Who we are..

မြန်မာနိုင်ငံနှစ်ခြင်းခရစ်ယာန်အသင်းချုပ်၊ သမိုင်းအကျဉ်း

Brief History of Myanmar Baptist Convention

The Baptist Mission has been started in Myanmar since 1813 by the first American Missionary couple Rev. Adoniram Judson and Mrs Ann Judson. Adoniram Judson was born in August  9,1788 in Malden, near Boston in Massachusetts. He earned his B.A degree in 1807 and M.A degree in 1850 from Brown University. After receiving the call of God to be a missionary, he studied theology in Andover Theological Seminary then married to Ann Heseltine at Bradford in February 5,1812. He was appointed as an Eastern Missionary by American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission of the Congregational Church in September 19, 1811. He was ordained on February 6,1812 and after 13 days from ordination they were sailing for Asia from Salem harbor by a Caravan ship together with Mr. Samuel and Mr. Harrier Newell. Finally they embarked at Calcutta, India on 17th June 1812. However, due to rejection of stayed permission by the British authority, they left from Indian and sailing to Penang, Malaysia and finally embarked at the Yangon harbor on July 13, 1813 by a schooner Georgiana.

Judson was an educated and committed missionary who had strong faith in God and his wife was a school teacher who was kind to others and sociable to the Burmese community. They stayed with felix Carey, son of William Carey of India. After one year later, the two couple was sponsored by American Baptist foreign Mission Society due to stop sponsoring by the congregational Churches of America.

The first thing that they did was learning the Burmese literature and culture to be compatible with local the local people. After three years later, Rev. A. Judson wrote a Burmese Grammar(1816), and then he wrote an English-Burmese Dictionary in 1949. Besides, he translated Burmese Bible from the original test in 1837.

Judson's the so-called "Zayat" ministry was started on 25th April 1819 near Shwedagon pagoda. After three months of evangelization, the first convert Maung Naw accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord on 27th April 1819. Ann Judson died in October 24, 1827 at Kyakkhami and Rev A. Judson died on 12th 1850 at the age of 62. The present MBC was organized as Burma Baptist Missionary Convention by American Baptist Missionaries on December 15, 1865. The American Baptist Mission Carried out the mission works in Burma until 1967. After leaving all foreign missionaries, the local Baptist leaders and Churches have been carrying on the mission works as their best till date. Today, MBC is become the biggest Christian denomination with the total number of 1.5 million members. There are 4,722 local Churches and 9,116 ministers who are serving the Lord in various ministries in different places under 18 member conventions and two direct affiliated Churches which are located all the country.

MBC is also a full active member of WCC, WACC, BWA and APBF and making mission partnership with other Christian organizations such as Tearfund , EED, Dikonia,  Samaritan pulse and Southern Baptist Union of Denmark, Japan Baptist Union, O.C Resource (Singapore) in the near future. For the Glory of God MBC has been inviting new mission partners to cooperate with and collaborate in the variety of mission programs and projects. There are 82 full time staff who are laboring tirelessly and enthusiastically for the Lord and His people.