bixby to Toungoo. Another 8 Shan baptized
just 4 months after the first baptism. The Shan are traditionally resistant to the gospel and Western
influence at least in part due to negative experiences during the British colonization period. Christianity
is seen as a Western religion and there is a lack of a Shan way of “Doing Church”. Western forms are
often adopted though there is one Church on the Thai-Burma border who is making headway in the area
of funerals, a very important part of Shan culture. “To be Shan is to be Buddhist”, they say of
themselves. The idea of eternal life seems to them irrelevant, as the goal of Buddhism is to seek for
passionless peace. The existing Shan Churches in Shan State are often lacking in desire and initiative to
reach out to their Buddhist neighbors. There is a Christian sub-culture that is hard for new believers to
break in to. 78
Some Shan Churches are trying very hard in evangelistic works by sending short-term
evangelistic team to villages to preach gospel. But sometimes transportation or money are the excuses
for not going out for evangelism. It should not be an excuse. Compare to transportation one hundred
years ago, present situation is a lot better and easier. The Church should send out preachers to preach
and the Church should pay for their travel expenses. Nowadays we don’t see a preacher preaching
gospel in bazaar or zayat like American missionaries did in the past. Bazaar preaching, zayat preaching,
prison ministry, gospel tract distribution are no longer exist today. There are house meetings
occasionally for thanksgiving service and special worship service with believers but not as an
evangelistic outreach meeting. We use to send evangelistic teams to the villages. We use to hold
75 Progress Report Of KengTung Shan Baptist Field, 1957-1963.
76 The Missionary Magazine August 1865, p309, report from Rev. Bixby, Feb. 1, 1865.
77 97th Annual Report, 1911, American Baptist Missionary Union
78 http://www.joshuaproject.net/profiles/text/t113721.pdf Apr 21, 2006, p10