Burmese Pastor Silas Thiang in San Diego, California, Relies on Support From Southern Baptist Churches

Silas Thiang says his “vision from God” is to see a church started in every village in Myanmar, a Southeast Asian nation nearly the size of Texas, where there is no Christian believer or church. He also wants immigrants and refugees from the eight or more nations in his San Diego neighborhood to come to know Jesus, and he hopes to raise up the next generation of ethnic Christian leaders in America. “When I look at Myanmar, I see a Buddhist animist country where we need to plant a lot of churches to fulfill the Great Commission,” Thiang told Baptist Press. “When I look at my community, we see different nationalities, different immigrant families who need Jesus.”

Thiang pastors about 40 refugees at Agape Myanmar Mission, which meets in the central San Diego apartment he shares with his wife and three sons, along with his brother. The source notes that he lives without a secure income. Several Southern Baptist churches help support his various ministries, according to the report. Steve Jussenhoven, associate pastor of Pathways Church in Santee, Calif., said his church has supported Thiang since about 2022. “We have done so because we have seen the genuine burden he has for the lost,” Jussenhoven said. He described Thiang as a model of a pastor committed to the Great Commission, and praised his efforts to share the gospel while meeting physical needs and connecting people to community.

Mark Dalton, missions director at Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, said his church has known Thiang for about 10 years. “He’s been a faithful servant, always gives us reports of what he does,” Dalton said. “We were immediately drawn to Pastor Silas’ integrity and to his faithfulness in ministry.” He added, “He just keeps on keeping on. He’s been a bright light.”

Thiang was born in 1982. After graduating from high school, he left Myanmar for India, where he attended a Baptist theological seminary to learn English. He said he grew up in a Christian family and assumed he was a Christian automatically, but that while at seminary he read the whole Bible more than three times and came to see himself as a sinner in need of a Savior. After five years of study, he moved to Malaysia to plant a church among Myanmar migrant workers and to help refugee families. In 2014, at the request of a U.S.-based cousin, he moved to San Diego with his family to start a church for Burmese refugees.

The house church’s first community outreach took place at Easter 2016. Thiang said he began the effort after noticing people from many nations living in his crowded neighborhood. He sought financial support from people he had met, including Gary Coombs, who was then missions pastor at Shadow Mountain. Dalton said Coombs had a heart for ministry to Asian people groups. “We are reaching out into our community,” Thiang said. “They need Jesus too. We are getting to know them, making friends, introducing the gospel to them.” Events usually take place at Colina del Sol Park in central San Diego. Along with food, games and fellowship, and gospel conversations, every family receives a care bag of toiletries, and several receive Walmart gift cards as hourly door prizes (Hebrews 13:16).

Thiang holds Saturday evening worship services at the pastors’ home and meets every night of the week in members’ homes for Bible studies. During the day, he takes one of the members he is training to meet with neighbors who attended the events or who have expressed interest in learning about God. “We go together, study together, pray and fellowship together,” Thiang said of the men who accompany him. “The first time I do it. Then they do it and pray for them. That’s how they learn.”

Thiang also developed a church-planting training ministry in Thailand for a Myanmar Buddhist animist context. According to the report, it consists of six modules: different entry strategies to a new field; different strategies of sharing the gospel; how to care for the newborn believer; healthy, multiplying church formation in the Burmese Buddhist animist context; Jesus and Paul’s leadership development model; and the art and science of preaching the Word of God.

Source: Read the original report