Wednesday, December 9, 2020

 

Yangon Adventist Mission


By Suak Khaw Ngin 



The Yangon Adventist Mission was established in 1977 as Yangon Attached District. It was renamed to its current name in 2017. The Yangon Adventist Mission is part of the Myanmar Union Mission in the Southern Asia-Pacific Division. The territory is comprised of the Yangon Region, the southwest portion of Bago Region, and the Rakhine States. The headquarters is in Dagon Township, Yangon Region, Myanmar.1

Statistics for June 30, 2018, indicate that there were 38 churches, 12 ordained ministers, and 5,560 members out of a general population of 12,004,502.2

Origin of Seventh-day Adventist Work

Herbert B. Meyers, who had become a Seventh-day Adventist in Calcutta, India,3 and A. G. Watson arrived in Yangon selling literature in 1902. They rented a house at 110 Brooklyn Street in East Yangon and immediately started selling religious books in the downtown streets. Meyers’s wife opened a school with 18 students. In 1904, Maung Maung went to Calcutta, India, and requested the assistance of a missionary for that area. The church responded to his request by sending H. H. Votaw and L. F. Hansen in 1905.4 A house called “Grennan Slopes” in Insein, about nine miles from Yangon, was rented.5

The first Seventh-day Adventist Church (now Yangon Central Church) was organized in 1907 with 23 members.6 Yangon has long been a multi-racial city with a Chinese and Indian mixed population. Early in the 1920s, work among the Telegu Indians was started by Andrews Stephen. The Telegu-Indian Church was organized on a Sabbath, December 23, 1922, with 15 members.7

The church bought a portion of land on the corner of U Wisara (formerly Voyle) Road and Mawkwunhtaik (formerly Steward) Road in 1928 and built an office and residential three-story building, headquarters of the Myanmar Union Mission, and a beautiful church for the Yangon congregation on the same portion of land.8 In the early years of Yangon Seventh-day Adventist Church, people called it the Yangon English Church. From 1924-1927, R. H. Hubley served as Yangon’s church pastor and initiated and opened an English primary school in Yangon.

Church pastors for the Yangon English Church were J. M. Comer (1911-1912); George A. Hamilton (1912-1922, 1937); Isaac Counsell (1920-1923); R. A. Hubley (1924-1927); G. W. Pettit (1927-1932); and W. W. Christensen (1932-1942).9 At that time, membership of the Yangon English Church was comprised of about 60 English-speakers and 25 native language-speakers.10 World War II began, and all church functions and services were stopped. When the war ended in 1945, the church’s functions and services started again.

Before the war, the Yangon English Church was attended by white people. Members from Karen and Myanmar worshipped in one office room following the main English church service. At the time, there was no pastor for Myanmar believers. Some Myanmar church members were Mr. Dick and his wife, Daw Saw Mya, Hla Pe, Saw Bwa, Tun Maung, Pein Kyi, Daw Mu Seik, Daw Sein, Lonsdale, and D. G. Robert.11

In 1977, Yangon Attached District was organized, and Khin Maung Nyein became the first district administrator. The newly-formed district was started with five churches and 764 members.12 In 2013, Yangon Attached District was extended to include Rakhine State. In this year, there were 37 churches with 6,224 members.13

Organization Challenges

Due to Myanmar’s urbanization, Yangon, its most populated mega city, accommodates over 4.7 million people at the present time. Over 12% of the country’s total population of 51.4 million lives in the Yangon area.14 It is also estimated that, by 2020, the population in Greater Yangon will reach over seven million.

Migrant workers, the local elite, and the wealthy moved to Yangon due to its business and work environment. The potential of business expansion, access to the international educational institute, INGO and NGO work availability, and modern setup of the city attracted the people. The churches in the Yangon area obtained sufficient membership and need to open other churches. The SDA Church needs to plant more churches throughout the city that can be easily accessed by people who live in the city. The offering, tithe, and other assistances are being increased. The members of Yangon Attached District moved to become mission level in 2017. The Southern Asia Pacific Division evaluated the application at the Yangon Attached District office on May 4, 2017.15

Yangon Attached District to Mission Status

The Southern Asia-Pacific Division conference/mission status survey commission carefully examined the qualifications of Yangon Attached District to become a mission during the meeting of August 3-4, 2017. As voted in the Myanmar Union Mission Executive Committee in 2017 (Action No. 2017-320), Yangon Attached District became Yangon Adventist Mission.16 The blessed celebration of the Yangon Adventist Mission was held during December 15-16, 2017. Division President Saw Samuel officially inaugurated it.

