The Southeast Asia Field hosted its first-ever local missionary conference at City Golf Resort. The three-day conference was attended by 22 leaders from different areas of Myanmar, including the war-torn regions. 

The gathering aimed at exploring new innovative strategies, outreaches, and methods for local engagement in Myanmar in order to develop and resource local, interdependent, and sustainable Nazarene churches.

The Church of the Nazarene’s missionary work is vital in spreading the gospel and establishing new churches worldwide. The Southeast Asia Field is actively involved in pioneering work with 238 million individuals from 569 different people groups dispersed across five countries. 

The majority of these people follow a variety of different religions and belief systems. Despite several attempts to spread the gospel over the past two centuries, most of these populations have remained unreached.

The conference featured keynote lectures from South East Asia Field Strategy Coordinator Dong Hwan “Bill” Kwon, who passionately shared his experiences and insights on effectively engaging new communities as a pioneer. 

“Because of this training, I learned the new way to share the gospel and reach out to other people from other areas,” said one participant, Steven.*

In addition, there was an emphasis on who a pioneer is and how the position differs from church planting. Other important topics discussed were methodology, finding pioneers, and steps to do pioneer work. Local missionaries Jessica, Roland, and Solomon, deployed by districts and fields, shared their practical experiences in their missions work.

“Praise God! In this conference, I learned what the difference is between a church planter and a pioneer,” said Thein Than Win, a conference attendee. “I also learned the steps in starting a pioneer area and how it grows into a new district.” 

The conference resulted in many seeing the vision, mission, goals, and plan for the Church of the Nazarene in Myanmar for the district to birth another district in the next five years.

This pioneer mission conference will have a follow-up workshop twice annually starting in 2025.

--Church of the Nazarene Asia-Pacific Region