Dimapur: The 25th anniversary of Naga mission to Himalayan tribes (1992-2017), logistically North India, was celebrated at Khatima of Nainital district, Uttarakhand on November 12.

The celebration was preceded by dedication of a church building at Babathan, Nepal on November 11. To attend the dedication, the participants had to travel from Khatima by 12 motorbikes through hanging bridges and snarling in thick woods, stated a press release from Ari Keyho based in Kiccha, Uttarakhand.

“Amidst widespread rumors, fear psychosis, and apprehension of opposition and imminent persecution, the anniversary was successfully celebrated with a crowd of one thousand plus including 30 pastors, local believers and those coming from Nagaland,” the release said.

Rev. Dr. Phuveyi Dozo, who pioneered the mission, spoke on the occasion based on Three Dimensional Growth, while Rev. Manen Longkumer, pastor of 1st Police Baptist Church, Chumukedima gave a greetings message followed by release of a book titled ‘A Journey of Naga Mission to Himalayan Tribes’.

The release recounted that fulfilling the ten thousand Nagaland Covenant, Nagaland Missions Movement of Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC), for the first time, began a cross-cultural mission in North India in 1987, stationing at Ganjdundwara of Etah district in Uttar Pradesh. The Delhi Naga Christian Fellowship then reinforced the infant mission while NBCC-OCI partnership began to take it off with a broader focus by 1988. After an itinerant evangelistic movement, the pioneers landed at Khatima as its coordinating center in 1992 with few believers when a proper team was formed with missionaries from Nagaland, it added.

Christians in the SNAP battalion, which was stationed at Kashipur, adjacent to Khatima then, extended help and partnership to the mission. “Physical and financial support extended by the Christians in the force was a great encouragement to the Naga missionaries in a distant land,” the release stated. The then Commandant of SNAP, O. Alem Longkumer, inaugurated the first church building at Khatima on November 4, 1992 amidst protest from religious fanatics and Nainital administration, it was informed. The troop moved to Delhi on October 4, 1994 for new assignment.

The pioneer, Dr. Dozo, testified that God led him to the region of the Kumaonis from where Kumaon Regiment came to tackle the Indo-Naga political situation where his younger brother, an innocent student, was brutally killed on December 19, 1969 at his village. He further said he was invited to join Naga national movement for vengeance, “but God delivered him to take the message of love to his enemy land where he began to meet the people who killed his brother in his gospel encounter at Khatima.”

Expanding from Khatima, the Naga missionaries spread up to different circles and places across North India and Central Nepal, namely, Bareilly, Kiccha, Haldwani, and Nauntanwa, and Mahendranagar and Syangja of Nepal having 470 churches and house fellowships with 15,000 believers across the region, the release informed.

During the anniversary celebration, the people “rejoiced and renewed their commitment for Jesus Christ to remain immoveable and continue to disciple their fellow people as commanded by the Lord.”

(Source: morungexpress)