The number of Seventh-day Adventists in Bangladesh has more than doubled in the past five years to more than 25,000, according to Isaac Bairagee, coordinator of the Adventist Church’s Global Mission initiative in that country. 

Speaking to an Asian Global Mission advisory in Bangkok, Thailand last week, Bairagee described the wholistic outreach work of lay members known as Global Mission pioneers. One hundred and fifty pioneers have been trained to help needy people in villages throughout Bangladesh, and a further 50 pioneers will be trained this year. They go into villages in teams of two and help sick people using simple treatments; teach basic principles of healthful living; teach people who have no other access to formal education; help the elderly; and share the love described in the Bible. 

Bairagee also reported on the work of Adventist International Mission Schools (AIMS), which operate in nine cities with more than 80 teachers and 1,000 students. Each school now has a church group associated with it. 

“We must pay tribute to the Bangladesh government for maintaining religious freedom,” says Dr. Mike Ryan, director of Global Mission for the world church. “Although Christianity is a minority religion in that country, Seventh-day Adventists have been given room to make a tremendous contribution to education, health, and spiritual development. 

“One of the most exciting projects has been the new academy, orphanage and training school—the Bajitpur Maranatha Adventist Seminary—which has been operating for two years now, thanks to generous North American donors and Maranatha Volunteers International. This project is providing a hopeful future for many Bangladeshis.”

Bangladesh has a population of more than 130 million people living in a country one third the size of Japan. Annual flooding, which often covers up to one third of the country, routinely destroys crops and makes economic development difficult. It remains one of the world’s most densely populated, yet poorest, nations.