Church Leaders Conference, CBC-NEI and Manipur
In 1971, I became the first person in my family to graduate from college. My father born in China only had an elementary school education. My mother was happy to be in school in China but was married off to my father when she was only 16 years old. She never forgave her father for that.
After my parents immigrated to America at the end of WWII in 1947, I was born in Boston and grew up in an under-privileged neighborhood. I spoke Chinese before I learned to speak English. My early years in public school were difficult. I was so afraid to ask to go to the restroom that there was a time when I didn’t make it back home in time. My fear in talking led me to stutter and there are still times when I’m scared that I would stutter. If it weren’t for the onset of the television, I wouldn’t have learned English.
But the opportunity of going to school and attending a Christian college followed by graduating from seminary gradually and surely built up in me knowledge of the world but also confidence in myself.
The noted Latin American theologian, Pablo Freire wrote about how education can liberate the oppressed people in the world. I can attest to that.
Full Stature
Everyone is created in the image of God and therefore has gifts and talents because God is creative. But the tragedy is that there are life circumstances that prevent us from developing these God-given gifts and talents for the work of the church for God’s kingdom. Like my mother, she was denied the chance to study.
In reading, Inspiring Change, Tribal Women and Men Reading the Bible and Doing Theology, edited by Marlene Ch. Marak, we hear how most women in NE India are still expected to participate in traditional roles for women that includes child-bearing, rearing, and housekeeping. Many opportunities are denied for women including the chance to attend a university.
Unlike most tribal groups of patriarchal structures of owning property and passing down heirlooms to male members in the family, the Garos have a matriarchal structure. In Inspiring Change, Narola Imchen tells a story of a Garo woman named Silje K. Sangma who converted to Christianity through the efforts of her uncle Ramke Momin (one of the first two converts among the Garos) and worked as an evangelist. With the help of her uncle, Silje K. Sangma started to practice the handful of rice, which is the practice of putting away a handful of rice every time a woman cooks rice, and after selling that rice she used that money for her journeys. She traveled from one place to another and spread the word of God. She is considered as the first woman evangelist among the Garos.
Silje K. Sangma was able to live up to the measure of the full stature of Christ. She was able to use the gifts God gave her to accomplish God’s work for her.
In Mar Imsong’s God-Land-People, An Ethnic Naga Identity, Mar Imsong believes that the future of the Naga people and perhaps all tribal groups in NE India is depended on your ability and commitment to continue remembering the folktales that tell of the origins of the different tribes. As the world becomes increasingly modern and scientific, remembering and retelling these tribal creation stories would provide the necessary identity to become fortified in our ever-changing world. When younger generations of tribal people who naturally would want to engage in all of the most popular trends and beliefs, it becomes that much more important to educate them to their heritage and traditions.
At the Manipur Baptist 125th Anniversary Celebration, we remembered the American Baptist missionaries who came here with the good news of Jesus Christ. We remember the work of William Pettigrew who arrived in 1894. The emphasis of his initial work was on education because preaching the Gospel to people who had never heard about Jesus Christ was not an easy task. In 1896, two people were baptized in Manipur. Then in 1901, twelve Kuki and Naga boys while attending school were baptized. Education prepared these new converts to come to the understanding and belief that Christ is their Lord and Savior.
NECU
There are 7 theological colleges and 1 theological seminary affiliated with CBC-NEI but no Christian liberal arts university.
Four years ago on my first visit to NE India, I became aware of the need for a new Christian liberal arts university. I heard about the challenges that Christian youth have when attending government universities with a Hindu orientation. While there are fantastic theological colleges and seminary in NE India, I wondered where young people would be able to study to become engineers, physicians, nurses, lawyers, teachers, plumbers, craftsmen, electricians, urban planners, computer scientists, designers and innovators and the list can go on and on. It seems like the early missionaries have brought the Gospels over 180 years ago but the work of American Baptists in the US as well as Baptists in CBC-NEI is not yet finished.
How will the people of NE India be able to come to the measure of full stature of Christ unless we establish the Northeast Christian University? This is the reason why that for the past 3 years I have introduced more and more American Baptists to the incredible opportunities NECU can provide for future generations of young people in participating in the work of God’s kingdom on earth. I’m happy to have 4 more advocates with me on this visit!
Let me tell you a miracle. When we had our ABC Biennial Mission Summit convention in 2015 when I was president of the denomination, I was sitting down for dinner on Sunday night, the last evening of the mission summit. Before the convention, we invited Dr. Anjo Keikung who was then the chancellor for NECU to tell the story of the Christian university to American Baptists. While there were some seeds planted for support, there was definitely much work that needs to be done.
When I sat down at the dinner table, there was a man on my right whom I did not know. I introduced myself to him and he immediately said, “Yes, I know you.” I said, “Have we met before?” He said that he was following my ministry from a distance. I found out he was Dr. Peter Armacost, a very well known member of the Armacost family in the ABC. I learned that Peter was a retired college president of Eckerd College in Florida and Ottawa University in Kansas, one of the ABC-related colleges. I also learned that recently he helped establish a Christian college in Pakistan effectively navigating through all of the bureaucracy with the government and religious groups. My mouth was opened. I couldn’t believe that God has placed the two of us together at that strategic time.
I asked Peter if was willing to meet with Anjo on Monday morning for breakfast. He agreed and we had breakfast together when Jerry Cain, the chair of the Friends of NECU board in the US saw us and joined us as well. Since June 2015, Peter Armacost has made a number of visits to Dimapur and Nagaland consulting with Dr. Darlindo Khathing to establish NECU. No one could have planned this to happen. It can only be God’s miraculous hand moving among us to connect much needed resources together to establish NECU.
The Apostle Paul writing to the Ephesians said, “Each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (4:7, 11-13).
Value of Education
I don’t need to tell you that education is important. You know that because this is the reason why you are here in the first place. You are attending a learning event to lead you “to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.” While we may have had educational opportunities, there are still many people who are hoping and praying that these opportunities will be available to them as well.
When our son and daughter were ready for college, we encouraged them and worked financially for them to attend college. They met spouses during their college years and they are both married. They have blessed my wife and me with 3 grandchildren each giving us a total of 6 beautiful grandchildren. Our oldest who is 16 is already exploring where she wish to attend college. Our youngest grandson is only 8 but in a short 9 years, he too will have an opportunity to go to college.
I pray that as long as God grants me the strength and voice to advocate for the establishment of NECU, I will do so. I want young people in NE India and in the larger world to have the same educational opportunities that my 6 grandchildren have in America.
Our mission work is not yet finish until all attain the maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.
Let us pray.
Dear God, inasmuch as we have come today to be blessed by the truth in Christ Jesus, we pray for our ongoing growth of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We pray for the thousands of young people and adult learners who are eager to learn and that we may have the opportunity to teach them and particularly through the new Northeast Christian University. Empower us to continue the unfinished work on earth until that time we receive glory in heaven. In Christ we pray. Amen.