Burma Christian Diaspora in Indianapolis

Pum Za Mang, educated at Luther Seminary (Ph.D.) and Princeton Theological Seminary (M.A), is associate professor of world Christianity at Myanmar Institute of Theology. He is presently a visiting scholar at Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ.

His writings have appeared in Asia Journal of Theology, Christianity Today, Church History, Journal of Church and State, Church History and Religious Culture, International Review of Mission, International Bulletin of Mission Research, International Journal of Public Theology, Studies in World Christianity, The Review of Faith & International Affairs, and Theology Today, among other journals.

Rev. Hrang Hlei, PhD came to the US in 2006 as a seminary student, and currently serves as the Congregational Care Pastor at Indiana Chin Baptist Church, Indiana. He also holds a leadership role as Associate General Secretary for Chin Baptist Churches, USA, which connects over a hundred local congregations across the country. He did his doctoral research among the Chin immigrant churches and published it as The Formation of Chin Immigrant Congregations in the United States: Discovering Their Ecclesiological Identities. Rev. Hlei is passionate about helping and nurturing immigrant churches in God’s calling to preach the gospel and make disciples here in the US and beyond. He is an ordained minister of American Baptist Churches, USA, and in his free time he enjoys watching historical documentary movies.

Tansy Kadoe, LAMFT was born and raised in Burma and immigrated to the United States in 1993, following the pro-democracy uprisings of 1988 that disrupted education and intensified civil conflict. She belongs to the Karen ethnic group, one of the largest minority communities in Burma, and remains deeply connected to her people through church, counseling, and storytelling ministries. She and her husband were part of the group that started the Arizona Karen Baptist Church, which now has more than 400 members. Beyond her local community, she has worked closely with the network of 133 Karen Baptist churches across the United States.

Professionally, Tansy initially trained in business, earning an undergraduate degree in finance and economics and an MBA in business leadership. At age forty, motivated by the suffering and needs of resettled Burmese refugees, she pursued a second career in counseling. She earned her Master of Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) from Fuller Theological Seminary in 2016 and has practiced as a licensed therapist in Phoenix since then. She is now pursuing a Doctor of Marriage and Family Therapy at Fuller, focusing on developing models of lay counseling and peer counseling within ethnic churches.