The first Yangon Adventist Mission officers were President Maung Maung Htay; Executive Secretary Khin Maung Yin; and Treasurer Nang Do Dal. The new departmental directors were Saung Wai Wai and Maung Maung Myo Chan.17

List of Administrators

Yangon Attached District Leaders: Khin Maung Nyein (1977-1979); Hla Chit (1980-1983); Tember Chit (1984-1990); Samuel Po (1991-1992); Kyaw Sein Pe (1993-1995); Tember Chit (1996); Kenneth H Suanzanang (1997-2002); Samuel Po (2003-2004); Sunny Htain (2005); Maung Maung Htay (2006-2010); and Saw Keh (2011-2015).

Yangon Adventist Mission President: Maung Maung Htay (2016- ).

Sources

Fernandez, G. G, ed. Light Dawns Over Asia. Silang, Cavite: AIIAS, 1990.

Kotz, E. “Our Work in Burma.” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, April 23, 1931.

“Myanmar: Union of Myanmar-Burma.” April 16, 2019. Accessed May 21, 2019. https://www.citypopulation.de/Myanmar-Cities.html.

One Hundred and Twentieth Meeting, General Conference Committee, General Conference Archives, April 13, 1910. Images 1893-1993: The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Southern Asia. Oriental Watchman Publishing House, 1993.

Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1966.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1978, 2013. Accessed May 21, 2019. https://www.adventistyearbook.org/.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press, 2019.

Southern Asia Pacific Division Committee Minutes, Action No. 2017 – 107. Southern Asia Pacific Division Archives.

Wilson, J. O. Advent Angels in Burma. Published by friends of Burma, n.d.

“Yangon Attached District.” Denominational Employees by Division 2016 Table 26, 2018 Annual Statistical Report. Accessed May 21, 2019. http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Statistics/ASR/ASR2018.pdf.

Yangon Attached District. Mission Status Proposal. May 4, 2017. Yangon Adventist Mission Archives.

Yee, Pe. The Story of Seventh-day Adventists in Myanmar. Yangon: Kinsaung Publishing House, n.d.

Notes

  1. “Yangon Adventist Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press, 2019), 347, 349.↩

  2. Ibid.; “Yangon Attached District,” Denominational Employees by Division 2016 Table 26, 2018 Annual Statistical Report, accessed May 21, 2019, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Statistics/ASR/ASR2018.pdf.↩

  3. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia (Washington, DC: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1966).↩

  4. One Hundred and Twentieth Meeting, General Conference Committee, April 13, 1910, 200, General Conference Archives, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1910.pdf.; Images 1893-1993: The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Southern Asia (Oriental Watchman Publishing House, 1993), 17.↩

  5. Gil G. Fernandez, ed., “Pe Yee, Burma,” Light Dawns Over Asia (Silang, Cavite: AIIAS, 1990), 279.↩

  6. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, 177.↩

  7. Fernandez, 284.↩

  8. J. O. Wilson, Advent Angels in Burma (Published by friends of Burma, n.d.), 120, 121.↩

  9. Pe Yee, The Story of Seventh-day Adventists in Myanmar, (Yangon: Kinsaung Publishing House, n.d.), 205-207.↩

  10. E Kotz, “Our Work in Burma,” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, April 23, 1931, 12.↩

  11. Pe Yee, 207-208.↩

  12. “Rangoon Area,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1978, accessed May 21, 2019, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/YB1978.pdf.↩

  13. “Yangoon Attached District,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 2013, accessed May 21, 2019, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/YB2013.pdf.↩

  14. “Myanmar: Union of Myanmar-Burma,” April 16, 2019, accessed May 21, 2019, https://www.citypopulation.de/Myanmar-Cities.html.↩

  15. Yangon Attached District, Mission Status Proposal, May 4, 2017, Yangon Adventist Mission Archives.↩

  16. Southern Asia Pacific Division Committee Minutes, Action No. 2017 – 107. Southern Asia Pacific Division Archives.↩

  17. The official web page of the new mission is www.yangonadventist.org.↩


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Rangoon Seventh-day Adventist Hospital (1947–1965)

By Suak Khaw Ngin 

 The Seventh-day Adventist hospital at Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar), opened as a self-supporting institution on December 19, 1947. M. O. Manley, Burma Union Mission’s superintendent, and Dr. J. C. Johannes, the union’s medical director, were instrumental in opening the hospital. The hospital was transferred to the government in 1965.

