History of Shan Churches in Burma 1861-2001 - Khamkoo

Appendix 281
Sai Stephen
On July 12, 2000, Rev. Sai Stephen unexpectedly passed
away, leaving behind his beloved wife Htwe Yu Hein and
three daughters.
Sai Stephen was born in 1953 to a Christian family in the
Eastern Shan State. At a young age he experienced the touch
of God and knew that God wanted him to serve among the
Shan people. In 1972 he went to Myanmar Institute of
Theology, Insein, to receive training. After much pleading to
the principal he was allowed to attend seminary, even though
his English was very poor. By the end of one year he was one
of the top two students at the school. After graduating from
MIT with B.Th degree in 1976 he served as a pastor at
Calvary Baptist Church in KengTung.
Sai Stephen attended GCI training in Thailand in 1990 for one
month. At the end of the training he declared: “This GCI has
been like heaven to me, and I want to take this heaven back to
Myanmar.” Since that time he had been working among the
Shan people, who are the largest group and least evangelized
people in Myanmar. He coordinated the partnership effort in
Eastern Shan State between Asian Outreach, Eastern Shan
Baptist Convention and Sungai Malaysia Way-Subang
Methodist Church. He began local training to prepare young
evangelists to go out in to the Buddhist dominated Shan villages and evangelize. Sai Stephen and the 25
evangelists trained under him had been going from village to village preaching, resulting in five new
Churches being planted each year in different villages in Eastern Shan State.
Under Sai Stephen leadership the Churches grew and mission expended. He served as Assistant
Director of 21 st Century Shan Mission Project from 1992 also as General Secretary of Eastern Shan
State Shan Baptist Convention until he passed away. He played important role in training, evangelism,
Church Planting, Church growth in Eastern Shan State, formation of Eastern Shan State Shan Baptist
Convention and Eastern Shan State Baptist Mission Centenary Celebration.