Staff at the headquarters of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Union of Myanmar (Burma) gathered on Christmas Eve to celebrate their best Christmas gift ever: equipment that would grant them access to the Internet, a major breakthrough for the church there.

In Myanmar, a US $80 airmail subscription to a church magazine costs a pastor two months' salary, so getting the Myanmar Adventist Church connected to the Internet -- a U.S. $3,000 expense -- was very important, national church leaders said.

Muller Kyaw, president of the Adventist Church in Myanmar, gave an inauguration speech, and ordained pastors laid their hands on the newly purchased equipment as a dedication prayer was offered by Caleb Paw, president of the church in Southeast Myanmar.

The Adventist Church in Myanmar received US $3,006 in donations from nearly 75 participants at the Adventist world church's first Global Internet Evangelism Forum held in October 2004 at the church's headquarters in the United States. During the Christmas Church Service, Pastor Ted Wilson, a general vice president of the world church, brought attention to the necessity of Internet access in Myanmar.

As a result, Myanmar's 52 million people -- a nation whose population is 89 percent Buddhist -- will soon be able to view Bible lessons and other information online, in their own language.

An estimated 24,000 Seventh-day Adventists worship in 189 congregations in Myanmar, where the church has worked since 1919. [Editor: Kenneth Suanzanang for ANN/APD]