The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Myanmar (Burma) continues to grow despite obstacles including rules about holding public meetings and publishing new materials, according to a veteran pastor.

“It’s getting harder and harder for Christians,” said Pastor Edward Shein,* an Adventist pastor in Myanmar. “It’s getting more difficult to conduct city and village [evangelistic] efforts.”

The Myanmar government requires prior approval for public meetings including the names and identification numbers of all participants, a tedious process, said Shein. The government usually prohibits outdoor meetings of more than five people, including religious meetings, according to the U.S. Department of State.

“We can visit door-to-door as friends,” Shein explained. “But we cannot move so freely as 10 to 15 years ago when it was more flexible.” Myanmar has been criticized for its open discrimination against minority religious groups. The majority of its citizens practice Buddhism; only four percent are Christians.

Shein explains that he can, with caution, visit individuals and offer information about Adventism instead of trying to arrange large gatherings. Even though the friendships formed during these informal visits often lead to an interest in religion, they take a significant amount of time, he added.

Adventists have also experienced difficulty in obtaining permission to print publications with indigenous-language translations of Bible texts. They now face a problem that may not have an immediate solution since much of their outreach relies on their publications.

“We are very careful,” Shein said about his outreach methods. “Some people are not interested. We should be wise enough to not go so abruptly to them.” Shein speaks from 29 years of experience. He currently divides his time between two Adventist organizations, the Voice of Prophecy Bible Correspondence School and Adventist World Radio.

These challenges have not hindered Shein efforts, and he estimates that the church in Myanmar grew by about 1500 members last year.

The Adventist Church has operated in this Southeastern Asia country, located between Bangladesh and Thailand, since 1919. There are currently 20,000 Adventists worshipping in 200 churches and companies.

*Name has been changed.