Development

Seventh-day Adventist missionaries make disciples who, in accordance with 3 John 1:2, “prosper and be in health.” Medical work has been a branch of missionary evangelism from the start. Most missionaries who went to Burma (Myanmar since 1989) were nurses. In 1905, L. H. Hansen, a registered nurse and colporteur, and his wife went to Rangoon (Yangon since 1989) and opened a clinic in Insein.1 The Hansen’s “hot and cold” hydrotherapy treatments were popular, and high government officials visited the clinic. Lady White, Myanmar’s governor’s wife, fell from her horse one unfortunate day, bruising her leg. The royal physician was unable to heal her. They asked Hansen to heal her, which he did with his hot and cold treatment. This made some good friends and helped secure Cowasjee Terrace Hall as a rented space for worship and conducting public evangelism.2

Founding

In 1939, Dr. I. S. Walker established a clinic on the corner of Dalhousie and Oliphant Streets, Rangoon.3 The clinic became famous within and outside the city. Patients from as far north as China’s border went there for treatment. Because of World War II, however, the clinic had to close in 1942.4 The Walkers walked through the jungle and crossed the border from Rangoon into India, seeking shelter. Dr. Walker died in India some months later. In 1946, missionaries were once again sent to Burma. While rebuilding their church, the missionaries to Burma Mission decided that they needed a hospital as well. Dr. J. C. Johannes and his wife went to Rangoon in early 1947.5

M. O. Manley, Burma Union Mission’s superintendent, and Dr. J. C. Johannes, the union’s medical director, prayed and sought a suitable location for a hospital in Rangoon. They finally found a choice location on 67 Alanpya Pagoda Road in the center of Rangoon – a hotel owned by a Mr. Jing Hong. The location was purchased with funds from a Thirteenth Sabbath Offering overflow later in 1947.6 The property was remodeled, and the hotel was converted into a 60-bed hospital, which opened in December 1947. Prime Minister U Nu officiated the opening ceremony on March 1, 1948.7 The hospital became well known among Burma’s people as “The American Hospital.”

History

The Seventh-day Adventist hospital in Burma opened as a self-supporting institution on December 19, 1947. Only Dr. Johannes, his wife, who was a nurse, and four other nurses worked there. Dr. Johannes had no time to rest since the hospital opened, instead treating all arriving patients. Dr. Eden Smith and Dr. George Richardson, medical surgeons, arrived to help and serve at the hospital.8

Burmese, Karenic, Chinese, Indian, and European patients entered the hospital and gradually filled all available beds. Some people of influence, including the wife of the commanding general of Myanmar’s army, went there. Through the hospital, some patients entered the Seventh-day Adventist Church.9 As patients continued arriving, the hospital needed to expand its staff with indigenous and overseas workers. On December 7, 1953, construction of a new hospital wing began. The old wing was torn down, and a new three-story wing was finished in November 1954.10 On January 2, 1955, the Seventh-day Adventist hospital at Rangoon opened its new wing at a cost of approximately Rs. 400,000/-. Officiating the event was Honorable U Nu, prime minister of Burma, in the presence of distinguished and prominent people. The archbishop of the Rangoon Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, the chief judge of the high court, and others of high ranks in the government were present.11

Prime Minister U Nu gave praise to the hospital staff for the service they gave to the Burmese people. He indicated that Burma was proud to have such a fine institution in their community and complimented the Seventh-day Adventists’ futuristic vision. The American charge d’affairs in Burma, Mr. Ackley, indicated that the hospital’s unselfish service in healing the sick was remarkable. General Conference Secretary Elder W. R. Beach stressed that the hospital’s objective was to heal the body, the mind, and the spirit in efforts to prepare humanity to meet God, the Creator.12 The hospital had 200 beds; emergency, surgery, delivery, maternity, and pediatric intensive care wards; x-ray, laboratory, and physiotherapy departments; and a newly-opened school of nursing and maternity training.13

On June 1, 1953, a nursing school directed by Eliada Mann was opened with 17 students. The training curriculum term was three years long, and the first class graduated and was certified in March 1956. By 1963, 75 nurses had graduated. Dr. Mann was the school’s director until July 5, 1965. In November 1956, a midwifery school opened. This school was directed by Dr. B. Y. Stockhausen. By 1963, 40 students had been trained in midwifery.14

In January 1955, the following doctors worked at the hospital: Dr. Christa Hauck as an obstetrician, Dr. Carl Hauck as a pediatrician, Dr. Robert Shrewsbury as an eye specialist, Dr. George A. Richardson as a goiter surgery specialist, Dr. Robert H. Dunn as a tropical disease surgeon, Dr. Rudy Haak as an anesthesiologist, Dr. H. Dupper as a general physician, and Dr. and Mrs. R. H. Davidson as physiotherapists.15

