By Garry Sanossian
When three Christian refugee families from Burma (now known as Myanmar) arrived in 2011 in Wagga Wagga with little to no English and no local connections, they instinctively established a house church.
14 years later, Wagga Wagga Christian Church has become a thriving community hub for over 100 Burmese Christians in the area who escaped the disintegrating political landscape of their homeland, now with a vision to be a thriving, missional community in Australia.
We recently sat down with Pastor Joe Redamwang and elders Sar Aung Shatut, Kangram Dakham and David Longzace, to share the story of this community’s formation. When Pastor Joe shared about their early days, he didn’t focus on the challenges of starting from scratch in a new country. He said, “Our mission and vision was to have an active, strong faith and to pass that faith to the next generation.”
Over the years, family after family arrived in Wagga Wagga with a similar story, having fled military oppression in Burma and waiting years in Malaysian refugee camps before being resettled in regional New South Wales.
From those deep roots and shared experiences of displacement, they formed a congregation open to all, a place where denominational differences mattered less than the desire to follow Christ together. What started as a handful of families praying in a rented hall has become a thriving multi-generational community supporting missionaries in Burma and building bridges of welcome in their new home.
Many of these families carry a Churches of Christ heritage from their home churches in Burma. When the church officially affiliated with our network in 2024, this decision represented both a continuation of that legacy and a partnership for their future work.
When asked why they chose to join the churches of Christ network, Pastor Joe responded simply, “To help encourage each other for the Lord.” Elder Sar Aung Shatut’s family heritage in Churches of Christ stretches back through generations.
Pastor Joe preaching at Wagga Wagga Christian Church.
“My grandfather and grandmother were the first to accept Jesus Christ,” Sar said. “Then my parents followed, so my whole family comes from a Church of Christ background”
Also, Burmese families arriving from overseas came from diverse Christian backgrounds and spoke little English. Rather than limit the church to one denomination, they wanted to create a place where everyone felt welcome.
“We named the church Wagga Wagga Christian Church so that everyone can come and join us to worship,” Sar explained.
David echoed that same heart for unity. “Even though we come from different areas, we believe in one God. At first, we were called the Myanmar Christian Church, but our pastor changed the name to Wagga Christian Church so everyone could come and join the congregation.”
Worship at Wagga Wagga Christian Church.
This affiliation continued a long formation. Shaped within the Churches of Christ movement in Burma, and through Pastor Joe’s training in Burma and India, their connection with Wagga Wagga Church of Christ came naturally.
God’s Provision
The early years for these families were marked by significant challenges. “When we first started looking for jobs, there weren’t many Burmese people in Wagga Wagga,” remembered Kangram Dakham, another elder. “As soon as we asked the job interviewer something, they could tell our English wasn’t good, and some people didn’t want to talk with us.”
Instead of giving in, their hardships drove them to a deeper dependence on God. “Every Saturday we fasted and prayed, and we still do it today. We always keep our focus on Jesus, always talking with God, and through that we believe we can face anything,” Kangram said.
Worship at Wagga Wagga Christian Church.
The breakthrough came when a horticulture teacher, recognising the work ethic of this community, placed the first community member in a job. “He knew about us, we couldn’t speak English, but we were hard workers,” Kangram recalled. Word soon spread through the local community about the reliability and dedication of the Burmese workers, and once one person secured employment, it quickly opened doors for others.
Today, the employment landscape looks very different. “Now when they need workers, they don’t even hold interviews, they just call us,” Pastor Joe shared with gratitude. “That’s God’s blessing. Without it, we wouldn’t have had a chance.”
With employment secured and the community stabilised, their focus turned to what mattered most: raising their children in faith while navigating life between two cultures. “One day our next generation will lead the church,” Pastor Joe said. Today, with 80 children in their Sunday school program across multiple age groups, children’s ministry has become the heartbeat of their church life.
“Our next generation will one day lead this church. We wanted it to be a place open to everyone in Wagga, so we named it Wagga Wagga Christian Church rather than limiting it to our own community,” Joe said. Their children were growing up as second-generation Australians, fluent in English and attending Australian schools, while their parents wanted them to remain rooted in biblical faith and connected to their heritage.
“If they did not attend church, when we grew old, the church would be gone,” Sar said. “We did not know much about this country or have much experience, but we shared our faith and what we knew about the Bible with our children every day and every Sunday.”
Sunday School teacher sharing God’s Word.
The church embraced creative ways to engage their young people, including Friday night Bible studies followed by music classes run in partnership with a local Filipino music academy. “We taught vocals,” Pastor Joe noted, recognising that worship and the arts helped bridge generational and cultural gaps.
With a growing number of children in their congregation, the church sought to strengthen its Sunday school program and ensure their young people were being nurtured in faith. With this vision in mind, they invited the churches of Christ network to support them in developing English resources and training for their leaders.
Jo Huntington, former Network Health Ministry Leader, and Avril Mundy and Meikle Bennett, experienced children’s ministers and educators from our network who have led SYNC and Southern Cross Kids Camps, worked alongside the church’s teaching team to create engaging curriculum and practical classroom strategies. For a community still settling into Australia, building a strong foundation for their children’s faith and leadership was essential to their long-term vision, as Pastor Joe highlighted.
Out of this connection with Avril and Meikle, a number of children and leaders from WWCC attended SYNC Camp in September last year, which they found deeply encouraging.
Remarkably, while still finding its feet in Australia, Wagga Wagga Christian Church engaged in international mission work. In 2017, they began supporting a missionary who was working in Myanmar as part of Asia Harvest Mission, a network active across Buddhist countries in Southeast Asia including Burma, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.
“When we started, our church was just a few families,” Kangram recalled. “We budgeted for the mission. Every month we needed to support it, one month each family or two families. At that time, we did not have jobs. We just received government benefits.”
“Our donation, 100 dollars, 200 dollars, just like that. We started with that,” Kangram said. “We were not thinking about anything else, just spreading the gospel. That was Jesus’s commandment.”
The work on the mission field came with immense challenges. “People with deep Buddhist beliefs are often resistant to Christianity, but he (the missionary) continued his evangelistic efforts,” Sar explained. Through his work, around 100 people have converted from Buddhism to Christianity, with churches now established in multiple villages.
Today, as they continue to grow and serve both their local community and their homeland, WWCC stands as a testament to the fruit that faith, perseverance and commitment to God’s mission can bear.
