Total Population: 54,312,000
Unreached Population: 45,387,000 (83.6%)
Number of People Groups: 153
Number of Unreached People Groups: 49 (32.0%)
Largest Religious Group: Buddhism (85.1%)
Professing Christians: 3.2% (1.61% Evangelicals)
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is located at the northwest of the Mainland SEA region and is widely known as a country where there are many “golden towers”. As a Buddhist majority country surrounded by Bangladesh, India, China, Thailand and Laos as its borders, there are many temples across the nation. The most famous temple is the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, which is also known as the oldest temple in the world. About 70% of its population is Burmese with the rest being other minority ethnic groups, Chinese and Indians.
Like many other countries in the Indochinese Peninsula, the main religion of Myanmar is Buddhism with over 75% of its population being adherents. The people of Myanmar have lived with warfare since 1942. Over the years, Christianity declined and many believers face much persecution as communists came into power in 1970. Compounded by only a few people groups coming to the Christian faith, it became a challenge to spread the Gospel across the nation.
In recent years, freedom of religion is officially allowed in Myanmar, but any group the military government considers harmful to the state is harassed, persecuted, and often imprisoned; including Christians. In spite of such obstacles, the Church remains strong with 8.9% of the nation’s population holding steadfastly to their faith and actively seeking ways to spread the Gospel amidst a diversity of languages and cultures.
Pray for Myanmar
1. Pray for the local believers to be strong in their faith and bold in their witness, as they face persecution from the government, and some even from their family members who are staunched in their Buddhist beliefs;
2. Pray for all in the authority to rule in righteousness and fear of God, that justice will reign in an impoverished land whose ethnically diverse peoples have suffered greatly;
3. Pray for the churches in Myanmar to be reconciled and united by overcoming boundaries of tribes and politics; towards reflecting the body of Christ that stirs the hearts of the unreached to faith.