IN THE KNOW
With Bill and Lisa Walker
February 2026
News from the Myanmar Global Conference is often either troubling, highlighting the impacts of civil war on pastors and congregations, or encouraging, showcasing new conversions. Despite challenges like families seeking safety abroad and declining church attendance due to violence, domestic missions are thriving, with 193 baptisms reported in the Myanmar EMC Global Conference in 2025! They ’ve baptized 32 so far this year! You may recall reading that these baptism groups are often complete families. For example, just a few weeks ago, I wrote in the weekly EMC Missions Prayer List that there was a family of five that was baptized. When I think of how things go here in the US and Western countries in general, group conversions seem unusual.
Although Lisa and I are accustomed to hearing reports like this, it occurred to me that most people in the EMC USA might not realize why whole families are often baptized together. Most of us can quote Acts 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.”
But Paul adds a phrase that we might easily omit: “…you and your household.” What does he mean? Here in the United States, we rarely, if ever, see an entire family converted at once. It is very common for an individual to get saved and be the only Christian in the family for a long time.
The Bible, including the Book of Acts, was written in a part of the world where most of the people were of an honorshame culture (and largely still are). In an honor-shame culture, the focus is less on the individual and more on the group. Important decisions are often made with the group in mind. Several years ago, I asked Myanmar EMC elder James Sai Ruma how this works. I was concerned that an individual in the family group might be forced or coerced into an insincere or premature conversion and baptism. James clarified that more likely the group will wait on baptism until that last individual is ready, and then they would do it together! So, it may well be that a single individual may have saving faith privately but not profess publicly or get baptized until sometime later. This does not always hold, but such is the general pattern in an honor-shame culture. Want to learn more about this culture type? Visit www.honorshame.com.
Keep praying for our faithful pastors and missionaries in Myanmar. They silently endure significant hardship and are doing excellent work! (BTW: we just heard yesterday of another 24 new believers getting baptized!)
Alert: Please give to the Myanmar Bible fund. We urgently need to send $1,200 for Bibles, but we only have $225 in that project fund. It is very important to help supply new believers with Bibles in their own language!
…and now you are IN THE KNOW!
Revs. Bill and Lisa Walker are EMC Missionaries serving the Global Conferences of the Evangelical Methodist Church International. They also co- chair the EMC Board of World Missions. Contact the Walkers for more information or to have them visit your church! billwalkeremc@gmail.com or lisawalkeremc@gmail.com.
Scan the code or copy the link to support the Walkers: https://emchq.churchcenter.com/giving/to/bill-and-lisa-walker
