History of Shan Churches in Burma 1861-2001 - Khamkoo

Baptist mission among the Shan 66
including the mission preaching zayat. The Presbyterian mission lost more heavily than ours. The fire
caused by the lamp of the opium smoker who went to sleep without extinguishing the light. Three
people lost their lives.” 70
There is no Shan Presbyterian Church till today.
Early Mission Work
Rev. & Mrs. W.M. Young and their team had started mission works among the Shan, Lahu, Wa,
MuhSo and Lolo hill tribe people as soon as they began mission field in 1901. Shan were strong
Buddhist. Rev. Young spoke Shan and did most of his work in that language. The great ingathering into
Christianity had not been from the Shan who were Buddhists but from the border tribes who were
Animists. It was reported in 1915 that Rev. Young had been doing the work among the tribes alone
where three men were needed. In the interests of mission comity an attempt was made at a joint
conference of representatives of the Baptist and Presbyterian designing a definite portion to each body.
With the assistance of the Presbyterians it was hoped that the whole field may be developed a task,
which the Baptists alone had not had the men or the resources to accomplish. Rev. Young though
speaking Shan had his time occupied in work for the Muhso, Lahu, Wa and Lolo tribes of the
KengTung field who were coming en mass towards Christianity. Referring to the shortage of
missionaries Dr. Henderson wrote, “We think and write of intensive development but actually grow
weaker and weaker every year.” The mission works included evangelism, hospital and education. In
1927 the Lahu and Shan work were separated.
Ai Noi was a son of Buddhist village headman. He was trained to be the Buddhist priest,
spending 8 years in Buddhist monastery. As a priest he wore saffron-colored robes. One day he felt ill,
so that he went to the hospital and was treated by Dr. Henderson. Before giving medicine Dr.
Henderson said, “Would you like me to pray to the God of this pill?” Ai Noi answered, “Certainly, for
it costs no more for the prayer.” Dr. Henderson folded his hands together in an attitude of prayer and
prayed for the recovery of Ai Noi. A few days later, Ai Noi saw another Buddhist priest walking
through the village and he asked, “Where are you going?” the priest answered, “I am going to the
hospital for medicine.” Ai Noi said, “You have no need to go to the hospital. I know what to do.” Ai
Noi asked the priest to sit down and he folded his hands together as he had seen Dr. Henderson did and
he prayed word-for-word the prayer he had heard from Dr. Henderson. This fellow priest also recovered
from illness. Because of this experience Ai Noi began to believe in the Christian God. 71 He was the first
Hkun convert.
Rev. Raymond Bates Buker and his wife went to KengTung in 1934 for evangelistic and
educational work. In May he reported having made a twenty-two days tour of 225 miles by motor and
200 miles on foot, visiting over a dozen villages. In June he reported another trip of 130 miles all on
foot. Shan baptism on the KengTung field averaged more than one hundred per year. On a Sunday in
April 1939 forty-two Shan were baptized at one time, a record for Baptist work among the Shan. In
1941, there were 130 baptisms and more than twenty were waiting for baptism. Literacy among new
workers was increased by holding one-week Bible classes in which adults were taught to read. In March
1939 Rev. Buker reported that about 800 persons had enrolled in such classes, held in eleven places.
One of his reports contains this sentence: “Why do we say that they are slow to accept when so many
have never been told?" (Burma News, June 1934, p. 83) Unfortunately the coming of World War II to
Burma brought an abrupt halt when missionaries were evacuated to India and all help from abroad was
cut off. Under the Japanese occupation KengTung was attached to Thailand and was occupied by Thai
troops. By the end of the war extensive damage had been done to buildings on the mission compound in
KengTung.
70 90th Annual Report, American Baptist Missionary Union, p96
71 Against the clock by Eric S. Fife, pp132-133