NBCC calls on Nagas to join sesquicentennial celebrations from November 19 to 20
Dimapur, November 13 (MExN): The Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) on Sunday called on the Naga people to ‘be part of history’ and join the Council in celebrating 150 years of Christianity in Nagaland.
In a press release, NBCC General Secretary Rev Dr Zelhou Keyho stated that the Nagas were introduced to the gospel in 1872 when the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society (ABFMS), who were en route to the Shan people in southern China and northern Burma, now called Myanmar, found themselves unable to proceed to their designated destination.
“The Naga history of Christianity began where the western missionaries could no longer proceed to their designated destination. From there on, what was meant for others became our story. The missionaries perhaps have the choice to return and look for another possible passage but they did not! With their mind and eyes fixed on beyond the region they began the work of evangelization with the hope that they could one day be able to go where they were sent,” Rev Keyho stated.
This is where the Nagas’ story began, he maintained, while adding that “Our story is God’s own story.”
Stating that the Nagas have so many things to be thankful to God for, Rev Keyho said that “it is also a time for us to return to God, seeking his forgiveness by forgiving each other.”
From November 19 to 20, as the NBCC Council celebrates the Sesquicentennial jubilee, he called on the people to “reconciled to God and with each other and seek his blessing for our generation and for the generations to come.”
This is the jubilee year, the year of God’s favour upon us. Come and be part of history as we celebrate “his story,” he added.
