Birth of a Burden

Despite a centenary celebration of Christianity in many parts of the North East India,  there still are multitude of hamlets unreached with the gospel of Jesus Christ, or perhaps, are reached but the inhabitants' heart's are hardened. These hosts of unbelievers are no stranger to me, on the contrary, they are my own clansmen, and many of them,  my own bloodline. In fact, we have initiated praying for the salvation of our kinsmen, especially that of my own village, Keikhu, in our family prayer. God have mercy on us, and hasten the day of salvation.

Though my close and intimate family have all been saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, still majority are wailing in the dark. Besides, I personally too have not been physically in town since my childhood; I used to visit my home only once a while, perhaps, once or twice a year, and that too just for few days mostly to be with my mom and dad. Interpersonal interaction on the gospel is altogether void, safe for their knowledge that we have been "converted," a term I loath the most as I deem my faith in Christ as a matter of life, organically regenerated in my spirit of God’s Spirit and subjectively experiencing the true and living God, and not at all a change of religion and far less "converted, " for that matter, in its literal meaning of the word.

Last week as I fellowshipped with a distant uncle who is also a Commissioner in a Government office, we touched the topic of gospelising our own heathen tribesmen. Unlike all the tribals of our home state Manipur, ours, the Rongmeis or Kabuis, whose domicile is on the geographical plain have not yet been evangelized. Unlike the rest of the tribals who have been blessed with the dawn of the gospel, ours have diametrically opposite reaction, in that the traditional beliefs have been formalized and propagated with much strength and vigor instead. Even one of our renowned professors have spearheaded it's development and pose a direct challenge to the snail pace growth of the now dwindling Christianity. In fact,  at the very outset, the two religions, Christianity and Tingkao Ragwang Cham are pseudo fancy, for both boast of the rich heritage outwardly and many intermingling in friendship, marriage, and celebration. Festive inter-celebration is most notable; Christmas versus Chakan Gain Ngai - both are pagan in nature, with the former inhibiting a religious tone and the latter exhibiting a traditional tone. Neither of them are biblical nor spiritual.

What can salvage the entanglement thereof? Only the life of Christ can. Not a doctrinal mundane superstition nor a ritualistic dead tradition, but the life-giving experience of the true and living God, Jesus Christ, the true Tingkao Ragwang (Heavenly God).

As we discussed on the state of our fellow clansmen and the need for gospelization, we were also aware of the hard truth that it is not going to be a cakewalk. This is a spiritual warfare and must be tackled spiritually. Henceforth, my burden to start praying for my brethren in the flesh rejuvenated. A new burden was born: to pray for the salvation of my clansmen.

Later,  I texted my brother(uncle) the following:

Praise the Lord brother for the wonderful time of fellowship!From today, the Lord burdened me to pray for Prof. G. K, and our fellow clansmen, the yet-to-be-believers of the valley Rongmeis,  particularly those of TRC.

My  interpretation of Tingkao Raguang is, our Heavenly God who became a man,  Jesus Christ, the perfect God-man; who lived, died and rose again to be the Life-giving Spirit; to redeem, justify, regenerate, renew, sanctify, transform, conform and glorify us to Himself for and unto eternity.

Let us stand together in prayer for this burden from now until God fully answers our prayers. Please do update me on this regard for prayer. Amen.

Dated: 18th August 2016

Grace be with us all.

Palmeichung

I brought the same burden to a brother who serves the Lord full-time in Manipur and also happens to belong to the same tribe, and we started praying for this burden. I further encouraged him to bring the same burden to few more brothers in the church life. We decided to pray, and we will pray, and the Lord will lead us through to witness the salvation of our fellow clansmen, hopefully, in our life time. Amen.