missionaries" to work in Burma has died at the age of 89, BosNewsLife learned from missionaries Friday, September 16.
He reportedly died in July, but news of his death apparently took time to reach the outside world from relative isolated Burma, also known as Myanmar, which has been ruled by a military government without a constitution and legislature since 1988.
Despite persecution under different dictatorships, including years of imprisonment "Lalthanliana was a key figure in a spiritual renewal across Burma," said Christian Aid Mission (CAM) which supports native missionaries in the region.
Born as the son of the first native missionary in Manipur, a nearby Indian state, he traveled to Burma in 1955 and started a small fellowship in Upper Burma with 10 people, which eventually grew into a massive operation, CAM said. "Today, after 50 years of ministry, churches planted by Lalthaniana’s mission comprise over 18,000 believers," the organization claimed.
DIFFICULT TASK
It was often difficult to work under different dictatorships, CAM suggested. "For many years, he was one of only a few men in this Buddhist country standing for the true Gospel. As a result of his unbending faith, Lalthanliana was persecuted by both religious leaders and government officials," CAM told BosNewsLife.
"At one point, he was imprisoned for four years without trial under false charges. Yet even in prison, Lalthanliana was a consistent witness for Christ, leading 40 inmates and four policemen to the Lord," CAM said.
It stressed that his "undaunted determination to take the true Gospel to the people of Burma is the legacy Lalthanliana leaves behind today." Lathanliana is survived by six children, over 30 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and his wife.
NEW ALLEGATIONS
News of his death comes amid concern about allegations of human rights abuses and growing pressure on Burmese Christians. This month the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDS) reportedly closed down a major evangelical church and movement in the capital.
US-based Christian Freedom International (CFI), which works in Burma among persecuted Christians, said it had received a report "that the Full Gospel Assembly, a fast growing church movement in the Kyauktada Township of Rangoon, was ordered by the military government to shut down."
In addition members of the predominantly Christian Karen community, one of the country’s largest religious and ethnic minorities, have told BosNewsLife in Burma that government backed forces attacked them earlier this year, despite promises of a cease fire. An estimated 1.5 million Karen people are internally displaced. Human rights watchers link persecution to fears of Christianity which they say is seen as a foreign religion and a threat to the military government’s ideology and powerbase.
The government has denied any wrongdoing as well as news of a recent coup attempt. The Union of Burma became a sovereign nation in 1948, but democratic rule ended in 1962 with a military coup d’etat. In 1990, the country held its first free election in almost three decades, but the landslide victory of the National League for Democracy (NLD) was annulled by the military and the junta refused to step down.