The hospital had a short life span, but it fully served the people’s needs and saved many lives through treatments, surgery, and nursing care. The doctors, nurses, and teachers prayed for their patients and worshipped with them, teaching them the message of the Second Coming. Donations from all over Burma were given for the hospital, education, and mission to develop. However, the hospital was transferred to the government, and although some continued working at the hospital, others left to serve in the ministry of God, and still others retired. By 1962, with 180 workers and 50 nurses as well as 379,289 outpatients and 3,411 inpatients, the hospital had conducted 462 surgeries.16

The Rangoon Seventh-day Adventist Hospital transferred ownership on July 5, 1965, to Burma’s Ministry of Health’s government program. Medical Director Heath Rowsell was the hospital’s last director, and U Pein Kyi was the manager when the takeover occurred. Nurses who served the sick and suffering at the hospital continued working there and at other hospitals, spreading their Christian service.17

List of Medical Directors

I. S. Walker (1939-1942); Joseph C. Johannes (1947-1949); Eden M. Smith (1949-1952); George E. Richardson (1952-1954); Joseph C. Johannes (1954-1955); A. E. Geschke (1955-1956); Robert H. Dunn (1956-1960); Robert H. Dunn (1961-1963); Heath H. Rowsell (1963-1965).

Sources

Fernandez, Gil G. Light Dawns over Asia: Adventism’s Story in the Far Eastern Division 1888-1988. Silang, Cavite: Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies, 1990.

“Gleanings.” Eastern Tidings. January 1, 1947.

“News of Note.” ARH, July 22, 1965.

“News.” Southern Asia Tidings, August 1965.

Pe Yee. The Story of Seventh-day Adventists in Myanmar. Rangoon, Burma: Kinsaung Publishing House, 1986.

Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1965.

Shepard, L. C. “Opening of the Rangoon Hospital.” Southern Asia Tidings, February 15, 1955.

Wilson, J. O. “Rangoon Hospital Makes Good Start.” Eastern Tidings, March 1, 1948.

Notes

  1. Pe Yee, The Story of Seventh-day Adventists in Myanmar (Rangoon, Burma: Kinsaung Publishing House, 1986), 45-46, 170.↩

  2. Ibid., 46, 175.↩

  3. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1965), 1050-1051.↩

  4. Gil G. Fernandez, Light Dawns over Asia: Adventism’s Story in the Far Eastern Division 1888-1988 (Silang, Cavite: Adventist International Institute of Advances Studies, 1990), 285.↩

  5. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia (1965), 1050-1051.↩

  6. Pe Yee, 394; and “Gleanings,” Eastern Tidings, January 1, 1947, 8.↩

  7. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia (1965), 1050-1051.↩

  8. Pe Yee, 394-395.↩

  9. J. O. Wilson, “Rangoon Hospital Makes Good Start,” Eastern Tidings, March 1, 1948, 3.↩

  10. Pe Yee, 395.↩

  11. L. C. Shepard, “Opening of the Rangoon Hospital,” Southern Asia Tidings, February 15, 1955, 1-2.↩

  12. Ibid.↩

  13. Pe Yee, 395.↩

  14. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia (1965), 1050-1051.↩

  15. Fernandez, 289.↩

  16. Pe Yee, 400.↩

  17. Fernandez, 289; Pe Yee, 396; “News of Note,” ARH, July 22, 1965; and “News,” Southern Asia Tidings, August 1965.↩

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Maung Maung (1862–1936)

By Suak Khaw Ngin


Maung Maung was one of the founders of Seventh-day Adventist Church in Myanmar.

Early Life

Maung Maung is one of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Burma (now Myanmar).1 He was also a pastor and an evangelist. His father and grandfather, descendants of an old Burmese noble family, were among Dr. Judson’s early converts to Christianity. He was born at Moulmein (now Mawlamyine), on May 7, 1862. Elder Maung Maung’s mother was a granddaughter of Thumana, the last king of the Mon Kingdom of Baraivati; his father was Maung Baik, a Wun, or governor, of Henzada under the King of Burma just before the second Burmese war. His father, mother, and grandfather, Prince Suthi, were converted to Christianity and baptized by Dr. Adoniram Judson at Mawlamyine and were among the early converts.2 He had one brother, Ko Miya Thum, and a sister, Mah May.3



Education and Marriage

Maung Maung grew up as a Christian and received a good education, having an interest in medicine and the care of the sick. Later he worked for the Port Trust in Yangon as a draftsman. He married a Mon woman named Aye May and they had only one daughter, Ma Than Tin, who became the beloved wife of U Saw U, and the best translator in the Myanmar Adventist Church. The Maungs had nine grandchildren (one boy and eight girls) and nine great grandchildren.4 One of his granddaughters, Mrs. Aye Hnin Saw, serves as office secretary at the Myanmar Union Mission.

