Nagaland Baptist Church Council celebrates 150 years of Christianity

Our Correspondent

Kohima, Nov. 19 (EMN): “Our story is God’s own story, story of God’s divine love, story of God’s grace and story of God’s mercy,” said General Secretary of the Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC), Rev. Dr. Zelhou Keyho, in his opening message during the jubilee celebrating 150 years of Christianity in Nagaland, on Saturday.

Speaking on the occasion held at the NBCC Convention Centre in Kohima, Keyho said ‘it is a celebration of how a people in the bondage of sin and darkness were liberated and redeemed as children of God’.

“It is a time where our people need to connect the dots of the past to the present. And in order to do this, we must turn back for a while, rewind ourselves to where it all began,” he added.

He told the congregation that the generation celebrating the jubilee must retell the story of liberation to children and celebrate God’s faithfulness in lives.

He added that the rules and regulations and the boundaries set by the world could not thwart the divine purpose for the Nagas who were unknown to the world.

Pointing out that three things — time, love, purpose – were at work, the general secretary said there is a factor of God’s own appointed time, His love, and His divine purpose.

“Our story is far from perfect. It is not picture perfect story. They were patches of mistakes and struggles that led many to backslide,” he said, adding that the pioneers had gone through sufferings, rejection and persecutions but the success story is the story of those who stood their ground.

He challenged the congregation to think of what legacy they can give to the children so that they will pass on to their children.

‘There is no better gift than the legacy of faith,’ he said.

‘Prior to 1872 (before Christianity came to Nagaland), Nagas were people walking in darkness, living under the shadow of death. But now, the people no longer lives under the shadow of death and have become the people of God,’ he said, adding that is the story of this jubilee.

‘Before the gospel reach us, we were not known by name, not even by tribe. We were referred to as barbarians, savages, head hunters, wild people, descent land people, hill people. The closest modern definition is a people living in ‘a corner’ in India. That’s how we were known.

‘Nameless and identity-less people we were once. Wild people who warned missionaries not to venture into the hill country. They were instructed not to think about venturing beyond the British flat. For venturing into the land of the wild was like stepping onto a land mine, you will never return in one piece. Such was our story those days,’ he said, adding that the story changed through Christianity.

During the occasion, a souvenir titled ‘His Story: Celebrating the Gospel’ was released. Greetings from Asia Pacific Baptist Federation and Council of Baptist Churches in North East India; and messages through songs and scripture readings were some of the highlights of the celebration.