Adoniram Judson, the first American Protestant Overseas missionary brought the gospel to Myanmar, beginning in 1813.  He worked hard for ten years to bring the Burmese people to Christ but made little progress. He found that the Burmese were hostile to the gospel.  Later on, he went to the tribal groups.  Consequently they became the main target population of all the missionaries. 

     In the past our evangelism to the Burmese Buddhists was unsuccessful primarily due to our lack of education. The fact was that  the poor/uneducated folks from tribal groups found themselves unable to reach the rich/educated folks in the cities. The lesson we learn from the past is that we cannot reach the people in the cities without being educated.

     By learning this from the past, the Christian Churches in Myanmar looked for opportunities to educate the young people. As a result, we now have five Bible colleges, located in different parts of the country.  More than four hundred students study at these Bible colleges and about seventy students graduate from the five colleges  each year. Many of the students graduating from these Bible colleges work in the cities as missionaries and some teach at Bible schools and colleges.  Hundreds of these students are now looking for graduate study program and their only option currently is to come the United States to study. which for most is unfeasible due the difficulty of obtaining the visa and funding to study in the United States. - Lazarus Fish