Career and Ministry

Maung Maung heard the Sabbath message from his sister, Mah May. He became interested in the Third Angel’s Message from the literature and Bible studies of the first colporteur who came to Myanmar, and he was one of the first company to be baptized soon after the arrival of Pastor and Mrs. Heber H. Votaw in early in 1905.5 Shortly before the first Seventh-day Adventist missionary came to Myanmar, his sister read in her Bible that Saturday was the holy day and began to observe it. Later H. B. Meyers, the pioneer colporteur in Myanmar,6 held Bible studies with her and Maung Maung, with the result that Maung left his good-paying government position and began to preach his new-found faith among the Burmese people at this own expense.7 Brother Maung translated a number of tracts and printed them with his own money. He refused to take anything from the mission funds for printing.8 Brother Chapman, of Nashville, Tennessee, United States, took up a collection, and sent him US$16 to print some tracts.9

In 1904 he attended a meeting of Seventh-day Adventist workers in Calcutta at his own expense, and his plea for the establishment of regular Adventist work in Myanmar led to the assignment of H. H. Votaw to the field. Maung himself was in the first group to be baptized by Votaw, who arrived in Myanmar in 1905. On Sabbath, March 23, 1907, the first church in Myanmar was organized by Elder Votaw and G. B. Thompson with 23 members. The next day, nine persons were baptized by Elder Votaw amid the beautiful surroundings of the Royal Lakes. The officers of the first Adventist church were as follows: Heber H. Votaw, elder; Maung Maung and David Hpo Hla, deacons; Anna Speer, church clerk; and Carolyn Votaw, treasurer.10

For nearly 30 years Maung Maung gave his time and strength to preaching in the villages and towns, treating and praying for the sick, translating and writing, and pastoring and evangelizing. He was ordained in 1927, near the close of his service.11

Maung Maung wrote the following articles, “The Law of God Written in the Heart,”12 and “The Second Coming of Christ.”13

Later Life

Maung Maung died at Thonze, Myanmar, on July 2, 1936.14 Early in the year he contracted dysentery and his strength gradually failed. He was conscious until the last and assured those with him of his hope in the first resurrection. He left to mourn his wife and adopted daughter and family, and an older brother in the message, besides other relatives. Although the funeral was held on a rainy day, about 500 Christian and Buddhist friends attended. The service was conducted by Pastors Beckner and Hamilton, assisted by Saya Saw U and Saya Freddie.15

Sources

ARH, May 10, 1906.

ARH, May 23, 1907.

ARH, June 11, 1926.

Eastern Tidings, August 1, 1904.

Eastern Tidings, October 1, 1904.

Eastern Tidings, August 1, 1936.

Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia. Washington, D. C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1966. S.v. “Maung Maung.”

Spalding, Arthur W. Origin and History of Seventh-day Adventists, vol. 3. Washington, D. C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1962.

Votaw, Heber V. “Burma.” ARH, September 14, 1905.

Yee, Pe. The Story of Seventh-day Adventists in Myanmar. Yangon: Kinsaung Publishing House, n.d.

Notes

  1. Pe Yee, The Story of Seventh-day Adventists in Myanmar (Yangon: Kinsaung Publishing House, n.d.), 42.↩

  2. Eastern Tidings, August 1, 1936, 5.↩

  3. ARH, May 10, 1906, 15.↩

  4. ARH, June 11, 1926, 26.↩

  5. Eastern Tidings, August 1, 1936, 5.↩

  6. “Maung Maung,” Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia (Washington, D. C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1966), 761-762.↩

  7. Arthur W. Spalding, Origin and History of Seventh-day Adventists, vol. 3 (Washington, D. C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1962), 111.↩

  8. Heber H. Votaw, “Burma,” ARH, September 14, 1905, 17.↩

  9. ARH, May 10, 1906, 15.↩

  10. ARH, May 23, 1907, 15-16.↩

  11. “Maung Maung,” Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia (1966).↩

  12. Eastern Tidings, August 1, 1904, 30.↩

  13. Eastern Tidings, October 1, 1904, 40.↩

  14. Eastern Tidings, July 15, 1936, 8.↩

  15. Eastern Tidings, August 1, 1936, 5.↩

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