KANSAS CITY, Kan. — As refugees from Myanmar’s military government pour into the United States and fan out across the country to resettle, a Baptist seminary is working to provide for one of their many needs: ministry training for leaders of Burmese Christian communities.
Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Kan., recently hosted 26 Burmese refugee pastors for three days of classes. They included courses on ministerial ethics and Baptist polity, tailored for the contexts in which the pastors are serving.
The school’s leaders hope the courses will be the first in an ongoing program for refugee Burmese ministry leaders in the United States. Approximately 16,000 refugees, mostly from the Chin and Karen ethnic minorities in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, were re-settled here this year. About half of them are Baptists.
“It was one of the most productive short-seminars we ever had, enriching and relevant,” said Stephen Hre Kio, a pastor in Indianapolis. “The teachers were excellent and the subjects are needed both for long-term and short-term perspective in our ministry.”
The classes were conducted in late August in partnership with the American Baptist Home Mission Societies and with sponsorship through a three-year, $300,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation. The grant supports joint programs between Central and the Myanmar Institute of Theology (MIT).
In 2007, Central and MIT officials begin re-exploring their historic partnership through exchanges and trips. This spring, a group of 14 Central students, faculty and staff spent 10 days traveling across Myanmar and experiencing what life is like for Baptists and others there.
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